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Author
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Topic: Meet Me in St. Louis
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Paul Adsett
Film God
Posts: 5003
From: USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted November 19, 2006 12:19 PM
Meet Me in St. Louis
MGM 1944
Color, 113 mins, 2350ft
Derann Film Services
One of MGM’s greatest musical pictures, ‘Meet Me in St. Louis’ is also the best picture of Judy Garland’s career. Directed by Vincente Minnelli and Produced by Arthur Freed, the simple story is basically an account of a year in the life of the Smith family of St. Louis, set at the time of the 1904 Louisiana State Exposition. The film opens up with introductory scenes of the Smith family, father Alonzo(Leon Ames), mother Rose (Mary Astor), daughter Esther (Judy Garland) and sister Rose(Lucille Bremer) and Tootie (Margaret o’Brien), grandfather (Henry Davenport), and resident cook (Marjorie Main). Esther is in love with 'The Boy Next Door', perfectly played by the handsome Tom Drake. They get to meet for the first time at a party at the Smith house, where Judy and Margaret O’Brien sing 'Under the Bamboo Tree', and subsequently on a trolley car ride where Judy sings one of the most magical songs in all musical film history 'The Trolley Song', brilliantly staged by Minnelli, and even more impressive when you realize that Judy did the whole song in one take! This idyllic family existance is thrown into a turmoil when Alonzo Smith announces that he is going to move the whole family to New York to get a better job. Spending their last Christmas in St. Louis, Judy sings 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas' to a tearful Tootie, who then runs out of the house and smashes all her snowmen. Observing this heartbreaking scene, Alonzo gathers the family together and, giving them the greatest Christmas gift of all, announces his decision to "stay in St.Louis until we rot". The family is overjoyed, and the film ends with them all going to the opening of the 1904 Louisiana State Exposition.
There is so much magical about this film. The sets and costumes are absolutely authentic for the period, in fact MGM built the whole of the Kensington Avenue set from scratch on the back lot. The film of course is owned by Garland. Never a great beauty in real life, she looks stunningly beautiful throughout this film and of course her songs in this film are legendary. An American classic.
Was America ever this idyllic? Having lived in a small Pennsylvania town with streets that look just like Kensington Avenue, I suspect it was, at least for some people.
Derann’s print of this film is simply wonderful. Very sharp , with great contrast and superb saturated colors throughout, it really does look like Technicolor. The mono sound is good. I re-recorded the stereo tracks from the recently released DVD, with excellent results. An essential film for musical lovers, and a great family film for the Christmas season.
Print A
Sound B
[ November 20, 2006, 09:20 AM: Message edited by: Paul Adsett ]
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The best of all worlds- 8mm, super 8mm, 9.5mm, and HD Digital Projection,
Elmo GS1200 f1.0 2-blade
Eumig S938 Stereo f1.0 Ektar
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Paul Adsett
Film God
Posts: 5003
From: USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted August 18, 2010 04:45 PM
Hi Gian,
I think this is one of the best prints in my collection. The color saturation is amazing, and the contrast and sharpness are excellent. I think the super 8 print is much more satisfying than the DVD. If you do a direct side by side comparison, the projected DVD looks sharper than the super 8, but the color and contrast of the super 8 beats the DVD hands down. I re-recorded my print from the enhanced DVD soundtrack, and the resulting film experience is awesome.
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The best of all worlds- 8mm, super 8mm, 9.5mm, and HD Digital Projection,
Elmo GS1200 f1.0 2-blade
Eumig S938 Stereo f1.0 Ektar
Panasonic PT-AE4000U digital pj
| IP: Logged
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