Post by klep on Apr 27, 2020 7:26:33 GMT -6
MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 4/27: Meet Me In St. Louis
MUSICALS WEEK!
Note: This week's essay is graciously provided by a guest contributor.
Meet Me In St. Louis is an exquisite Technicolor confection. Made while the US was in the middle of WW2, it was designed to be warmly nostalgic, "All-American" comfort food that would let audiences escape to the relatively simpler time of 1903.
The film centers around the well-off Smith family household, focusing primarily on 17-year-old Esther (Judy Garland) and her sisters. Esther is infatuated with the handsome young man next door, John (Tom Drake). Her older sister Rose (Lucille Bremer) has a beau but can't seem to get him to propose. Meanwhile, the younger Agnes (Joan Carroll) and Tootie (Margaret O'Brien) are content playing pranks and roughhousing.
There isn't much of a story but the way the film is structured into four vignettes for each season of the year keeps the movie from feeling aimless as we watch the family's lives unfold. There are various conflicts, such as they are, like missing a phone call because of dinner, and not having a date to the Christmas ball. The major crisis arrives when the family patriarch, Alonzo (Leon Ames), announces that the family must move to New York City because of a promotion at work. Of course, the family is happy where they are and the thought of moving to the more industrial and cold (and, I assume, diverse) NYC is heartbreaking. This is ultimately resolved easily enough by Alonzo deciding that they'll stay in St. Louis, which apparently was an option this whole time. The stakes are never high, but the film is never anything less than engrossing.
A former art director, set designer and costumer, Minnelli's eye for detail is evident throughout the film which is like a jewel box full of rich colors and an astonishing amount of attention to backgrounds and props in every room. The Smith household isn't just another cavernous set on a soundstage. It looks and feels like an actual, lived in home. In one standout scene, Esther flirts with John by having him walk her around the house to assist in turning off the gas lamps. It's a palpably dreamy moment made all the more romantic by Minnelli's use of framing, light and shadows, and gliding camerawork as Esther takes John through the house as it darkens around them. They aren't doing anything more than turning off lights but Minnelli is able to make it an almost unbearably intimate use of the space.
Judy Garland didn't want to make Meet Me In St. Louis. After The Wizard of Oz and the years of playing the girl crying into milkshakes over Mickey Rooney, she was eager to move on to more adult fare. Playing another lovestruck teenager felt like a step backwards. She also was not thrilled to have to work with Vincente Minnelli, a relatively inexperienced director whose only other previous films had been cheap black & white productions. Of course, Garland didn't have much of a say when it came to most aspects of her life and her protestations couldn't change producer Arthur Freed's mind.
Judy ended up missing around three weeks of filming due to a combination of exhaustion, malnutrition, and emotional distress. Not only did she not want to make the picture, she was a nervous wreck because she knew that, as the movie's star, if the film flopped, the fingers would be pointed at her. You would never be able to tell by watching the finished product. Always insecure about her looks, when Minnelli showed her the way she looked in his film, Garland said it was the first time she felt pretty. It was her first color film since The Wizard of Oz and she had never seen herself like this. She is vibrant and glowing. Finally feeling comfortable in his hands, Garland soon fell in love with Minnelli and this was the first of several collaborations, including The Clock, The Pirate, and Liza Minnelli.
Random bits:
· Of course, Meet Me In St. Louis was a massive hit and even became MGM's biggest moneymaker since Gone With the Wind.
· Gene Kelly said this was his favorite movie musical.
· At the age of 8, Margaret O'Brien was given an honorary Oscar for her scene-stealing turn as Tootie which regularly turns up on lists of the best movie performances by a child. Garland was given a similar honor for her performance in The Wizard of Oz.
· Hugh Martin & Ralph Blane's "The Trolley Song" was nominated for the Oscar for Best Original Song, but the most popular song from the movie is definitely "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" which became a holiday standard after Frank Sinatra asked for slightly tweaked lyrics to make the song more upbeat.
· Similar to Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma!, which had opened on Broadway a few months before this film went into production, Meet Me in St. Louis is notable for its use of integrated musical numbers. Rather than having the musical numbers be diversions from the story, the songs help further the narrative. A song that was cut from Oklahoma!, "Boys and Girls Like You and Me," even almost made it into the movie but was cut for not moving the story forward, similar to the reason it was cut from Oklahoma! (It was replaced by "People Will Say We're In Love"). While that scene has been lost, Garland's recording of the song is available online.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 5/4: Die Hard
ACTION FILMS WEEK!
I know, I know, it's not Christmas, but that's no reason to set aside one of the archetypal films of the action genre, with the star-making Bruce Willis vehicle Die Hard. Weaving a man's desire to reconnect with his wife into a struggle against a band of daring and dangerous thieves, Die Hard is one of the most-quoted and beloved films of the last 40 years. Come join us next week for our discussion of Die Hard, available on HBO and for rent in the usual places.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 4/28: Bad Education (2020)
This Cory Finley film about a school superintendent who embezzles from his district is the focus of next week's podcast. Come join our discussion on Wednesday of Bad Education, premiering on HBO this Saturday at 8PM Eastern.
MUSICALS WEEK!
Note: This week's essay is graciously provided by a guest contributor.
Meet Me In St. Louis is an exquisite Technicolor confection. Made while the US was in the middle of WW2, it was designed to be warmly nostalgic, "All-American" comfort food that would let audiences escape to the relatively simpler time of 1903.
The film centers around the well-off Smith family household, focusing primarily on 17-year-old Esther (Judy Garland) and her sisters. Esther is infatuated with the handsome young man next door, John (Tom Drake). Her older sister Rose (Lucille Bremer) has a beau but can't seem to get him to propose. Meanwhile, the younger Agnes (Joan Carroll) and Tootie (Margaret O'Brien) are content playing pranks and roughhousing.
There isn't much of a story but the way the film is structured into four vignettes for each season of the year keeps the movie from feeling aimless as we watch the family's lives unfold. There are various conflicts, such as they are, like missing a phone call because of dinner, and not having a date to the Christmas ball. The major crisis arrives when the family patriarch, Alonzo (Leon Ames), announces that the family must move to New York City because of a promotion at work. Of course, the family is happy where they are and the thought of moving to the more industrial and cold (and, I assume, diverse) NYC is heartbreaking. This is ultimately resolved easily enough by Alonzo deciding that they'll stay in St. Louis, which apparently was an option this whole time. The stakes are never high, but the film is never anything less than engrossing.
A former art director, set designer and costumer, Minnelli's eye for detail is evident throughout the film which is like a jewel box full of rich colors and an astonishing amount of attention to backgrounds and props in every room. The Smith household isn't just another cavernous set on a soundstage. It looks and feels like an actual, lived in home. In one standout scene, Esther flirts with John by having him walk her around the house to assist in turning off the gas lamps. It's a palpably dreamy moment made all the more romantic by Minnelli's use of framing, light and shadows, and gliding camerawork as Esther takes John through the house as it darkens around them. They aren't doing anything more than turning off lights but Minnelli is able to make it an almost unbearably intimate use of the space.
Judy Garland didn't want to make Meet Me In St. Louis. After The Wizard of Oz and the years of playing the girl crying into milkshakes over Mickey Rooney, she was eager to move on to more adult fare. Playing another lovestruck teenager felt like a step backwards. She also was not thrilled to have to work with Vincente Minnelli, a relatively inexperienced director whose only other previous films had been cheap black & white productions. Of course, Garland didn't have much of a say when it came to most aspects of her life and her protestations couldn't change producer Arthur Freed's mind.
Judy ended up missing around three weeks of filming due to a combination of exhaustion, malnutrition, and emotional distress. Not only did she not want to make the picture, she was a nervous wreck because she knew that, as the movie's star, if the film flopped, the fingers would be pointed at her. You would never be able to tell by watching the finished product. Always insecure about her looks, when Minnelli showed her the way she looked in his film, Garland said it was the first time she felt pretty. It was her first color film since The Wizard of Oz and she had never seen herself like this. She is vibrant and glowing. Finally feeling comfortable in his hands, Garland soon fell in love with Minnelli and this was the first of several collaborations, including The Clock, The Pirate, and Liza Minnelli.
Random bits:
· Of course, Meet Me In St. Louis was a massive hit and even became MGM's biggest moneymaker since Gone With the Wind.
· Gene Kelly said this was his favorite movie musical.
· At the age of 8, Margaret O'Brien was given an honorary Oscar for her scene-stealing turn as Tootie which regularly turns up on lists of the best movie performances by a child. Garland was given a similar honor for her performance in The Wizard of Oz.
· Hugh Martin & Ralph Blane's "The Trolley Song" was nominated for the Oscar for Best Original Song, but the most popular song from the movie is definitely "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" which became a holiday standard after Frank Sinatra asked for slightly tweaked lyrics to make the song more upbeat.
· Similar to Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma!, which had opened on Broadway a few months before this film went into production, Meet Me in St. Louis is notable for its use of integrated musical numbers. Rather than having the musical numbers be diversions from the story, the songs help further the narrative. A song that was cut from Oklahoma!, "Boys and Girls Like You and Me," even almost made it into the movie but was cut for not moving the story forward, similar to the reason it was cut from Oklahoma! (It was replaced by "People Will Say We're In Love"). While that scene has been lost, Garland's recording of the song is available online.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 5/4: Die Hard
ACTION FILMS WEEK!
I know, I know, it's not Christmas, but that's no reason to set aside one of the archetypal films of the action genre, with the star-making Bruce Willis vehicle Die Hard. Weaving a man's desire to reconnect with his wife into a struggle against a band of daring and dangerous thieves, Die Hard is one of the most-quoted and beloved films of the last 40 years. Come join us next week for our discussion of Die Hard, available on HBO and for rent in the usual places.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 4/28: Bad Education (2020)
This Cory Finley film about a school superintendent who embezzles from his district is the focus of next week's podcast. Come join our discussion on Wednesday of Bad Education, premiering on HBO this Saturday at 8PM Eastern.