jbhiller

I just watched Meet Me in St. Louis on TCM. Besides being one of the greatest movie musicals plus a luminous Judy Garland, realize that 1944 was the middle of WW II. Millions of American soldiers where spread out over the world, missing home. The movie takes them back to an idiolized simpler time.

This was Judy Garland at her peak after the Wizard of Oz. She would be the ideal "Girl Next Door" for the young GI's. Margaret O'Brien was almost too cute to be real.

Every time Judy Garland sings "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" it brings a tear to my eye. Soldiers sitting in a foxhole would have loved to be home for Christmas. They all felt "Someday soon, we all will be together If the fates allow" They knew what they were fighting for.

Salvatore Dali was one of the great artists of the 20th Century but you would never know it from this movie. He was also one of the greatest eccentrics of the 20th Century but that's not what made him important. Almost none of his art was shown in this movie.

My favorite movie is Amadeus. The thing that makes it great is the combination of great story combined with the greatest music. Even if the movie was not a historically accurate biograpy of Mozart, the story shows what inspired him.

I saw nothing of Dali's inspiration in this movie. There was brimstone but no fire. It could have used more flashbacks.

I am a big fan of movie musicals. So, when I saw this movie starring Esther Williams, Red Skelton, Howard Keel, and Ann Miller with songs by Harry Warren and Dorothy Fields I thought I was in for a treat. Boy, was I disappointed.

The phony Texas setting that was obviously Palm Springs was lame. All the actors had phony Texas accents. The performance just didn't sparkle.

There was a strange Estherr Williams water ballet without water. Ann Miller had a nice dance number, though.

In smaller roles, Keenan Wynn and Hans Conreid werre wasted.

Even the songs were not memorable. The stunts were not great either.