The story just doesn’t possess much power or resonance; the tribulations of the Smith family never really merit a full theatrical picture, nor do the romances, which aren’t all that passionate or memorable.

| Original Score: 3/10 | Feb 6, 2025

Vincent Minelli’s first Technicolor film is the ultimate in Hollywood Americana and a masterful musical that turned Judy Garland into a true leading lady.

| Aug 20, 2023

If you were born and brought up in St. Louis, and aware from earliest childhood of The Fair... then the picture will seem even more like watching the youth of your parents and aunts and uncles, and it is all just as they told you.

| Nov 10, 2022

Practically every member of the family from the 5-year-olds to grandma will find entertainment and fun.

| Nov 10, 2022

Altogether the picture will give you an exhilarated feeling and a sense of well being plus an appreciation for this bright bit of Americana.

| Nov 10, 2022

This amusing 1903 vignette, decorated with tunes, Technicolor and a practically perfect cast, is ideal holiday entertainment in which Judy Garland and little Margaret O'Brien romp off with both your heart and most of the honors.

| Nov 10, 2022

Meet Me in St. Louis is gay, and quaint, and tuneful as a music box and excellent entertainment for any one of any age.

| Nov 10, 2022

Vincente Minnelli has been sensible about directing Meet Me in St. Louis. He didn't go out of his way to spill tears, or even try hard for laughs -- he just let things take their course.

| Nov 10, 2022

It’s a picture that will bring tears to your eyes, but send you away proud of them. It’s also a picture whose principal appeal hinges on a store of wonderful youthful memories which you probably thought you had forgotten.

| Nov 10, 2022

It's a delight, pure and simple spelling a restful, pleasant evening in the theater. Nostalgic, colorful, alive and human.

| Nov 10, 2022

It is a tuneful, merry comedy-drama, which is so wholesome and heart- warming that few will be able to resist its appeal.

| Nov 10, 2022

The screenplay has nothing spectacular to offer in the way of plot. A good storyteller, if he's good enough, doesn't need a whopping story to be successful and Meet Me in St Louis is successful because it's done beautifully.

| Nov 10, 2022

From the stories Sally Benson wrote for the New Yorker... a generally amusing film has been derived, replete with the flavor of the Middle West as it might have been discovered in St. Louis at the time of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition.

| Nov 10, 2022

This is the technicolor musical to put all technicolor musicals to shame.

| Nov 10, 2022

In a sense the film could have been taken from your own plush covered family album.

| Nov 10, 2022

It is gaily and beautifully played, in particular by Miss Garland, whose talents as an actress are, I believe, of a much higher order than is generally recognised.

Full Review | Nov 10, 2022

Given Judy Garland and Margaret O'Brien, supported by a fine cast, any picture would be good. This one has the additional advantages of an amusing story, and Technicolor.

| Nov 10, 2022

In its own engaging way, Meet Me In St. Louis is rather wonderful. And if it's typical at all of what Hollywood has in store -- then 1945 should see an improvement in the escapist films, at least.

| Nov 10, 2022

Meet Me in St. Louis is probably the pleasantest family album Hollywood has ever thumbed through. Its pages are encrusted in charm and old rose leaves.

| Nov 10, 2022

I have never been in St. Louis... I have never attended a World's Fair. I wasn't alive in 1903. But by the time Meet Me In St Louis was over, there was I, feeling quite homesick for that Missouri city... and full of nostalgia for those Good Old Days.

| Nov 10, 2022