5 Rom-Coms- #3 Meet Me in St. Louis

Only 3 days of Christmas and 3 days left to finish out my movie list! Where does the time go? In retrospect, I should have titled these "The 5 Movies of Christmas" because most aren't actually romantic comedies. They do have sweet (and sometimes funny) love stories though.

You might know Meet Me in St. Louis as the film that introduced "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas"- sung by the incomparable Judy Garland.

You might also know it as the dvd Louise gave Carrie for Christmas in the first SATC movie.

I know it as one of my very favorite Christmas movies. Meet Me in St. Louis actually takes us through an entire year of seasons, but the Christmas scenes are the best. Unlike Miracle on 34th Street, this movie does seem old fashioned. It was made in 1944, but is set in 1903 so it contains great lines like "Nice girls don't let men kiss them until after they're engaged. Men don't want the bloom rubbed off" and Gosh, Miss Esther, I hope I'm not too presumptuous, but you don't need any beauty sleep. " Isn''t that precious?

Meet Me in St. Louis is a wonderful musical, but it's also a love story. About Esther Smith and John Truett, the "boy next door" that she "can't ignore." About Rose Smith and Warren Sheffield, if only he would propose. Most of all, its about the love between the whole Smith family and their beloved St. Louis and family home. As someone who is unabashedly in love with my hometown and childhood memories, I can certainly relate.

I just finished reading a biography of Judy Garland (fascinating but devastating) and now I know there was another love story at the heart of this movie. Meet Me in St. Louis was directed by Vincente Minnelli who was so infatuated with Judy Garland that he couldn't help but film her in the best light possible. In nearly every shot she is framed . . . by a window pane, a mirror, a gorgeous hat, presented to the viewer the way Vincente saw her in his heart. (I'm sorry, so cheesy, I can't help myself!)

When Judy (plagued by self esteem issues all her life) watched the film, she cried that she'd never felt so beautiful. She married Vincente and they had a daughter, Liza Minelli, who you may remember from her performance at Stanford's wedding in the second SATC movie.

I hope you've enjoyed playing six degrees of seperation with Sex and the City movies, but really, I hope you'll watch this movie. And listen to the song below. And have yourself a Merry Little Christmas.