History Film / MeetMeInStLouis

* AllThereInTheManual: According to the script (and a line at the Winter Ball), Grandpa's last name is Prophater, making him Anna's father and not Alonso's.
* AmbiguousInnocence: Tootie and Agnes, the youngest of the Smith family, certainly qualify. When Katie, the family's cook, tells Agnes that she kicked her cat down the cellar stairs, Agnes cries, "If you've killed her, I'll kill you! I'll stab you to death in your sleep and tie you to two wild horses 'til you're pulled apart!" It's obvious that she would never actually ''attempt'' this, but while she is a sweet and mostly ordinary girl, she seems to have a keen interest in gore and graphic violence, and it's rather [[TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior troubling]] at times. She even hopes aloud that Rose got her a hunting knife for Christmas. Tootie, meanwhile, loves to play with her dolls like any normal child, but she also likes to say that they have "four fatal diseases" so that they can "die" and she can give them "beautiful funerals" and bury them in the graveyard. When Mr. Smith announces that they'll be moving, she comments, "It'll take a week to dig up all my dolls from the cemetery!" She also apparently has a plan to dig a tunnel into a neighbour's yard just so that she can grab her legs when she's walking past. Their mischievousness crosses into the territory of EnfantTerrible when they [[spoiler:stuff a dress to make it look like a body and put it on the streetcar tracks to see what will happen. Tootie gets injured when Esther's crush, John, tries to hide her and Agnes from the police. Then Tootie even tries a WoundedGazelleGambit to get out of trouble, claiming that John tried to kill her. Even when the family discovers what really happened from Agnes, both the girls get off scot-free. Tootie doesn't even get ''punished'' for lying about John.]]

%%* TheBeautifulElite / TheProudElite: Esther and Rose are entirely certain that Lucille is both of these, despite never having met her. They rationalize their assumption by the fact that she's "an eastern girl", but it's more likely that they relish in the idea of her being a snob because she's in the way of Rose's relationship with Warren.

* BigSisterInstinct: When Esther thinks that John attacked Tootie, she goes over to his house and physically attacks him.

* DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale: Subverted. Esther attacks John when she thinks he attacked Tootie. [[spoiler: When she discovers Tootie lied, she's incredibly guilty and apologises, and John shows her all the injuries she caused. It's glossed over after that scene though]].

* InformedPoverty: Despite the family's apparent affluence, when Agnes asks why they wouldn't be living in a house in New York, Rose replies, "''Rich'' people live in houses. People like us live in flats," implying that they're considered middle class at best. Of course, Rose may have only meant that they're not rich compared to people who can afford houses in New York.

* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: According to Tootie, Mr. Braukoff poisons cats, beats his wife with a red hot poker and leaves empty whiskey bottles in his cellar.

Remade in 1959 as a live television production on Creator/{{CBS}}, starring Tab Hunter, Creator/JanePowell, Creator/WalterPidgeon, Jeanne Crain, Reta Shaw, Creator/EdWynn, Creator/MyrnaLoy, and Creator/PattyDuke. A ScreenToStageAdaptation went to Broadway in 1989.

* CoolOldGuy: Grandpa. He sings (and dances!) along to "Meet Me In St. Louis", he's more cheerful and optimistic than his son, he knows how to comfort Esther when she doesn't have a date to the dance, he's fun-loving, gives the younger girls advice on how to make the flour stick to their trick-or-treat victims, and he is more tolerant and willing to humor his grandchildren than their father is.

The film follows a year in the lives of the Smith family, who live in UsefulNotes/StLouis at the turn of the 20th century. In particular, it follows the second-eldest daughter, Esther (Garland); her youngest sister, Tootie (O'Brien); and Esther's crush, John Truitt (Drake). Everyone is excited with the coming of the 1904 World's Fair; however, that all changes when Mr. Smith (Ames) announces that the family might be uprooted to New York.

A ScreenToStageAdaptation went to Broadway in 1989.

* NotListeningToMeAreYou: After John kisses Esther, she says something stupid and wanders back to her house in a daze with an idiotic grin on her face. When her mother says, "Your ice cream is getting cold," Esther dreamily responds, "Isn't it?" Then when her mother asks if there's something wrong with her, Esther thoughtlessly replies, "Yes, Mama," and then goes to say something, but stops. It takes her two youngest sisters mocking her to snap her out of it.

* InformedPoverty: Mr. Smith's income alone is apparently enough to support a family of seven (plus a cat), and pay for a live-in maid, in a house that's large by almost any standard, with enormous, luxurious rooms, good furniture, lots of decor, a large yard, etc. The family doesn't seem to want for anything, and doesn't appear to be struggling; they host parties, attend parties, wear good clothes, send the oldest to college, go to the St. Louis World's Fair, etc., without any implication that these expenses will cause financial difficulty. Yet, when Agnes asks why they wouldn't be living in a house in New York, Rose replies, "''Rich'' people live in houses. People like us live in flats", implying that they're considered middle class at best. It's not clear if this discrepancy is because the creators just couldn't be bothered making them appear less well-off, or if it's a justified artifact of the setting (St. Louis in 1903-1904), where the middle class might have had a much higher standard of living than they have on average nowadays. (Not to mention that New York may have had a much higher cost of living than St. Louis, just like it does today; Rose may have only meant that they're not rich compared to people who can afford houses in New York.)

* InformedPoverty: Mr. Smith's income alone is apparently enough to support a family of seven (plus a cat), and pay for a live-in maid, in a house that's large by almost any standard, with enormous, luxurious rooms, good furniture, lots of decor, a large yard, etc. The family doesn't seem to want for anything, and doesn't appear to be struggling; they host parties, attend parties, wear good clothes, send the oldest to college, go to the St. Louis World's Fair, etc., without any implication that these expenses will cause financial difficulty. Yet, when Agnes asks why they wouldn't be living in a house in New York, Rose replies, "''Rich'' people live in houses. People like us live in flats", implying that they're considered middle class at best. It's not clear if this discrepancy is because the creators just couldn't be bothered making them appear less well-off, or if it's a justified artifact of the setting (St. Louis in 1903-1904), where the middle class might have had a much higher standard of living than they have on average nowadays. (Not to mention that New York may have had a much higher cost of living than St. Louis, just like it does today; Rose may have only meant that they're not rich compared to people who can afford houses in New York.)
* IrrelevantActOpener: In some versions, the housekeeper sings "A Touch of the Irish", a song about women-men relationships and how Irish women handle them.

* HollywoodCostuming: Although the costumes themselves are fairly accurate to the time period, Rose and Esther wear their hair down at a lot of social gatherings when young women of their age (18-20 and 17 respectively) would surely have worn it up, as pretty much every other woman in the film does. Amusingly, in the lyrics of "The Trolley Song," Esther actually describes herself as having a period-correct hairdo ("my hair piled high upon my head") despite her not actually wearing her hair like that.

* HollywoodCostuming: Although the costumes themselves are fairly accurate to the time period, Rose and Esther wear their hair down at a lot of social gatherings when young women of their age (18-20 and 17 respectively) would surely have worn it up, as pretty much every other woman in the film does.

--> '''Esther:''' The truth is, [[ChristmasCake she's not getting any younger]].\\

* AluminumChristmasTrees: Alonso makes reference to a baseball team called the Baltimore Orioles. While there was such a team in 1903, they were only minor league. They'd join the majors in 1954 (coincidentally enough, after the former St. Louis Browns moved to Baltimore).

A classic 1944 musical film adapted from the stories of Sally Benson, ''Meet Me in St. Louis'' was directed by Creator/VincenteMinnelli and starred his future wife, Creator/JudyGarland, along with Creator/MaryAstor, Margaret O’Brien, Leon Ames, Lucille Bremer, Tom Drake, and Marjorie Main.

[[caption-width-right:350:"Just when St. Louis was going to be the center of attention of the entire universe..."]]

->''Clang, clang, clang went the trolley\\

As we started for Huntington Dell.''
-->-- "The Trolley Song"

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Meet_Me_In_St_Louis_5257.jpg]]

->''Clang, clang, clang went the trolley''
->''Ding, ding, ding went the bell''
->''Zing, zing, zing went my heartstrings''
->''As we started for Huntington Dell.''

A classic 1944 musical film adapted from the stories of Sally Benson, ''Meet Me in St. Louis'' was directed by Creator/VincenteMinnelli and starred his future wife, Creator/JudyGarland, along with Creator/MaryAstor, Leon Ames, Lucille Bremer, Tom Drake, and Marjorie Main.