Movie Trailers

• Directors: Vincente Minnelli
• Producers: Arthur Freed
• Writers: Story, Sally Benson, Screenplay, Irving Brecher, Fred F Finklehoffe
• Genres: Family, Musical, Romance
• Actors: Judy Garland, Margaret O Brien, Mary Astor, Lucille Bremer, Tom Drake, Marjorie Main

The backdrop for Meet Me in St. Louis is St. Louis, Missouri on the brink of the 1904 World’s Fair.

The story centers on the middle-class Smith family, who lead a comfortable and happy life. The family has four daughters, Rose, Esther, Agnes and Tootie and a son, Lon. Esther, the second eldest daughter (Judy Garland), is taken with the boy next door, John Truett (Tom Drake), although he does not notice her at first.

The film starts out with Mrs. Smith (Mary Astor) and Katie the maid (Marjorie Main) making ketchup. Esther Smith then walks in and asks Katie to ask Mrs. Smith if dinner can be an hour early because Rose (Lucille Bremer) is expecting a long distance phone call from Warren Sheffield (Robert Sully). Esther then leaves and Katie asks Mrs. Smith if dinner can be an hour early. Mrs. Smith agrees, but when Mr. Smith comes home, he refuses to have dinner an hour early. Everybody is eating when the telephone rings. Mr. Smith answers but says he will not accept the long distance call. Rose starts crying and that is when Mr. Smith finds out about Warren Sheffield. The phone then rings again, and Mr. Smith lets Rose answer it. The whole family is expecting Warren to propose to Rose. Instead, Rose endures an awkward phone call, in which she and Warren talk mainly about the weather.

…

Esther ascends the stairs and finds Tootie sitting by the window in the bedroom she shares with Agnes. Tootie is awake and waiting for Santa Claus while looking down into the Smith garden at the snow people she’d made earlier with her sisters and brother. Esther sings “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” to her. The emotional climax of the movie occurs when Tootie cannot cope with the disruption of her social world, and experiences a violent breakdown in the yard full of snowpeople. Mr. Smith then decides after seeing this that the family would not move. He rouses the entire family. It’s noted that only Mr. Smith and Esther are still in party clothes. Everyone else is in nightclothes. He announces that the Smith family will not leave St. Louis. Before they can really rejoice, Warren Sheffield bursts in and declares his love for Rose and states that they will marry at the first possible opportunity and then absentmindedly wishes the family a Merry Christmas and a good night. The movie ends when all of the family attends the World’s Fair.

• Directors: John Huston
• Producers: Hal B Wallis
• Writers: Dashiell Hammett, John Huston
• Genres: Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery
• Actors: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet

“In 1539, the Knights Templar of Malta paid tribute to Charles V of Spain by sending him a Golden Falcon encrusted from beak to claw with rarest jewels — but pirates seized the galley carrying this priceless token and the fate of the Maltese Falcon remains a mystery to this day.”[6]

In 1941 San Francisco, private investigators Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) and Miles Archer (Jerome Cowan) meet a beautiful prospective client, Miss Ruth Wonderly (Mary Astor). Wonderly claims to be looking for her missing sister, who is involved with a man named Floyd Thursby. Wonderly is to meet Thursby and hopes her sister will be with him. After receiving a substantial retainer, Archer volunteers to follow her that night and help her get her sister back.

That night, Spade is informed that Archer has been shot and killed. He tells his secretary Effie Perrine (Lee Patrick) to break the news to Archer’s wife, Iva (Gladys George). He meets his friend, Detective Tom Polhaus (Ward Bond) at the murder scene. Spade tells Polhaus that Archer was tailing Thursby, but refuses to divulge any more information. Spade then calls Wonderly’s hotel, but she has checked out without leaving a forwarding address. He is grilled by Polhaus and his supervisor, Lieutenant Dundy (Barton MacLane). Dundy suggests that Spade had the opportunity and motive (Archer’s wife) to commit the crime.

…

After Gutman and Cairo leave, Spade calls the police and tells them where to pick up the pair. Spade then angrily confronts Brigid, telling her he knows she killed Archer to implicate Thursby, her unwanted accomplice. Brigid cannot believe that Spade will turn her over to the police, but he is in deadly earnest. Spade turns over the fake Falcon, the money Gutman gave him, and last of all Brigid, explaining that she killed his partner. As Brigid is taken away, Polhaus picks up the statuette and asks what it is. Spade replies, “The stuff that dreams are made of.”