Editing Meet Me in St. Louis (section)

==Production==
[[File:Meet Me In St Louis Judy Garland Margaret O'Brien 1944.jpg|thumb|right| [[Margaret O'Brien]] and [[Judy Garland]]  ]]The film is based on "The Kensington Stories", a series of sentimental family stories by [[Sally Benson]] that appeared in ''[[The New Yorker]]'' in 1942 and later in novel form as ''[[Meet Me in St. Louis (novel)|Meet Me in St. Louis]]''. Shortly after the publication of the stories, [[Arthur Freed]], who had enjoyed previous success with Judy Garland in MGM musicals, convinced studio head [[Louis B. Mayer]] to purchase the film rights for $25,000, and Benson was also hired to work on the screen adaptation. The idea for the film was also inspired by ''[[Life with Father]]'', a nostalgic family play that had been running on [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] to great success and acclaim since 1939.<ref name="Schatz" />

While Freed and his writers developed the script, director [[Vincente Minnelli]], whose background was in set and costume design, prepared the film's design. Minnelli worked with designer [[Lemuel Ayers]] on set design and with art director [[E. Preston Ames]] to capture the evocative quality of paintings by [[Thomas Eakins]], a popular artist and illustrator at the time in which the story takes place.<ref name="Schatz" />

A staff of six writers worked with Benson to capture the essence of her stories, including [[Doris Gilbert]], who had worked with Benson previously. Freed hired the husband-and-wife team of [[Victor Heerman]] and [[Sarah Y. Mason|Sarah Mason]] in mid-1942 to add an element of intrigue to the script. They introduced a [[blackmail]] plot involving Esther Smith, which Freed found inappropriate, so he tasked staff writer [[William Ludwig (screenwriter)|William Ludwig]], a specialist in adolescent romance, to excise the blackmail plot and weave courtship stories into the screenplay. By February 1943, Freed was satisfied with Ludwig's script and distributed copies around MGM and to the principal cast members. However, Garland was dissatisfied with the script, feeling its plot to be weak and her character too juvenile. Mayer agreed, and Freed brought in a pair of writers to revise Ludwig's script who added the storyline of the family's looming move to New York. Freed liked the changes but Garland remained unhappy with the script.<ref name="Schatz" />

Freed's conflict with producer [[Joseph L. Mankiewicz]], Garland's lover who was developing what would become ''[[The Pirate (1948 film)|The Pirate]]'' with Garland in mind for the lead role, nearly caused ''Meet Me in St. Louis'' to be indefinitely postponed. The situation was resolved when Mankiewicz left MGM for Fox, and Freed's project was given the green light with a preliminary budget of $1,395,000 and plans to begin production in early October 1943. However, production was delayed because of studio problems and Technicolor Inc.'s heavy schedule, and the project finally entered production on December 7, 1943, with shooting scheduled for 58 days and a budget that had increased to $1,500,000. Nearly half of the film's budget was devoted to sets ($497,000) and music ($234,000). Story and continuity costs exceeded $132,000 because of the numerous rewrites. Garland was paid $2,500 per week, [[Margaret O'Brien]] $250 per week and Minnelli $1,000 per week while producing the film.<ref name="Schatz" />

Garland, unhappy with the script and unsure of herself as a leading lady, also suffered severe emotional problems, an acute addiction to [[Substituted amphetamine|amphetamines]] and numerous physical ailments such as recurring [[migraine]] headaches. Production reports show that she disrupted the schedule with fits of hysteria, habitual lateness and occasional absences, missing an entire week of shooting because she claimed to be suffering from an ear infection. Garland also balked at Minnelli's heavy schedule of rehearsals and prerecording sessions in the months preceding filming, but Minnelli won her confidence and the two became lovers, cohabiting by the time of the film's post-production and marrying soon after its release.<ref name="Schatz" /> Earlier in the production, Garland had a brief affair with her costar [[Tom Drake]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Clarke |first=Gerald |date=2000-04-01 |title=Till MGM Do Us Part |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2000/04/judy-garland-excerpt-200004 |journal=[[Vanity Fair (magazine)|Vanity Fair]]}}</ref>

Production delays were also caused by illnesses suffered by O'Brien, [[Mary Astor]] ([[pneumonia]]) and [[Joan Carroll]] ([[appendicitis]]), but Minnelli used the delays to prepare O'Brien's most demanding and important scenes. Severe rains and flooding in the Los Angeles region caused further delays in the production of exterior scenes. Filming began on December 1, 1943, and was completed on April 7, 1944, behind schedule and with a final budget near $1.8 million. The first rough cut exceeded two hours in length, so the writers suggested edits that brought the film down to 113 minutes for its preview screenings in the summer of 1944. MGM, encouraged by overwhelmingly positive audience previews, held the film's release for the Christmas season.<ref name="Schatz" />

Minnelli's idea to introduce each season segment with a greeting-card illustration dissolving into live action was most likely influenced by a similar technique used in [[Orson Welles]]' 1942 film ''[[The Magnificent Ambersons (film)|The Magnificent Ambersons]]''.<ref name="Schatz" />

Freed's process for ''Meet Me in St. Louis'' established a pattern for Minnelli's future musicals: budgets in excess of $1 million, preproduction schedules sometimes exceeding a full year, shooting schedules of three to six months and postproduction phases of six months or longer.<ref name="Schatz" />