With the festive season truly upon us, Christmas movie viewing is top of the agenda (Picture: Getty)
To celebrate the beginning of December, film fans may well crack out their favourite Christmas movie to embrace the season.
With so many to choose from though, like Home Alone, Love Actually, It’s A Wonderful Life and The Muppet Christmas Carol, people often wonder what the best Christmas film is.
And it transpires that we may well have the answer thanks to review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes.
Having collated together approved critics’ thoughts on all the festive flicks ever made, there is only one that has a full and perfect 100% rating, with no reviews skewing towards the negative.
The film in question is a traditionally popular choice for decades – which has also spawned one of the most sung Christmas songs too – and is Meet Me in St. Louis.
This may surprise younger movie enthusiasts, as it’s a musical that was released a whopping 80 years ago.
Meet Me in St. Louis, starring Judy Garland, is the only Christmas film on Rotten Tomatoes with a 100% rating (Picture: United Archives via Getty Images)
Meet Me in St. Louis isn’t necessarily a trendy choice, but its quality has meant it has clearly stayed admired through generations.
Starring Hollywood legend Judy Garland, and directed by Vincente Minnelli (who would go on to become her husband), the 1944 MGM film follows the fortunes of the upper-middleclass Smith family from summer 1903 to spring 1904 and the opening of the St. Louis World’s Fair.
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Garland is second-oldest daughter Esther, in love with the boy next door, while Lucille Bremer and Margaret O’Brien play two of her sisters and Mary Astor and Leon Ames their parents.
A cosy tale where the greatest threat to anyone’s happiness is the chance the Smiths might have to leave Missouri for New York City, Meet Me in St. Louis provided comfort in Technicolor to cinemagoers during World War Two.
The traditional period musical from 1944 features lots of famous songs, including The Trolley Song and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (Picture: MGM/Kobal/Rex/Shutterstock)
It might come as a surprise that this is the highest-scoring festive film, despite very stiff competition (Picture: Moviestore/Rex/Shutterstock)
It has also remained a classic festive staple thanks to its abundance of well-known songs, from The Trolley Song and The Boy Next Door to the titular number and – of course – Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, all penned by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane.
Meet Me in St. Louis showed Wizard of Oz star Garland off at her best, remaining one of her most loved films alongside the likes of A Star is Born and Easter Parade.
‘Practically every member of the family from the 5-year-olds to grandma will find entertainment and fun’, praised the Boston Globe’s review of Meet Me in …read more
Source:: Metro
