Meet Me In St. Louis (1966)

At the turn of century, a young girl (Shelley Fabares) becomes jealous when she thinks the boy next door (Michael Blodgett, BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS) has fallen for the new girl (Judy Lang) in the neighborhood. Since her mother (Celeste Holm) is throwing a party in the new neighbor's honor, she whips up a scheme that backfires. Based on the novel 5135 KENSINGTON by Sally Benson (who wrote the script for this adaptation) by way of the classic 1944 MGM musical of the same name based on her book and directed by Jeffrey Hayden. This is actually a TV pilot produced by MGM but it didn't sell and one can see why. It's generic to the nth degree and without those wonderful musical numbers, it's flat as a pancake. Fabares is perky but she's no Judy Garland. The Vincent Minnelli film had a strong conflict with the family being uprooted from the St. Louis home they love and moving to New York. No such conflict here other than the banal bit of adolescent jealousy. With Reta Shaw, Wesley Addy and Morgan Brittany.