Margaret o Brien

For Turner Classic Movies‘ Margaret O’Brien Day on Sunday, Aug. 15, TCM will present the television premiere of Meet Me in St. Louis (1944). Joke.
But then again, I don’t think they’ve shown Meet Me in St. Louis in at least two weeks, which almost makes the Sunday showing of the classic Vincente Minnelli musical seem like a premiere.
In addition to MMiSL, TCM (as part of its “Summer Under the Stars” series) will be showing 12 other movies featuring the young actress, who happened to be one of the top box-office attractions in the United States in the mid-’40s. [FullMargaret O'Brien schedule.]
Now, some people can’t stand Margaret O’Brien — smiling through her tears, crying atop her smile. Others find her the best child performer there ever was. (O’Brien won a special miniature Oscar at the 1945 ceremony.)
I’m in the middle ground. I haven’t watched many of O’Brien’s vehicles — most of those made at MGM. Of the ones I’ve seen, I found her pretty believable and not at all cloying.
Most child actors/actresses have the ugly habit (I think they do it on purpose) of bringing out the axe murderer in me. O’Brien didn’t do that in, say, the aforementioned Meet Me in St. Louis or Music for Millions (best line: “You’re gonna have a baybee”).
Among the O’Brien movies I’ve seen that TCM will be showing on Sunday, the one I’d most recommend (for those who have already watched the entertaining Meet Me in St. Louis about a dozen times) is George Cukor‘s Heller in Pink Tights.
This 1960 Western made at Paramount is neither one of Cukor’s best efforts nor one of the best movies set in the American West. But never mind all that. The gaudy, overblown Heller in Pink Tights features an eclectic cast that includes Sophia Loren, Anthony Quinn, ultra-handsome Steve Forrest (excellent as The Other Man), Eileen Heckart, O’Brien (then 23 years old, as Heckart’s daughter), and veterans Edmund Lowe and Ramon Novarro.
Those names — and the work of production designer Gene Allen and cinematographer Harold Lipstein — are enough for me to recommend Heller.
“John Barrymore once told me that if I ever got a chance to appear in a film directed by George Cukor, it would be an experience I’d value,” Novarro would later say, “and I did greatly enjoy every moment working for Mr. Cukor.”
That can be seen on screen. In what amounts to a cameo, MGM’s former Ben-Hur delivers the film’s best performance as the greedy villain. Do check out Heller in Pink Tights.
Note: In Big City (1948), which co-stars Robert Preston, Danny Thomas, George Murphy, and pert Betty Garrett, Margaret O’Brien gets to sing something called “Ok’l Baby Dok’l.” The voice you hear, however, is Marni Nixon‘s, who would later dub Deborah Kerr (The King and I), Natalie Wood (West Side Story), and Audrey Hepburn (My Fair Lady).