Without checking out reviews of the time it's pure speculation whether this blatant rip-off of Meet Me In St Louis went undetected. It's possible that critics and/or viewers weren't so analytical back then but against that is the fact that less than a decade had passed before the Musical Queen of the Warner lot went up against the ex (just) Musical Queen of MGM. There are clues a plenty; both were based on well-loved reminiscences masquerading as short stories - by Sally Benson and Booth Tarkington respectively; both featured charming (but with a touch of the 'cutes') American families; both were set in the Mid-West, Missouri and Indiana respectively; both featured Leon Ames as Banker patriarch; in both stories the girl of the family falls for the Boy Next Door (who, this time around has relocated to the Boy Across The Street); both families boasted an outspoken maid in the respective shapes of Marjorie Main and Mary Wickes plus a youngest member (Margaret O'Brien, Billy Gray) whose tall stories result in misunderstandings that lead to physical assault. Both even have snowmen for God's sake. In most cases the actors stand up well to their counterparts though Rosemary de Camp in the Mary Astor mother role would perhaps not have been as effective as Astor at playing 'bad' as Astor did in The Maltese Falcon. Mary Wickes has far more warmth and appeal than Marjorie Main, Gordon McCrae could sing better than Tom Drake and Gray had a slight edge on O'Brien. What the latter lacks is Minnelli's eye for color and decor and a score by Ralph Blane and Hugh Martin, relying heavily on tried-and-true numbers from the period (1917 against the 1903 of St Louis). Seen today it's highly watchable and competently done but overall I feel that Meet Me In St Louis would come off best in say another fifty years from now.