High Society **** (1956, Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra) – Classic Film Review 1229

Director Charles Walters’s 1956 movie is a classy, pleasurable, richly enjoyable musical remake of The Philadelphia Story (1940). The sharply acidic social romantic comedy of the original is reworked by MGM as a smooth, glossy and ultra-plush showcase for the 50s stars, Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly and Frank Sinatra. It sees Sinatra and Crosby collaborating for the first time, and it proves a memorable pairing.

In the plot taken from Philip Barry’s play, time is short if playboy-composer C K Dexter Haven (Crosby), a successful popular jazz musician, is to reclaim his beautiful ex-wife Tracy Lord (Kelly) before she marries another man (John Lund). That’s especially tricky with cynical undercover tabloid reporter Mike Connor (Sinatra) caught up in the romantic complications, as he too in love with Tracy. Two’s company but four’s definitely a crowd!

Cole Porter was paid $250,000 for his first original film score in eight years and luckily his music and lyrics give the stars strong material to work on with nine vintage songs that have stood the test of time.

Notable particularly are Sinatra and Celeste Holm’s ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?’, Sinatra’s ‘You’re Sensational’, Crosby and Kelly’s ‘True Love’, Crosby’s ‘I Love You, Samantha’ and Sinatra and Crosby duetting to ‘Well Did You Evah!’ Armstrong and his band get a couple of standout moments (‘Now You Has Jazz’, ‘High Society Calypso’). There’s also Sinatra’s ‘Mind if I Make Love to You?’ and Crosby’s ‘Little One’.

The stars are smooth and glossy too, giving effortlessly stylish, laid-back performances and Kelly seems to relish her only role in a musical. But in support there’s an attack of acting sharpness from Celeste Holm (Liz Imbrie) and Louis Calhern (Uncle Willie), bringing on the sharply acidic flavour of the original. And Louis Armstrong, appearing as himself, brings sheer joy and musical pleasure.

There were three Oscar nominations (Best Motion Picture Story, Best Song [True Love] and Best Scoring of a Musical Picture) but alas no wins. The nominations include one that was a result of one of the most infamous Academy Award gaffes in its history. For the Best Motion Picture Story nomination was in error when Elwood Ullman and Edward Bernds, the writers of the 1955 Bowery Boys movie of the same name, were nominated by mistake.

They formally and graciously rejected the nomination in a telegram to the Academy Award Board of Governors, acknowledging the error and requesting their names be removed from the final ballot. While the request was gratefully granted, their nomination still stands on the official record. And thus this 1956 High Society was cheated out of its Best Motion Picture Story nomination, which it couldn’t have had anyway because the movie was based on the play and film The Philadelphia Story and thus was not eligible in that category.

In the movie, Kelly is wearing her engagement ring from Monaco’s Prince Ranier. High Society was Kelly’s last film before she became Princess Consort of Monaco and it turned out last film ever, though Hitchcock tried to tempt her back to star in Marnie. This story is told in 2014’s Grace of Monaco with Nicole Kidman.

The film is produced by Sol C. Siegel for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and shot in VistaVision and Technicolor.

‘Well Did You Evah!’ was from a previous Cole Porter musical and added at the last minute when it was realised that there wasn’t a song for Crosby and Sinatra to sing together.

http://derekwinnert.com/the-philadelphia-story-1940-katharine-hepburn-cary-grant-james-stewart-classic-film-review-1228/

http://derekwinnert.com/marnie-classic-film-review-154/

(C) Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Film Review 1229

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more film reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/