High Society - A sumptuous "feel-good" musical High Society (1956) Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly and Frank Sinatra 'High Society' is a musical comedy film made in 1956, directed by Charles Walters and starring Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Grace Kelly. It is a musical adaptation of the classic 1940 movie, 'The Philadelphia Story', which in its turn, was adapted from the Broadway play 'The Philadelphia Story' by Philip Barry. 'High Society' received two Academy Award nominations, for Best Song, "True Love", and Best Music Score, and although it was compared unfavorably with its 1940 predecessor, it became one of the highest grossing films of 1956. Search Amazon for 'High Society' The movie is unusual for a musical in that there are no real dancing scenes, but there are some marvellous songs by Cole Porter, including "True Love", sung by Crosby and Grace Kelly, ""Well, Did you Evah" sung inimitably by Crosby and Sinatra, "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" by Sinatra and Celeste Holm, and a wonderful duet between Crosby and Louis Armstrong, "Now You Has Jazz".

Unlike her co-stars, Grace Kelly was not a singer and "True Love" was written to accommodate her narrow vocal range. The song lost its Oscar to Doris Day's "Que Sera Sera" which became a massive chart hit in 1956. Plot The plot is essentially the same as in the earlier film although the action now takes place in Newport, Rhode Island, rather than Philadelphia, which gives an excellent excuse for Louis Armstrong to appear at the Newport Jazz Festival. The action revolves around a society wedding between the beautiful Tracy Lord (Grace Kelly) and the rich but dull George Kitteridge (John Lund). Tension builds with the arrival of Tracy's ex-husband, Dexter Haven (Bing Crosby) who still loves her and wants to win her back. Complications ensue when two journalists from 'Spy' Magazine, Mike Connor (Frank Sinatra) and Liz Imbrie (Celeste Holm) arrive to cover the story. Cast As with its 1940 predecessor the movie has an all star cast, but angled to the musical rather than pure acting. Either Bing Crosby or Frank Sinatra on their own would virtually guarantee a film's success.

Putting them together was a rare event and it made the film a surefire hit. Their duet, "Well, Did You Evah" is one of the highlights of the movie. They are both full of charm and charisma to their fingertips and they contrast and complement each other well. Crosby is as effortless as ever in his delivery, and Sinatra in particular is in fine acting and singing form. Grace Kelly, too, performs her role well in her last film before becoming Princess of Monaco. She is stunningly beautiful, and is brilliant when she drunkenly sings 'You're Sensational'. Celeste Holm performs the difficult role of "the other star" extremely capably, at least as well as Ruth Hussey in the original. Summary Of course its very easy to constantly compare 'High Society' unfavorably with its brilliant 1940 original. The cast of 'The Philadelphia Story' was incomparably good and at the top of their game. The whole point of 'High Society' is that it is a musical, not a dramatic comedy. And as a musical it excels. A wonderful cast, fantastic music and a good script. It does not get much better than this.

Main Cast High Society - Film4 Film4 High Society Synopsis A delightful romp through the troubled lives of America's super rich and ridiculous. A Philadelphia Story musical remake that's short on bite but long on glamour and verve About Wilful, beautiful but ever so stuck-up Tracy Samantha Lord (Kelly) is about to wed her second husband, dependable square George (Lund). Her plans for a sensational socialite wedding are, however, dashed by a series of troublesome events. First, her meddling ex, CK Dexter Haven (Crosby), turns up to front the local jazz festival (special guest star Louis Armstrong, of course) and muscles in on her big day. Then 'Spy' magazine's sleazy editor gets wind of her father's philandering and demands that a reporter, Mike Connor (Sinatra), and photographer, Liz (Holm), attend for an exclusive account of the wedding of the season. Tracy's ice-queen nose is firmly out of joint, and it takes a drunken bachelor party to finally loosen her. When, on the night before her wedding, Tracy ends up in the arms of the wrong man the question arises of who will end up marrying whom.

When George Cukor and Donald Ogden Stewart adapted Philip Barry's stageplay for 1940's The Philadelphia Story, the result was an ascerbic, scintillating film, with a stellar trio of leading players. High Society is also, of course, based on Barry's play. You may wonder why Walters et al thought they could do better though, particularly in the light of Hepburn, Grant and Stewart's brilliantly funny and complex performances in the earlier version. Walters' seductive musical version is, by comparison, high on style and swing. Cole Porter's score is delicious and carried well by both Crosby and Sinatra, while Kelly, in her last film before she became Princess Grace, adds star appeal. However, 'The Taming of the Shrew'-style breaking of her character's spirit seems less outrageous than with her The Philadelphia Story counterpart - Kelly plays spoilt very well but is less adept at injecting vulnerability and humour into the part. High Society sidesteps quick-fire wit and social critique for a guiless, irresistible mixture of posh frocks and good tunes.

It's a perfect example of the cinematic shift from the depth and wit of comedies of the 1940s to the lighthearted, entertaining diversions of the 1950s. Actor: Bing Crosby, Celeste Holm, Louis Armstrong, Grace Kelly, John Lund, Louis Calhern, Frank Sinatra Director: Charles Walters Greatest Films of 1940 The Bank Dick (1940) , 73 minutes, D: Eddie Cline A great classic W. C. Fields comedy, with wonderful sight gags and one-liners. Fields (in his last major film role) credited himself as screenwriter Mahatma Kane Jeeves (similar to "My hat, my cane, Jeeves!"). A drunken, unemployed no-account, henpecked husband in Lompoc, California (pronounced Lompoke) - Egbert Souse (W. C. Fields) (pronounced "Soo-zay") - inadvertently foiled a bank robbery in town, and was rewarded for his accidental heroism with an in-bank position as a guard (or "dick"-detective) by grateful bank president Mr. Skinner (Pierre Watkin).

Egbert's most frequent visits were to the Black Pussy Cat Cafe for stiff drinks. Egbert was conned by J. Frothingham Waterbury (Russell Hicks) to fund a flimsy mining operation, Beefsteak Mines. He convinced bank clerk Og Oggilby (Grady Sutton) - his future son-in-law, the dim-witted fiancee of his daughter Myrtle (Una Merkel), to embezzle $500. And then he had to avoid having auditing bank examiner J. Pinkerton Snoopington (Franklin Pangborn) discover his crime by slipping him a drink. Hilarious, bumbling antics ensue, concluding with another bank robbery and a classic car chase sequence, with Egbert taken as hostage. Dance, Girl, Dance (1940), 90 minutes, D: Dorothy Arzner An early feminist-minded film, and a critical and commercial box-office failure, from pioneering butch-lesbian Dorothy Arzner (and regarded as her best) - one of the few female Hollywood directors at the time, and featuring one of Lucille Ball's better film roles. Not to be confused with the 1933 film of the same name.

This backstage musical was taglined: "Heartbreak Behind Gayety of a Girly-Girl Show!" and pitted the two dichotomous female leads against each other - a good girl vs. bad girl representing two opposite styles of dance (burlesque and ballet). Aspiring 'serious' but poor ballerina Judy O'Brien (young Maureen O’Hara in her third Hollywood film), an Irish redhead, and her outrageous, gold-digging, ambitious friend Bubbles (Lucille Ball) were introduced as two chorus girls stranded in Akron, Ohio before they traveled separately back to New York City to find work. Bubbles (renamed "Tiger" Lily White) became a cheap burlesque stripper in a live show, while Judy struggled in dance school with her Russian dance teacher/mentor Madame Lydia Basilova (Maria Ouspenskaya). With a cruel and cutthroat gesture, Bubbles hired the desperate Judy to dance ballet immediately after her own act, knowledgeable that "stooge" Judy would be greeted with hostile jeers, boos, and laughter from the voyeuristic dirty-old-man audience, and would - of course - demand an encore by Bubbles (who only stripped to a hula skirt and bra!).

Besides an on-stage catfight, the film's most remarkable sequence was Judy's celebrated lecture-speech delivered at the climax to the males of a jeering burlesque audience who were mocking her classical dance act. Fantasia (1940) , 120 minutes, D: Ben Sharpsteen and Disney An innovative and revolutionary animated classic from Walt Disney (his third feature animation), combining classical music masterpieces with imaginative visuals, presented with conductor Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra. It was the first commercial American film to use stereophonic sound as well as the first and only film recorded in pioneering Fantasound. An updated version was created almost 60 years later, Fantasia/2000 (1999) - the first feature length animated film to be presented in IMAX, with additional animated interpretations of classical works, including Beethoven's "Symphony No. 5," Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue," Saint-Saëns' "Carnival of Animals," and Stravinsky's "The Firebird Suite." The eight animation sequences in this film, corresponding to classical music selections, were colorful, impressive, free-flowing, abstract, and often surrealistic pieces.

They included the most famous of all: Paul Dukas' "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" with Mickey Mouse (in a comeback role) as the title character - the wizard's disobedient assistant battling brooms carrying endless buckets of water. Also Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor," Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker Suite" with sugar plum fairies and dancing mushrooms, prehistoric dinosaurs and volcanoes in Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring," Beethoven's "Pastoral Symphony" with mythical Greek centaurs, cupids, and fauns, Ponchielli's delightful "Dance of the Hours" with dancing hippo ballerinas, crocodiles, ostriches, and elephants, and Mussorgsky's darkly apocalyptic "Night on Bald Mountain" with evil creatures. Foreign Correspondent (1940) , 120 minutes, D: Alfred Hitchcock A thrilling and suspenseful espionage masterpiece from Alfred Hitchcock, his second American film.

A naive American police reporter, Johnny Jones/Huntley Haverstock (Joel McCrea), the foreign correspondent of the title (loosely based upon real-life reporter Ed Murrow), was sent to Europe in 1939 just prior to World War II, to cover the unfolding story. He met peace activist Stephen Fisher (Herbert Marshall), fell for his attractive daughter Carol (Laraine Day), accidentally became involved chasing spies, and began to suspect that Fisher was part of a Nazi spy ring (masquerading as an international peace organization). Memorable scenes included the faked Amsterdam assassination scene of Dutch diplomat Van Meer (Albert Bassermann) in a crowded sea of umbrellas, the mysterious Dutch windmills (Nazi hideouts), a murder attempt in Westminster Cathedral Tower, and a spectacular trans-Atlantic ocean plane crash. The film concluded with a memorable radio speech/plea for neutrality-leaning America to join the war effort. The Grapes of Wrath (1940) , 128 minutes, D: John Ford A powerful, classic socio-dramatic masterpiece, adapted from John Steinbeck's 1939 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, reputedly with Henry Fonda's greatest film role.

It was the epic, but heartbreaking story of the perilous, Depression-Era migration of a drought-stricken, Oklahoma Dust Bowl family to the promised land of California, seeking migrant farm work during the fruit harvest. Cinematography by Gregg Toland duplicated images immortalized by documentary photographer Dorothea Lange. When they reached California, they were met with violence, prejudice, and fear, moving from one squalid campsite to the next, and being mistreated as migrant laborers. With magnificent performances of the family members who were poor but honest people struggling for dignity and a better way of life, especially the idealistic son Tom Joad (Henry Fonda) and his loving matriarchal Ma Joad (Jane Darwell) (with her famed "We're the people" monologue). The Great Dictator (1940), 127 minutes, D: Charles Chaplin Charles Chaplin's first full talking feature film in which he delivered spoken lines - a full 13 years after the advent of sound in the movies. The film was a slapstick political satire on world conditions and fascism at the start of World War II, and it was soon detested by Hitler's Third Reich.

Chaplin played a dual role: as a poor and kind, unnamed Jewish ghetto barber with amnesia, and as a Hitler look-alike, the ruthless tyrannical dictator Adenoid Hynkel of the European country of Tomania - a persecutor of Jews. The criss-crossing stories of the barber and the dictator eventually ended in a case of mistaken identities. The barber won the admiration of pretty neighbor girl Hannah (Chaplin's ex-wife Paulette Goddard). Hynkel's rival was Mussolini-like Benzino Napaloni (Jack Oakie) of the neighboring country of Bacteria. With the funny pudding-coin scene, the memorable scene of Hynkel dancing ("pas de deux") with an inflated world globe balloon to the tune of the Overture of Richard Wagner's Lohengrin, and a comedic cream-cake fight between Hynkel and Napaloni and their competition in adjoining, ascending barber chairs. The film concluded with a lengthy and impassioned humanistic monologue by the barber (impersonating Hynkel) about hope and human rights, and the end of tyranny.

The Great McGinty (1940), 81 minutes, D: Preston Sturges The classic film (aka The Biography of a Bumb) that debuted the talents of screwball comedy director and screenwriter Preston Sturges (with an Oscar-winning original script). A witty, satirical, and cynical look at corrupt American politics and society, told with a stock cast of comical characters. In flashback, a banana republic bartender, Dan McGinty (Brian Donlevy) told the story of his rise from obscurity to the state governor's mansion as the result of a crooked election and lots of dirty tricks. Starting out as a dumb and homeless hobo in Chicago, he was admired by the Boss (Akim Tamiroff), head of the political machine, for his feisty nature and for stuffing the ballot box with phony votes. By playing the game crookedly, he was appointed collector of protection money, alderman, and through charm and more appointments, became mayor and eventually governor (the Great McGinty). Along the way, when he cleaned up his act and became honest - there were reverse consequences.

He married his divorcee secretary Catherine (Muriel Angelus) - and then fell in love with her and her ready-made family of two children, developed a social conscience, and lost it all. He suffered a political demise when he tried to go straight, fight corruption and promote real reform as governor - opposed by the Boss - and had to flee the country. [Note: Brian Donlevy and Akim Tamiroff reprised their roles as Governor McGinty and The Boss in Preston Sturges' The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944).] His Girl Friday (1940) , 91 minutes, D: Howard Hawks One of the earliest and best of Howard Hawks' madcap comedies with fast pacing, whirlwind, rapid-fire dialogue, and sped-up action. Remade as director Billy Wilder's The Front Page (1974) with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, and as director Ted Kotcheff's Switching Channels (1988) within a television news environment.

A funny and witty remake of the 1929 Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur stage play hit The Front Page (and the subsequent The Front Page (1931)), but switching gender roles so that the reporter was played by a woman. Newspaper reporter Hildy Johnson (Rosalind Russell) wanted to leave the paper, find a more domestic and less frantic life style, and marry a mild-mannered, stuffy mama's boy insurance agent Bruce Baldwin (Ralph Bellamy). But her suave, scheming newspaper editor Walter Burns (Cary Grant), her ex-husband, wanted to keep his star reporter. When a hot-breaking escaped convict/manhunt story developed and she was called upon to cover the story and write the front-page headline scoop, he attempted to win her back in a battle of the sexes. Kitty Foyle (1940), 105 minutes, D: Sam Wood RKO's acclaimed romantic melodrama (a classic "chick flick"), subtitled "The Natural History of a Woman," featured dancer Ginger Rogers in her first serious acting role in one of the best "women's pictures" of the 40s.

A touching and poignant love story/soap opera, told mostly in flashback. Adapted from a screenplay, based on Christopher Morley's popular novel (which contained more racy material, including explicit sexuality and an abortion). An ambitious, attractive white-collar working girl-secretary, Kitty Foyle (Best Actress-winning Ginger Rogers) found herself in a love triangle with a noble, but poor, idealistic and struggling doctor Mark Eisen (James Craig), and her wealthy, still-married philandering ex-husband, rich Philadelphia socialite Wynnewood 'Wyn' Strafford VI (Dennis Morgan) whom she was strangely drawn to. Her reflections on her choice of beaux (wealth vs. poverty) were told through flashback. The film also used a technique of a 'mirror-image' conscience to show two sides of Kitty's personality (the rational vs. the emotional and impulsive) during her dilemma. Caught in a difficult love triangle, she had to choose in the final scene: (1) should she go with Wyn who was on the dock ready to sail for South America?, or (2) should she join Mark at the hospital?

She decided to marry Mark after she said to herself: "You're no longer a little girl, you're a grown woman now." She left a note with the doorman regarding her choice of life's path: ("...I'm going to be married tonight -- (to taxi driver: "St. Timothy's Hospital")). Knute Rockne All American (1940) , 96 minutes, D: Lloyd Bacon A sentimental, inspirational sports biography-drama of Notre Dame's legendary and dedicated football coach, who became known for rousing pep talks to his players, exhorting them to greatness. One of the best sports movies of all-time. The film began with Knute Rockne's (Pat O'Brien) boyhood, his schooling and football days at Notre Dame, graduation, marriage to Bonnie Skiles (Gale Page), and the start of his coaching career for the Fighting Irish.

The film contained actual newsreel footage of Notre Dame football games, and was most-remembered for Rockne's stirring words to his team during half-time in a game against Army to "go out there with all they got and win just one for the Gipper" - to play in memory of superb ND grid-iron half-back player George Gipp (Ronald Reagan) who died at the early age of 25 from a "disease" - pneumonia (and complications from strep throat). The film concluded with the tragic plane crash in 1931 that took 43 year-old Rockne's life, and his funeral with a eulogy by university president, Father Callahan (Donald Crisp). The Letter (1940) , 95 minutes, D: William Wyler A superb melodrama from Warner Bros., adapted from the W. Somerset Maugham play. The story was filmed once before as the silent The Letter (1929) with Jeanne Eagels, and remade as The Unfaithful (1947), starring Ann Sheridan. Director Wyler was again paired with Bette Davis, after their success with Jezebel (1938).

On the grounds of a Malayan rubber plantation one evening, bored and restless wife Leslie Crosbie (Bette Davis) shot and point-blank killed old family friend Geoffrey Hammond (David Newell) on the porch and front steps of her home with her husband's gun - in the striking opening scene. She explained to her husband Robert (Herbert Marshall) (who was away on business at the time of the murder) and their hired respected lawyer Howard Joyce (James Stephenson), with cold calculation and manipulation, that it was self-defense to protect her honor. Her husband faithfully believed her. She claimed that Hammond, who was married to an Eurasian - Mrs. Hammond (Gale Sondergaard), had tried to rape her. She was to stand trial in Singapore for murder. [Note: In fact, she killed him because as her lover, he threatened to leave her to take another partner.] During the proceedings, clerk Ong Chi Seng (Victor Sen Yung) presented Joyce with a copy of an incriminating letter written from Leslie to Geoffrey on the day of the shooting, desperately asking to see him.

The letter was in the possession of Hammond's widow, who blackmailed them by offering to sell it for $10,000 (Robert's savings). Leslie tearfully admitted her affair with Hammond. The letter had to be retrieved personally in a dramatic scene. During the subsequent court trial, Leslie was found innocent of murder charges, because the incriminating evidence wasn't produced. Stephenson told the jury it was "a simple, uncomplicated case" - after she again claimed she shot Hammond in self-defense. However, on the night of the acquittal, Leslie suffered a fateful retribution in the conclusion, when she was knifed in the dark by Mrs. Hammond. According to the Hays Code, she had to pay and be punished for her indiscretion. The Long Voyage Home (1940), 105 minutes, D: John Ford Adapted from four short, one-act plays by Eugene O'Neill that were condensed into one screenplay. This was Ford's first war film - and first WWII film (he later directed They Were Expendable (1945)). Set in pre-World War II year of 1939.

In a series of vignettes, the gripping film took a look at the lives and loves, hopes, dreams, and comradeship of working-class Merchant Marine seamen. Their British freighter, the S.S. Glencairn, was transporting dynamite in a dangerous mission-convoy from America to England, and was threatened by bad weather at sea, German U-boats and strafing plane attacks, the death of beloved crew member Yank (Ward Bond), and suspicions of treason against Smitty (Ian Hunter), one of the sailors. With effective performances by John Wayne as young Swedish sailor and farm-boy Ole Olsen returning home to his mother's farm-home, and Thomas Mitchell as fellow seamate Aloysius Driscoll. Included atmospheric, high-contrast, black and white cinematography by the famous Gregg Toland.

An epilogue ended the film: "So men like Ole come and go, and the Driscolls live and die, and the Yanks and Smittys leave their memories - but for the others the Long Voyage never ends." The Mark of Zorro (1940), 93 minutes, D: Rouben Mamoulian A swashbuckling adventure story from 20th Century Fox, a remake of the 1920 silent classic with Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. - capitalizing on the adventure tale craze following the success of The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). Also the Zorro tale was made into Republic Pictures serials (for example, Zorro Rides Again (1937) and Zorro's Fighting Legion (1939)), a late 1950s TV series (by Walt Disney) starring Guy Williams, and later The Mask of Zorro (1998) with Antonio Banderas. Cavalry officer Diego de Vega (Tyrone Power), the son of an early 19th century California aristocrat Don Alejandro Vega (Montagu Love), returned home after an education in Spain.

He found power had been usurped from his father by corrupt oppressors led by Don Luis Quintero (J. Edward Bromberg) and his tax-collecting henchman led by Capt. Esteban Pasquale (Basil Rathbone). Pasquale was also having an affair with Quintero's greedy wife Inez (Gale Sondergaard). By day, nobleman-aristocrat Diego was considered a carefree and harmless fop, but at night he donned a black outfit, a mask and a sword, and rode to avenge the tyrants, carving the letter Z signifying his name: Zorro. The film included some of the best dueling scenes in cinematic history, between Zorro and Capt. Pasquale. In the end, the cruel regime was overthrown, and Zorro's father was reinstated as governor or Alcalde (leader of the community). Zorro's love interest was provided by Quintero's pretty daughter Lolita (Linda Darnell). The Mortal Storm (1940), 100 minutes, D: Frank Borzage A propagandistic MGM melodrama that was a flop at the box-office.

It was based upon Phyllis Bottome's best-selling, pre-war 1938 novel, about ideological differences dividing up a family. The strong anti-fascist and anti-Semite message of the anti-Nazi film (one of the first Hollywood films of its kind, released a few months before Chaplin’s The Great Dictator) caused it to be banned by the Aryan supremacist Nazis in Germany, led by Hitler's propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. It told about the "non-Aryan" (or Jewish) Roth family living idyllically and peacefully in the early 1930s in a small fictional Alpine village in Southern Germany - and the repercussions after Adolf Hitler came to power as Chancellor in the Third Reich in 1933 and Nazism slowly pervaded the country. The family was led by outspoken, respected 60 year-old teacher of biology Viktor Roth (Frank Morgan) at a Bavarian educational institution.

Pretty daughter Freya Roth (Margaret Sullavan) was courted by young fascist Fritz Marberg (Robert Young), one of her father's students, but then rejected him in favor of more sensitive rival Martin Brietner (James Stewart), a long-time family friend, and Roth's protege as a pacifist veterinary student. Two Roth stepsons, Otto (Robert Stack) and Erich (William T. Orr), both supported the rise of Hitler and the Hitler Youth Organization, causing more friction and a rift in the family. When Professor Roth opposed the Nazi doctrines about racial segregation and a master race of Aryans, he was removed from his position, arrested and sent to a concentration camp, where he died under mysterious circumstances. In the grim conclusion, Martin aided Freya in an attempt to escape from Germany by crossing the border into Austria - by skiing through an Austrian Alps pass, where they were spotted by a Nazi platoon patrol led by Fritz. Although they were able to cross the border successfully, Freya was mortally wounded and died in Martin's arms.

My Favorite Wife (1940), 88 minutes, D: Garson Kanin One of the classic marital screwball comedies of all time - an attempt to repeat the success of director Leo McCarey's The Awful Truth (1937) (featuring the same two stars and producer McCarey). It was the second of three films which paired Cary Grant and Irene Dunne, followed by Penny Serenade (1941). It was to be remade as Something’s Gotta Give (1962) with Marilyn Monroe (who died before completion), and officially remade as Move Over, Darling (1963) with Doris Day and James Garner. Taglined: "The funniest, fastest honeymoon ever screened!" with all the characteristics of screwball comedy - fast paced dialogue, absurd and wacky circumstances, and some slapstick. Ellen Arden (Irene Dunne), the wife of a young attorney was shipwrecked on a South Seas voyage during a typhoon and presumed lost. In reality, she was alive, marooned on a desert island with another survivor, a handsome young scientist Stephen Burkett (Randolph Scott).

Declared legally dead after seven years, she happened to arrive back on the day of her husband Nick Arden's (Cary Grant) remarriage to Bianca (Gail Patrick) and their honeymoon night. He was stunned by her reappearance - what was he to do, and what about the other man who may have compromised her? Our Town (1940), 90 minutes, D: Sam Wood An innovative film presentation of Thornton Wilder's 1938 Pulitzer Prize-winning play, a much-loved classic, dramatic story of human life, love, tragedy and conflict, set in the simple, small New England town of Grover's Corners, New Hampshire. The story was told in three sequences depicting the years before WWI (1901, 1904, and 1913). With a great musical score by composer Aaron Copland, and production design by William Cameron Menzies. In contrast to the play that was performed without scenery and only a few props, the film included realistic scenery. The film was given down-home commentary by the omniscient Narrator or Stage Manager, drugstore owner Mr.

Morgan (Frank Craven), who profiled the lives of the town's residents. It centered around young teenaged Emily Webb (Martha Scott), the hard-working daughter of the town's newspaper editor Mr. Webb (Guy Kibbee), who fell in love with high-school student George Gibbs (William Holden), son of the local doctor, Dr. Gibbs (Thomas Mitchell). They courted each other over a period of time and eventually married , but she was lost during childbirth for her second child. In a ghostly afterlife existence, Emily was given special permission to go back and re-live just one day of her life - the day of her 16th birthday (her 12th birthday in the play), and learned how little the quiet, everyday, fleeting moments of life were precious - and under-appreciated. In the twist ending epilogue (a severe modification from the play's original downbeat ending), Emily woke up from the temporary coma resulting from childbirth - and realized the film's third episode was just a dream. The Philadelphia Story (1940) , 112 minutes, D: George Cukor A classic romantic comedy, a witty adaptation of Phillip Barry's Broadway hit.

Hepburn financed the play (with financial help from Howard Hughes) that she starred in (with Joseph Cotten and Van Heflin) in 1939-1940, then picked the director, screenwriter, and other co-stars for the movie. Remade as a musical, High Society (1956) with Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby. Set among the upper class society in Philadelphia, a spoiled, wealthy heiress, Tracy Lord (Katharine Hepburn) was about to be married to a stuffy executive, millionaire George Kittredge (John Howard). She divorced her dashing first husband C. K. Dexter Haven (Cary Grant) because he drank excessively and was irresponsible. He still loved her and showed up in attendance. So did Spy Magazine's tabloid reporter Macauley "Mike" Connor (Best Actor-winning James Stewart) and a photographer. Dexter was there to prevent them from publishing a scandalous expose about the womanizing reputation of Tracy's father Seth (John Halliday), his ex-in-law. Things got complicated when the inquisitive, cynical Connor fell in love with Tracy and taught her what love was.

Pinocchio (1940) , 87 minutes, D: Ben Sharpsteen and Hamilton Luske and Disney Walt Disney's second full-length animated feature film, a brilliant classic based on the story by Collodi, was a masterful, animated achievement. Released the same year as Disney's Fantasia (1940). The tale was told by a chirpy cricket named Jiminy Cricket (voice of Cliff Edwards), who served as the narrator and guiding conscience of the story. The plot was about a lonely, poor, toy shop woodcutter Geppetto (voice of Christian Rub) who created an inquisitive marionette wooden boy named Pinocchio (voice of Dick Jones). His wish that Pinocchio would become a real boy (earlier, Jiminy had sung Oscar-winning Best Song "When You Wish Upon a Star") was made true by a blue fairy, although the boy was still made of wood. If he proved himself to be brave and unselfish (challenged by life's coming-of-age dangers), he would be changed into a real flesh-and-blood boy. Pinocchio quickly ran afoul by associating with bad company, including the unforgettable characters of two devious crooks (J.

Worthington Foulfellow (a fox) and a cat), the evil stage showman/puppet master Stromboli, and influential juvenile delinquent Lampwick on Pleasure Island where temptations were everywhere. With some truly frightening sequences, including Lampwick's transformation into a donkey, and scary Monstro the whale. Pride and Prejudice (1940), 117 minutes, D: Robert Z. Leonard Adapted from Jane Austen's novel, with a screenplay partially written by author Aldous Huxley. This MGM film was a dramatic, witty comedy of manners and morals. Remade many times, especially Joe Wright's Pride & Prejudice (2005) with Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen. Early 19th century English (pre-Victorian) parents, the Bennets (Edmund Gwenn and Mary Boland) were looking to marry off their five eligible daughters - opinionated Elizabeth (Greer Garson), lovely and gentle Jane (Maureen O'Sullivan), Lydia (Ann Rutherford), Kitty (Heather Angel), and Mary (Marsha Hunt). Fortunes looked favorable when some eligible young men stayed at a neighboring country house.

Each girl had her own peculiarities - flirtatious, silly, serious, bookish, plain, lovely, and gentle. A difficult, contrary romance developed between arrogant but handsome Mr. Darcy (Laurence Olivier) and the overly spirited, and independent Miss Elizabeth. At first, she rejected him for his prideful nature, then changed her mind and admitted her own pride hindered their relationship. Rebecca (1940) , 130 minutes, D: Alfred Hitchcock Adapted from British writer Daphne du Maurier's 1938 novel of gothic romance and mystery, a compelling and intriguing romance-mystery with intense psychological suspense. This was Alfred Hitchcock's debut American film - a winning Best Picture. Following a rapid courtship, a shy, naive young woman became the second Mrs. de Winter (Joan Fontaine) by marrying a dashing, but brooding British nobleman 'Maxim' de Winter (Laurence Olivier). The new wife was taken to live at his huge Manderley mansion-estate, where she was haunted by the memory and shadow of her husband's beautiful first wife, Rebecca, who died under mysterious circumstances. The icy-cold, creepy housekeeper Mrs.

Danvers (Judith Anderson) taunted and frightened her, as did the other servants, while she heard about how adored the dead woman remained. The untold secrets of the past were slowly unraveled, when the remnants of Rebecca's intentionally-sunken boat wash ashore, and Mr. de Winter confessed that Rebecca tormented him. The ending revealed important findings: (1) Rebecca was not pregnant with another man's child, but terminally ill with cancer, (2) Rebecca intended to goad Maxim into killing her, (3) When Maxim wouldn't kill her as she wished, she planned to commit suicide, but fell and hit her head on some boat tackle in the beach house. (4) Maxim covered up her accidental death by putting her in a boat and deliberately sinking it. The second Mrs. de Winter was finally free from her fear and uneasiness when Mrs. Danvers suicidally burned down the estate - and consumed (literally) the haunting memories of the past. Santa Fe Trail (1940), 110 minutes, D: Michael Curtiz An action-filled, but historically-inaccurate adventure tale from WB Studios, a misnamed Western.

This was the seventh of nine movies co-starring the romantic coupling of Olivia de Havilland and Errol Flynn. The film followed the military life of the future great Confederate general, Virginian Jeb Stuart (Errol Flynn). He began his military career as a West Point student, where he had a strong friendship with George Armstrong Custer (Ronald Reagan) (completely inaccurate historically), and other future military leaders. There, a rival cadet Rader (Van Heflin), who supported fanatical abolitionist activities, was dismissed for agitation - their paths would cross again later. Cavalry officer Jeb was assigned to a Kansas post (Ft. Leavenworth) with other Point graduates, to keep the peace (due to a war over whether Kansas would be slave or free) and quell any uprisings. On the train to Kansas, Stuart met and began a romance with 'Kit Carson' Holliday (Olivia de Havilland), whom he would eventually marry. The film ended with Stuart capturing fanatical abolitionist John Brown (Raymond Massey) at Harper's Ferry arsenal at the Maryland-Virginia border, leading to lunatic agitator's hanging.

The Sea Hawk (1940), 109 minutes, D: Michael Curtiz An exciting and spirited swashbuckler (with great swordplay and sea battles), one of the best of its kind, adapted from the 1915 novel by Rafael Sabatini. [Note: Sabatini was also the author of the 1921 novel Scaramouche which was made into an MGM film in 1952 with Stewart Granger).] With a tremendous score by Erich Wolfgang Korngold. This film reprisal solidified the image of star Errol Flynn as a dashing action character (after his appearance in Michael Curtiz' earlier film Captain Blood (1935), also from another Sabatini novel written in 1922). Set in the 16th century, Queen Elizabeth I of England (Flora Robson) suspected that Spanish King Phillip II (Montagu Love) and his crafty ambassador Don José Alvarez de Cordoba (Claude Rains) were planning to spread their influence over the continent. The Spaniards were getting ready to launch a naval attack with their armada against England.

The Queen secretly commissioned swashbuckling privateer, British sea captain Geoffrey Thorpe (Errol Flynn), "the Sea Hawk," to raid Spanish settlements and ships. While threatening the Spanish, the beautiful daughter of the ambassador Doña Maria (Brenda Marshall) fell in love with buccaneer pirate Thorpe. He and his crew were ambushed and imprisoned by Spanish forces. With Maria's aid, he escaped slavery aboard a Spanish galleon slave ship, and helped alert the Queen to the impending Armada attack. The Shop Around the Corner (1940), 97 minutes, D: Ernst Lubitsch A brilliant and charming romantic comedy about everyday people in a "shop around the corner," with all the right elements (deception and mistaken identities in a love-hate relationship) to create the right "Lubitsch touch." Remade as a musical, In the Good Old Summertime (1949) with Judy Garland and Van Johnson, as the 1963 Broadway play She Loves Me that was also a BBC-TV movie in 1978, as well as the updated You've Got Mail (1998) with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.

A Budapest notions/gift shop head sales clerk, bookish bachelor Alfred Kralik (James Stewart) and newly-hired shopgirl Klara Novak (Margaret Sullavan) mutually disliked each other and bickered constantly. They were unaware that they were each other's anonymous pen pals writing each other very literate correspondence. On paper, they were romantically compatible, and corresponded with affectionate "lonely-hearts" letters. On the same night that the two pen pals agreed to meet, Alfred was fired by his employer Hugo Matuschek (Frank Morgan), wrongly suspected of having an affair with his wife. Alfred sought solace with his pen-pal sweetheart in a cafe, in a memorable sequence, but didn't reveal his identity to her as pen-pal until later, stringing her along. In the end, Alfred was rehired, and he finally revealed his identity to Klara. The Thief of Bagdad (1940, UK), 106 minutes, D: Ludwig Berger, Michael Powell and Tim Whelan, produced by Alexander Korda Subtitled: An Arabian Fantasy.

A remake of the magical 1924 silent film, and remade as The Thief of Bagdad (1961, It.) with Steve Reeves. Disney’s animated Aladdin (1992) heavily borrowed from this version. One of the best, most enchanting fantasies ever made - with an Arabian Nights theme, including spectacular special effects (a mechanical horse, a huge spider, an All-Seeing Eye (ruby jewel), the 6-armed Silver Maid statue, etc.), amazing Technicolor photography, a memorable musical score, and wonderful performances. The film's story began, in flashback, told by an elderly and deposed blind King Ahmad (John Justin) of the city of Bagdad, now a beggar. He explained how he was tricked out of his kingdom by an oppressive, evil magician-sorcerer named Jaffar (Conrad Veidt), his treacherous Grand Vizier. A mischievous young urchin named Abu (Sabu), who was thrown in a dungeon for theft, helped the good-hearted, prince Ahmad escape. In the city of Basra, he fell in love (at first sight) with the sultan's daughter, the Princess (June Duprez).

Unfortunately, the two were captured - Ahmad was blinded, while Abu was magically turned into Ahmad's seeing-eye dog by a black magician. The two were promised they would be restored if they rescued the Princess. In the end, they save Ahmad's kingdom and throne and his love. Abu and Ahmad were helped by a giant yet jovial genie Djinni (Rex Ingram) who emerged in black smoke from a bottle, and a magical flying carpet. Waterloo Bridge (1940), 109 minutes, D: Mervyn LeRoy A classic, sentimental, romantic tearjerker, Vivien Leigh's first film following her success in Gone With The Wind (1939). Middle-aged British colonel Roy Cronin (Robert Taylor) paced on the famous Waterloo Bridge in the city of London during World War II, and in flashback, remembered when he was a handsome Army Captain ready to depart for the trenches in World War I. He fell in love with naive young ballerina Myra Lester (Vivien Leigh), but was called off to war and their plans to wed were postponed. Bidding him farewell at the Waterloo train station, she abandoned her dance performance and was fired from the ballet company.

Desperate, Myra soon descended into poverty, became destitute, and turned to prostitution, walking the Waterloo Bridge for clients. She falsely learned that Roy had been killed in the war, but in a memorable scene, accidentally mt him when he returned, while she was soliciting business from returning soldiers. During their reunion, Myra didn't reveal her occupation to him. They renewed their romance and lives, but she became distraught and suicidal, feeling degraded by her indiscretions and deception, and fearing that her secrets would resurface and prevent them from marrying. In the downbeat conclusion, Myra walked in front of a truck. The Westerner (1940), 100 minutes, D: William Wyler An entertaining western saga, with Walter Brennan (who won a record-setting third Academy Award for his supporting role) and Gary Cooper. The story was told in the era of vicious range wars between cattlemen and homesteaders in the post-Civil War period. Included an impressive Gregg Toland-filmed prairie fire sequence.

Drifter cowboy and saddle tramp Cole Hardin (Gary Cooper), on his way through Texas to California, rode into a town (named Langtry) run by notorious, self-appointed, despotic hanging Judge Roy Bean (Walter Brennan), who called himself "the Law west of the Pecos." Hardin was falsely accused of stealing a horse after buying a horse from a horse thief and was taken before the infamous justice of the peace for a mock trial, and sentenced to hang. He talked his way out of being hanged by convincing the judge of his friendship with the judge's obsessive idol, English stage star Lily Langtry (Lilian Bond). Later, he gave the judge a lock of her hair, convincing him it was real. Hardin ended up defending homesteaders on the opposite side from the judge in a bloody and violent range war and land dispute. In the final showdown scene, Hardin confronted the judge in a gas-lit opera theatre in Ft. Davis, Texas with guns drawn before a Langtry performance.

High Society, Grace Kelly’s last film, opens - Jul 17, 1956 - HISTORY.com High Society, Grace Kelly’s last film, opens Share this: High Society, Grace Kelly’s last film, opens Author High Society, Grace Kelly’s last film, opens URL Publisher A+E Networks On this day in 1956, the movie-musical High Society, starring Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly and Frank Sinatra, opens in theaters around the United States. The film’s tag line–”They’re all together for the first time”–referenced High Society’s all-star cast. High Society marked the last feature film Grace Kelly made before marrying Prince Rainier of Monaco and retiring from acting. High Society, which also featured the musician Louis Armstrong playing himself, was nominated for two Oscars, including Best Song, for Cole Porter’s “True Love.” High Society was a musical remake of 1940’s Philadelphia Story, which starred Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn and Jimmy Stewart. In High Society, Crosby played C.K. Dexter-Haven, a rich man trying to win back his spoiled ex-wife Tracy Lord (Kelly), who is attracted to Mike Connor (Sinatra) but engaged to marry another man.

Grace Kelly, born in 1929, became a movie star in the 1950s with such films as Dial M for Murder (1954), Rear Window (1954), The Country Girl (1954), for which she won a Best Actress Academy Award, and To Catch a Thief (1955). On April 19, 1956, Kelly married Prince Rainier, whom she met in 1955 at the Cannes Film Festival, and never acted in movies again. In 1982, Princess Grace died at age 52 in a car accident. Sinatra, born in 1915, rose to fame as a singer in the 1940s. He won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for From Here to Eternity (1953) and was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for The Man with the Golden Arm (1955).

Along with High Society, Sinatra starred in movie musicals Guys and Dolls (1955) and Pal Joey (1957) and played Danny Ocean in Ocean’s Eleven (1960), a role that went to George Clooney in the 2001 remake of the same name. Sinatra died in 1998 at age 82. Crosby, born in 1903, began his music career in the 1920s. As an actor, he starred in the hugely successful White Christmas (1954), won a Best Actor Oscar for Going My Way (1944), was nominated for Oscars for his performances in The Bells of St. Mary’s (1945) and The Country Girl, and co-starred in seven popular “Road” movies with Bob Hope between 1940 and 1962. Crosby died at age 74 in 1977. Related Videos High Society (1956) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later.

X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error C.K. Dexter-Haven, a successful popular jazz musician, lives in a mansion near his ex-wife's Tracy Lord's family estate. She is on the verge of marrying a man blander and safer than Dex, ... See full summary » Director: From $2.00 (SD) on Amazon Video ON DISC Enter if you dare Related News a list of 30 titles created 05 Feb 2013 a list of 33 titles created 18 Jun 2013 a list of 21 titles created 22 Sep 2013 a list of 27 titles created 27 Apr 2015 a list of 26 titles created 3 days ago Search for " High Society " on Amazon.com Connect with IMDb Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 1 nomination.

See more awards » Photos A director hires an alcoholic has-been and strikes up a stormy relationship with the actor's wife, who he believes is the cause of all the man's problems. Director: George Seaton Three sailors on a day of shore leave in New York City look for fun and romance before their twenty-four hours are up. Directors: Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly Stars: Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Betty Garrett Princess Beatrice's days of enjoying the regal life are numbered unless her only daughter, Princess Alexandra, makes a good impression on a distant cousin when he pays a surprise visit to ... See full summary » Director: Charles Vidor On a Kenyan safari, white hunter Victor Marswell has a love triangle with seductive American socialite Eloise Kelly and anthropologist Donald Nordley's cheating wife Linda. Director: John Ford When a rich woman's ex-husband and a tabloid-type reporter turn up just before her planned remarriage, she begins to learn the truth about herself. Director: George Cukor When a reformed jewel thief is suspected of returning to his former occupation, he must ferret out the real thief in order to prove his innocence.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock Two sailors, one naive, the other experienced in the ways of the world, on liberty in Los Angeles, is the setting for this movie musical. Director: George Sidney In Colombia, mining engineer Rian Mitchell discovers Carrero, the lost emerald mine of the Conquistadors, but has to contend with notorious local bandit El Moro's gang and with coffee planter Catherine Knowland's love. Director: Andrew Marton In New York, a gambler is challenged to take a cold female missionary to Havana, but they fall for each other, and the bet has a hidden motive to finance a crap game. Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz Joey Evans is charming, handsome, funny, talented, and a first class, A-number-one heel. When Joey meets the former chorus girl ("She used to be 'Vera...with the Vanishing Veils'") and now ... See full summary » Director: George Sidney Charlie Reader is a successful theater agent. He is also successful with young ladies. One day he is visited by his old friend Joe, married with three children. Joe falls in love with ...

See full summary » Director: Charles Walters The Wolves baseball team gets steamed when they find they've been inherited by one K.C. Higgins, a suspected "fathead" who intends to take an active interest in running the team. But K.C. ... See full summary » Director: Busby Berkeley Edit Storyline C.K. Dexter-Haven, a successful popular jazz musician, lives in a mansion near his ex-wife's Tracy Lord's family estate. She is on the verge of marrying a man blander and safer than Dex, who tries to win Tracy's heart again. Mike Connor, an undercover tabloid reporter, also falls for Tracy while covering the nuptials for Spy magazine. Tracy must choose between the three men as she discovers that "safe" can mean "deadly dull" when it comes to husbands and life. Written by James Meek <james@oz.net> Bing! Grace! Frank! Satchmo! See more » Genres: 17 July 1956 (USA) See more » Also Known As: Perspecta Stereo (as Perspecta Sound®) (Westrex Recording System) Color: Did You Know? Trivia The musical based on the movie was performed at the St.

James Theater (New York City) opening on April 27, 1998 and ran for 144 performances. See more » Goofs During the singing of "Did You ever" by Dexter and Mike in the bar in the library, they pick up the wrong champagne glasses after Dexter has topped them up. See more » Quotes Dexter : [hits Mike, turns to George] She's not your wife yet and she *was* mine you know. [George stalks off, Dexter turns to Mike] Dexter : Thought I'd better get in first, he's in much better shape.

Mind If I Make Love To You (uncredited) (Mexico) – See all my reviews "High Society" unites the unbeatable talents of three legendary stars Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and Louis Armstrong with the beautiful and talented Grace Kelly in her final role before she becomes the loving Princess of Monaco Spoiled Tracy (Kelly) is about to marry a boring businessman John Lund, but on the eve of her nuptials, her ex-husband Crosby, who still calls her Sam, returns to try and put a stop to the wedding On hand to cover her upcoming nuptials for a spy magazine are journalists Celeste Holm) and Sinatra, with the greatest American jazz musician Louis Armstrong providing with Crosby a musical jazz called "Now You Has Jazz." Armstrong opens the film from the back of the blue bus shared with his band, with a calypso song, while the classic "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" is lively sung by Sinatra and Holm alone in a big room filled with Kelly's many extravagant wedding gifts Kelly is lovely as the refined woman flirting with three men In scenes that required the softening of her unyielding nature, she seems so reserved and cold in manner Sinatra sings to her "You're Sensational" and "Mind if

 I Make Love to You?

Crosby sings "True Love." 28 of 37 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes View All Critic Reviews (15) Audience Reviews for High Society It's often the case that when 'serious' films with 'proper' stories are turned into musicals, they lose whatever substance or intelligence they had the first time round. It's an idea that can be supported by any number of musicals which have emerged in the early-21st century: musical versions of Shrek, Legally Blonde and Monty Python and the Holy Grail seem symptomatic of our culture's desperate need to recycle itself into more escapist, empty and fleeting forms. The best thing to do at this juncture would be to pull out an effort from the 1950s, the golden age of Hollywood musicals, as an example that this trend has, at the very least, not always been the case. Unfortunately, this is not possible with High Society, one of the highest-grossing films of 1956. Charles Walters' remake of The Philadelphia Story successfully removes whatever substance or comic charm existed before. It still has some qualities of its own, but is ultimately a poor relation.

The first question is this: was a remake entirely necessary, beyond the obvious financial motivation? The remake doesn't really add anything new to the storyline, or put a new spin on the material by updating it. It doesn't even solve the central contrivance of the original, surrounding an ex-husband turning up at the wedding of his ex-wife, coinciding with the arrival of tabloid reporters. The original was notable for using this obvious plot device to get around the Hays Code, which prohibited the depiction of extra-marital affairs on screen. Without this context, High Society is exposed as a confection - there is no sensible reason for these characters to be interacting in this way. It is possible to make a melodrama in which a woman has to choose between two or more paths in her life, symbolised by a couple of love interests. The most obvious example would be The Red Shoes, in which a ballet dancer has to choose between the artistic fulfilment of her director and the earthy compassion of her boyfriend composer. But equally you could point to the work of Douglas Sirk, particularly All That Heaven Allows, which served as the main inspiration for Todd Haynes' superb Far From Heaven ten years ago.

The big problem with High Society is that there is no subtext to anchor the central relationship. It's not that we need there to be subtext to enjoy the characters; the main theme of The Red Shoes isn't really brought to our attention until the climactic last twenty minutes. But when you have a cast of so many famous faces, we need something to believe that we aren't just watching a lot of stars enjoying themselves with no regard for the plot. There isn't the same level of contempt that is shown in The Millionairess, but the longer we spend in the company of Bing, Frank and Princess Grace, the less memorable the experience becomes. Because the film is populated by famous people effectively playing themselves, we don't really believe in or care about any of the characters. The film quickly descends into a series of scenes of rich people either moaning, dancing, expressing regret or making fools of themselves. The natural charisma of Sinatra and Crosby, coupled with their obvious singing talent, means that we don't get quite so annoyed that we want to leave. But charm and affection in and of themselves are not enough to sustain what is already a rather frothy story.

The only exception to this is the character of Caroline, Sam's younger sister played with great panache by child actor Lydia Reed. There is a real energy to her performance which is really lacking elsewhere, and she only gets 5 minutes of screen time at the beginning and end. The lack of empathy we have for the characters is reinforced by the stagey direction. Walters began his career as a choreographer, and he does appear to be more interested in the dancing than anything else. The sets he uses on the film feature lots of big, open rooms with all the furniture spread out so that the cast can dance around them, and he relies too greatly on wide shots to capture the movement of the characters. The only close-ups we get, showing the characters' emotional shifts, are when the characters are standing still having drinks or gossiping in corners. The opening five minutes reinforce the stagey nature of the film: before the opening credits we get a fairly long overture with just a blue title card for company. In defence of Walters, these kinds of conventions were present throughout 1950s Hollywood, and were down as much to the actors' preferences as those of the director.

Many of the greatest stars of Hollywood musicals came from the stage, where performances were done 'in one take' and the show could not be stopped if any mistakes were made, lest the suspension of disbelief be broken. Gene Kelly famously insisted on restarting a dance routine from scratch whenever he made a mistake in any film he made. It may simply be that Walters was not as talented as someone like Michael Powell, either as a director or as an editor. There are also a couple of redeeming features which prevent High Society from being entirely consigned to the dustbin of history. The musical score is pretty decent, providing a number of vaguely memorable set-pieces for the main stars. The film features Cole Porter's first film score in eight years, and a fair portion of the master's wit remains. 'What A Swell Party This Is' is a very fine duet, and a fitting way for two legends (Crosby and Sinatra) to cement their first screen appearance together. And 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?' is well-staged with inventive use of props for comic effect. Any film which features Louis Armstrong can't be all that bad, and High Society benefits greatly from his presence.

From our first encounter with his band, performing 'High Society Calypso' in the back of a bus, he lights up the screen whatever he's doing, and his jazz numbers with Crosby are very fine indeed. Armstrong and his band serve as a musical counterpart to the journalists, being vaguely impressed with the living standards of the idle rich, but also quick to roll their eyes at all their outlandishness and eccentricities. The other redeeming factor for High Society is the odd moments of whimsy which punctuate the early stages, and which seem to have escaped from a completely different film. In one scene about 20 minutes in, Sinatra and his co-star Celeste Horn are greeted by the family for the first time. But instead of it being an awkward introduction, with Grace Kelly suppressing her fury at the tabloids covering her wedding, Sam and Caroline attempt to throw the reporters off the scent by pretending to be French. It's a really odd scene, coming across as a whimsical predecessor to the domestic mind-games of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. But although this little moment is rather fun, it hints more than ever at the central problem with High Society.

Somewhere in amongst the bright colours, swirling dresses, cocktails and camera shutters, there is a smarter, weightier, more ambitious and more entertaining film trying to get out. The flaws with High Society demonstrate all the values of The Philadelphia Story as a piece of drama, showing how all the qualities of both the play and original film have been watered down and bowdlerised by Hollywood convention. High Society is the very definition of tosh. It is riddled with flaws left, right and centre, but the flaws are not quite bad enough to get seriously annoyed about. Neither wholly bad nor perfectly passible, it is a bland, flimsy meringue of a film; without either the comic timing or cinematic quality of the original, it just sits on the screen for 111 minutes doing nothing in particular. Whatever the merits of individual scenes or songs, as a whole it really disappoints, leaving the traditionalists longing for the original and the radicals dying for the David Lynch version, otherwise known as Eraserhead. Daniel Mumby Philadelphia Story (The) | Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia Library of Congress New York-based playwright Philip Barry wrote The Philadelphia Story in 1939.

He based the leading lady, Tracy Lord, on Philadelphia socialite Helen Hope Montgomery Scott. Lord married the heir to the Pennsylvania Railroad fortune, Edgar Scott, whom Barry knew. Barry had his friend, actress Katharine Hepburn, in mind to play the character. Though Hepburn's early career was successful, including an appearance as Jo in the 1933 film adaption of Little Women, she later starred in a string of box office flops. The success of The Philadelphia Story is credited with reviving her flagging career. Library of Congress James Stewart won an Academy Award for Best Actor for the 1940 film adaption of The Philadelphia Story, the one time he received the award out of five nominations. Stewart portrayed Macaulay “Mike” Conner, a fast-talking and invasive newspaper reporter and one of the three love interests of Katharine Hepburn's Tracy Lord character. Stewart was born in Indiana, Pennsylvania, and made his film debut in 1935's The Murder Man. He remained prolific in the film industry, starring in a number of widely successful films until 1941, when he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps.

When World War II ended, Stewart returned to his acting career with arguably his most famous film, Frank Capra's 1946 drama It's a Wonderful Life. He remained active in theater and film until 1991. Library of Congress The Philadelphia Story was deemed “un-revivable” by some critics. Nonetheless, it was successfully revived a number of times, including a 1980 run at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York. The center, constructed between 1955 and 1969, houses a number of prestigious organizations including the New York Philharmonic and the New York Ballet. The Philadelphia Story ran at the center's Vivian Beaumont Theater, which had been dark for three years prior to the play's opening. The revival was successful and received positive reviews from theater critics. Library of Congress In 1956, The Philadelphia Story was adapted into a film musical titled High Society. Starring real-life Philadelphia socialite Grace Kelly as Tracy Lord along with Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby, High Society was one of the most successful films of that year, though critics often negatively compared it to The Philadelphia Story. Kelly was born in Philadelphia to Margaret Katherine Majer and John B.

Kelly Sr., three-time Olympic gold medalist and owner of a successful brick-making firm. She starred in a string of successful films through the 1950s including High Noon and Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window. High Society was her final film performance. Shortly after filming wrapped she married Prince Rainier III of Monaco, who proposed three days after meeting her. They remained married until Kelly's death in 1982 following a stroke while driving that led to a serious car accident. Amazon.com: High Society (1956): Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Celeste Holm: Amazon Digital Services LLC By Anthony Paul on November 25, 2000 Format: VHS Tape I've just finished watching "High Society" after having first seen "The Philadelphia Story" only a month ago. Both films are phenomenal, on their own and shouldn't be compared. They succeed wonderfully in very different ways. The cinematography of "High Society" is excellent and is one of the major factors of it's success. In many ways, it makes it a very, dare I say, 'modern' musical, not seeming at all fluffy or schmaltzy.

The musical numbers are intimately filmed, and with Cole Porter's music and lyrics, it works amazingly well. Case in point..."Well Did You Evah". I believe this to be one of Sinatra's best roles, quite cool, charming, and thoroughly convincing. And then he sings...and all is well with the world. Bing is at his cool best and Grace Kelly is stunningly beautiful, even with her role's snobbery fully intact. It is a shame that Sinatra and Bing only had one other movie together "robin and the Seven Hoods" because their chemistry is unsurpassed. Add the jazz and personality of Satchmo, and what you have is one of the most enjoyable 107 minutes that you could spend in front of the tube. Highly recommended. Let's hope the DVD version is in the works! By Paulo Leite on June 10, 2003 Format: DVD Verified Purchase This is a musical remake of George Cukor's classic "The Philadelphia Story". The new setting: the Newport Jazz Festival and the chic mansions on its surroundings. The story is exactly the same: Tracy Lord (Grace Kelly in her last film) is engaged to David (John Lund).

But her ex-husband (Bing Crosby) won't let her go that easily. In the between, there are a couple of journalists (Frank Sinatra and Celeste Holm) with problems on their own. This is one of those films where everything is great. The whole cast is excelent. This is classical Hollywood in full gear!! The music by Cole Porter will leave you singing for days after you see this movie: "Well, Did You Evah?", "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?", "Little One", "You're Sensational" and the multi-million Dollar seller "True Love" are great tunes. The film has also a five-minute overture with music that is usually cut by television (great music!!!). This DVD comes with a great pack of extras. But first... the image: gorgeous Technicolor (it was shot in VistaVision). The beautiful soundtrack was remastered in Dolby 5.1 (it seems it was recorded only 10 years ago). There is also a documentary on Cole Porter hosted by Celeste Holm herself! (still beautiful after all these years).

There is a newsreel about the film's premiere, Radio adds with Grace Kelly and Bing Crosby, Trailers (from both "High Society" and "The Philadelphia Story"), Notes ..........and a great Cinemascope Cartoon "Millionaire Droopie". The only bad thing about this DVD is that the subtitles dissapear during the songs (and there are 3 languages). Anyway... this a great film with all the elements at their peak! 3 Comments 62 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback... Thank you for your feedback. Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again By Samuel C. HALL OF FAME TOP 500 REVIEWER VINE VOICE on May 16, 2003 Format: DVD Verified Purchase Given the lack of fuss made over the centenary year of Bing Crosby's birth, it appears that, as far as the public at large is concerned, Bing is little more than a Christmas period piece. This film should help set the record straight about the most influential vocalist and entertainer of the first half of the last century.

His feature number with Pops ("Now You Has Jazz") is a treasure, presenting two of the most naturally gifted, closely matched American musicians simply enjoying each other's company while becoming completely caught up in the musical moment. Satchmo absolutely shines (sometimes that smile could betray traces of auto-pilot, but not in this film). And Bing's got that thing going with his head that was the hallmark of his most genuine, inspired, heart-felt performances: he's way back on his heels and everything above his shoulders takes on an animated, even "pixillated" quality. No longer is he being merely smooth and easy (and singing certainly did come easy for him), but his head is illustrating the beat, in that curious, punching, out-of-synch pattern that he had whenever he was really feeling it. The Sinatra performance is also solid, but there's plenty of good Sinatra elsewhere on film. What's unique about this film is his "Well, Did Ya Evah?" duet with Crosby. For years they had been radio rivals, the "old pro" favoring crowd-pleasing "smooth and easy" tunes and the skinny new star emphasizing more urgent and dramatic material appealing to the personal emotions of a new generation.

Crosby is the "natural," capable of all sorts of graceful vocal elocutions and tricks; Sinatra is the driven, serious modern man, executing musical material with a no-nonsense approach. Read more › 2 Comments 25 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback... Thank you for your feedback. Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again By Pip on June 22, 2003 Format: DVD Just released on DVD, this fabulous musical remake of George Cukor's The Philadelphia Story (1940) sees Grace Kelly in her last ever film role before crossing the pond to marry into the Monaco monarchy (she even wore her actual engagement ring in the movie). Kelly plays the spoilt heiress Tracy Samantha Lord, a rather icy perfectionist (this generation would say `control freak'), who is due to marry the stuffy George Kitteridge (John Lund) when her ex-husband C K Dexter-Haven (Bing Crosby), unexpectedly turns up... Still in love with her, he puts in place a subtle plan to win back her heart.

Throw in an incorrigible little sister, a playboy dad, a couple of snoops from Spy magazine, Louis Armstrong (as himself) and buckets of champagne... and now you has jazz! With a witty script and quite the line-up (it was the first time Crosby and Frank Sinatra, playing Spy magazine reporter, appeared on screen together), the romantic comedy is carried by one of Cole Porter's best - and one of his last - musical scores which includes Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, Well, Did You Evah?, Now You Has Jazz, and Kelly and Crosby's moving duet True Love. Like most rereleases of older movies onto DVD, what actually makes you update your video copy are the bonus features. Along with the nostalgic newsreel of the film's 1956 première, this version includes a short documentary on `the making of...', narrated by Celeste Holm (born 1919, who played Spy magazine photographer). Although it makes for entertaining viewing (throwing up little snippets such as how Kelly's father warned Prince Rainier of Monaco before they got married she was a [bad] driver), one can't help thinking that someone cruelly substituted Holm's oxygen tank with helium... Overall verdict?

Thoroughly entertaining and an absolute must for fans of classic musicals and all that jazz... Comment 13 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback... Thank you for your feedback. Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again High Society | Film from RadioTimes Our Score by Tony Sloman This musical remake of the 1940 film The Philadelphia Story was a smash hit, particularly in Britain, making comparisons with its fabulous forerunner unnecessary. It's cleverly under-directed (star Bing Crosby couldn't dance) by the brilliant Charles Walters and offers many joys, notably the teaming of crooners Crosby and Frank Sinatra for the witty Cole Porter number Well, Did You Evah?, and the delightful Grace Kelly in a role she plays perfectly, that of a spoiled rich brat. Sinatra and Celeste Holm make a snappy pair of journalists (and bring that snap to another Porter classic, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?), but sadly jazz great Louis Armstrong is reduced to the chorus and stooge to Crosby. Summary Romantic complications arise when a playboy composer sets out to win back his ex-wife.

However, she is about to marry another man - and the situation becomes even more difficult when a cynical reporter enters the fray. Musical comedy based on The Philadelphia Story with a score by Cole Porter, starring Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Grace Kelly, with Louis Armstrong appearing as himself. Cast & Crew Tracy Samantha Lord Grace Kelly Mike Connor Frank Sinatra

Question: On which earlier film of 1940 was the 1956 musical "High Society" based?
Answer: The Philadelphia Story