High Society (1956)

Director:

Charles Walters

Writers:

Philip Barry (play)
John Patrick (writer)

Release Date:

17 July 1956 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Musical | Romance

Tagline:

They're all together for the first time!

Plot:

C.K. Dexter-Haven, a successful popular jazz musician, lives in a mansion near his ex-wife's Tracy Lord's family estate...

Plot Keywords:

Remarried | Jazz | Actor Playing Himself | Stuffed Shirt | True Love

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 1 nomination

Cast

Bing Crosby	...	C.K. Dexter-Haven
Grace Kelly	...	Tracy Samantha Lord
Frank Sinatra	...	Mike Connor
Celeste Holm	...	Liz Imbrie
John Lund	...	George Kittredge
Louis Calhern	...	Uncle Willie
Sidney Blackmer	...	Seth Lord
Louis Armstrong and His Band	...	Themselves
Margalo Gillmore	...	Mrs. Seth Lord
Lydia Reed	...	Caroline Lord
Gordon Richards	...	Dexter-Haven's butler
Richard Garrick	...	Lords' Butler

Runtime:

111 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Perspecta Stereo

Certification:

South Korea:12 | Argentina:Atp | Australia:G (original rating) | Australia:PG (alternate rating) | Finland:K-12 | Sweden:Btl (re-release) | UK:U

Filming Locations:

750 Bel Air Road, Bel Air, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Bing Crosby Productions

Trivia:

The song "Well, Did You Evah?" (from a previous Cole Porter musical) was added at the last minute when it was realized that there wasn't a song for Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra to sing together.

Goofs:

Continuity: When he says to Tracy his father was a teacher in South Bend, Mike puts both his hands between his legs. In the next shot he has his hands leaning on the couch by his sides.

Quotes:

Tracy: Oh, it got dark all of a sudden.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Gossip Girl: Hi, Society (#1.10)" (2007)

Soundtrack:

Mind If I Make Love To You

What a swelegant, elegant movie this is

MGM was pretty lucky to secure the talents of Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Grace Kelly, Celeste Holm, and Louis Armstrong to get involved in this great musical adaption of The Philadelphia Story.

Cole Porter contributed a great original score for this film with songs very specifically written to suit the talents of High Society's players. I do wish Celeste Holm had been given more to do than just the duet with Frank Sinatra, Who Wants To Be a Millionaire. On Broadway Celeste Holm was a musical star with Oklahoma and Bloomer Girl to her credit, but MGM didn't want to recognize that.

For this film, the story is reset from Philadelphia to Newport, Rhode Island to bring in the famous Jazz Festival. Philip Barry's social commentary is toned down and a very partisan Greek Chorus is added in the person of Mr. Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong. Satchmo tells you right up front who he's pulling for to win Grace Kelly and he helps musically along the way.

Satch and Bing have that classic Now You Has Jazz duet, so successful was it that they did an album together a few years later. Bing Crosby during his life was crazy about jazz musicians and there was no one he liked better than Louis Armstrong. No one on the planet could resist that man's joy for living.

Grace Kelly got a chance to bat 1000 in the recording industry. She was no singer as she would have freely admitted, but Cole Porter wrote True Love specifically to accommodate her limited range and when she does the last two bars of True Love with Der Bingle she got a million selling record for her one and only platter. As for Bing he got his 20th Gold record and the only one not with Decca records.

True Love was nominated for Best Song at the Oscars but lost to Doris Day's Que Sera Sera which boomed all over the charts in 1956. It was sadly Cole Porter's last opportunity to win an Oscar for one of his movie songs.

Frank Sinatra got a couple of good ballads in You're Sensational and Mind If I Make Love to You, but what he's best remembered for is that classic Well Did You Evah duet with Bing. Today's fans can't possibly appreciate the screen meeting of the two best and best known singers for the previous generations. A musical summit conference.

High Society's tone is a lot lighter than the Philadelphia Story. The cast in terms of acting ability are not in the same league as Grant, Stewart, Hepburn, and Hussey. But folks it is a musical. I doubt those stars could have carried off the Cole Porter score.

You can't miss with a cast like this, in either film for that matter.