Cinema Sunday: High Society

Here in my weekly Cinema Sunday feature, I frequently post about films from long ago, back to the 1930's to the 1950's with the assumption that these movies are classics.

But not always. 

Today's post turns it's attention to High Society, a romantic musical comedy from 1956. The film as a pretty good pedigree with stars like  Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly and Frank Sinatra and music by Cole Porter.  

High Society is a musical remake of the 1940 film The Philadelphia Story which is the movie's first big mistake. 

The Philadelphia Story (which I wrote about on Sunday, March 1, 2020) is a sharp witted, fast talking look at the lives of the very rich starring Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart.  

The Philadelphia Story is a damned fine film, filled with laughs and passion.

High Society is not.  

A lack of passion is a neat trick to pull off with a movie that has music by Cole Porter and performances by Louis Armstrong. 

Most of the songs are Big Lipped Alligator Moments that do nothing to move the plot forward and actually slow down the movie. 

(For more about Big Lipped Alligator Moments, click here.)   

What does in High Society is some really poor casting choices. Bing Crosby as C.K. Dexter Haven is too old and too mellow. Oh that warm velvety voice of his is great for his musical numbers but for everything else, Bing's Dexter Haven couldn't seem to care less about the swirl of shenanigans around his ex-wife's second marriage. C.K. Dexter Haven is supposed to be a sly manipulator, working mischievously around the edges, insinuating himself deviously back into Tracy Lord's good graces. Bing Crosby's version of the character is a bystander at best.  

Speaking of Tracy Lord, Grace Kelly (who at age 26 is half Bing's age) is too reserved, too smooth. Beneath the polished veneer of Tracy's upper crust life style is a woman with sharp edges and a penchant for brutal honesty.  None of that is on display in Kelly's too graceful performance. 

And then there's Frank Sinatra as reporter Mike Connor who is just... there. Mike is a man of intense feelings, about the lack of worth in the upper class and his growing affection for Tracy. Sinatra here has no sense of passion. When he tells Tracy she has a fire as if lit from within, Frank is just reciting lines from an earlier, better film. 

Frank Sinatra can, of course, carry a tune with the best of them. But just like with Bing Crosby, when the singing is over and it's time to actually act, well, this just ain't Frank's best movie.  

There are some outstanding musical performances throughout the movie. 

"High Society Calypso" by Louis Armstrong & his band opens the film with a lot of fun and bounce and misleads you into thinking you're going to get a fun and bouncy movie. 

You almost get a fun and bouncy movie with "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?", a fun frolic of a duet by Frank Sinatra and Celeste Holm.  

"Now You Has Jazz"  does absolutely zero to advance the plot but it's a fun break to remind us that Louis Armstrong & his band are still hanging around.  

"Well, Did You Evah!"  is a very good duet between Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra. If they could've channeled some of the fun spirit of this song into their actual acting performances, well, we might have had a better picture.  

Most of the time, the songs are interruptions of the plot and do not to advance the story.  

I tried to judge High Society on it's own merits but it's hard not to constantly draw comparisons to the far superior Philadelphia Story which did this story first and best.  Hepburn, Grant and Stewart played their roles to perfection. 

Kelly, Crosby and Sinatra played those same roles to mere competency and sometimes falling short of even that mark.

My wife Andrea who likes everything? Nope, not loving High Society so much. High Society gets low marks from both of us.