HIGH SOCIETY [1956 / 2003] [DVD] [USA Release]
‘The Philadelphia Story’ has jazz – and Bing, Grace, Satchmo and The Voice!
The rich are generally different. But in matters of the heart, they’re just as scatter-brained as the rest of us.
Heiress Tracy Lord [Grace Kelly] is engaged to one man George Kittredge [John Lund], attracted to another Mike Connor [Frank Sinatra] and, just maybe, in love again with her ex-husband C. K. Dexter-Haven [Bing Crosby] in this effervescent musical reinvention of Philip Barry’s play “The Philadelphia Story” and featuring an endlessly delightful Cole Porter score. Among the ‘HIGH SOCIETY’ film points: Frank Sinatra and Celeste Holm ask “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” Bing Crosby and Gene Kelly share “True Love,” Bing Crosby and Ol’ Blue Eyes Frank Sinatra swing-swing-swingle “Well, Did You Evah!” and Frank Sinatra and Louis ‘Satchmo’ Armstrong jive with “Now You Has Jazz.” Yes, indeedy, we has!
FILM FACT No.1: Awards and Nominations: 1957 Academy Awards®: Nominated: Best Music and Original Song for Cole Porter. Nominated: Best Music and Scoring of a Musical Picture for Johnny Green and Saul Chaplin. 1957 Laurel Awards; Win: Golden Laurel Award for Top Male Musical Performance for Frank Sinatra. 1957 Writers Guild of America: Nominated: WGA Screen Award for Best Written American Musical for John Patrick.
FILM FACT No.2: Filming took place between January and March 1956. The location scenes were mostly shot in and around Clarendon Court in Newport, Rhode Island, which was then owned by Mae Cadwell Hayward, and later purchased in 1970 by Claus von Bülow. The location filming, enabled them to take advantage of the Newport Jazz Festival, established in 1954, incorporating it into the film by giving Bing Crosby's character a background as a descendant of a Gilded Age robber baron who became a jazz composer and friend of jazz star Louis ‘Satchmo’ Armstrong, who plays himself in the film, and patron of the Festival. As name-checked by Bing Crosby in the song “Now You Has Jazz,” where each musician takes a small solo, Louis ‘Satchmo’ Armstrong's band members were Edmond Hall (clarinet), Trummy Young (trombone), Billy Kyle (piano), Arvell Shaw (bass), and Barrett Deems (drums). They claim that Frank Sinatra was fascinated with Grace Kelly – as were many of her previous co-stars – and would have loved to have an affair with her but feared rejection and embarrassment in front of Bing Crosby, who had previously had an affair with Grace Kelly. The sailboat used in the film, the ‘True Love’ (originally the ‘Venona II’ based on the Malabar design by John Alden built for racing), sails on Seneca Lake out of Watkins Glen, NY as an excursion boat for Seneca Sailing Adventures, LLC. The title of the song "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" gained new significance a half-century later as the title of a global game show franchise. “I Love You, Samantha” has also become a jazz favourite for improvisations.
Cast: Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Celeste Holm, John Lund, Louis Calhern, Sidney Blackmer, Louis ‘Satchmo’ Armstrong, Margalo Gillmore, Lydia Reed, Gordon Richards, Richard Garrick, Louis ‘Satchmo’ Armstrong and His Band, Edmond Hall, Trummy Young, Arvell Shaw, Billy Kyle, Barrett Deems, Don Anderson (uncredited), Mary Bayless (uncredited), Lulu Mae Bohrman (uncredited), Hugh Boswell (uncredited), Paul Bradley (uncredited), Tex Brodus (uncredited), Steve Carruthers (uncredited), Beulah Christian (uncredited), Gene Coogan (uncredited), Paul Cristo (uncredited), William Duray (uncredited), Joe Evans (uncredited), Franklyn Farnum (uncredited), James Gonzalez (uncredited), Stuart Holmes (uncredited), Shep Houghton (uncredited), Paul Keast (uncredited), Richard Keene (uncredited), Perk Lazelle (uncredited), Ruth Lee (uncredited), Thomas Martin (uncredited), Philo McCullough (uncredited), Harold Miller (uncredited), Hans Moebus (uncredited), Monty O'Grady (uncredited), Foster H. Phinney (uncredited), Murray Pollack (uncredited), Paul Power (uncredited), Leoda Richards (uncredited), Victor Romito (uncredited), Jeffrey Sayre (uncredited), Scott Seaton (uncredited), Reginald Simpson (uncredited), Helen Spring (uncredited), Norman Stevans (uncredited), (uncredited), Florence Wix (uncredited),
Director: Charles Walters
Producer: Sol C. Siegel
Screenplay: John Patrick (screenplay) and Philip Barry (play)
Composers: Cole Porter (music and lyrics), Johnny Green (music supervised and adapted), Saul Chaplin (music supervised and adapted), Conrad Salinger (orchestration) and Nelson Riddle (orchestration)
Costume Design: Helen Rose
Cinematography: Paul Vogel, A.S.C. (Director of Photography) and Charles K. Hagedon (Color Consultant)
Image Resolution: 1080i (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 (VistaVision)
Audio: English: 5.1 Dolby Digital Audio
French: 1.0 Dolby Digital Mono Audio
English: 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo Audio
Subtitles: English, French and Spanish
Running Time: 111 minutes
Region: NTSC
Number of discs: 1
Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer / Warner Home Video
Andrew’s DVD Review: Before the film starts, we get a really wonderful rich beautiful brilliant OVERTURE that lasts for 4:36 and really sets you up to watch the wonderful joyous film.
‘HIGH SOCIETY’ [1956] is one of the irrefutable blue chip musicals in M-G-M's 1950’s pastiche, Sol C. Siegel’s VistaVision production and sparkles with the witty sophistication of Cole Porter’s “swell-egent” tunes and the immeasurable gifts of headliners, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and, in this – her farewell to picture, the luminous actress Grace Kelly, and triumvirate, ably assisted by the swingin’ jazz styling of Louis ‘Satchmo’ Armstrong. ‘HIGH SOCIETY’ brims with oodles of chic good taste. Cole Porter, whose more lilting melodies – included the top-selling hit parade romantic ballad “True Love” – are delicately counterbalanced with razor-sharp and barb-laden pop tunes, provides us with not only the lyrics to better inform both character and story, but excel in making his glib social commentary on the idle rich.
With film ‘HIGH SOCIETY’ we find it is the day before her wedding to self-made millionaire George Kittredge [John Lund], with High Society Socialite Tracy Lord [Grace Kelly] finds none other than her ex-husband C. K. Dexter-Haven [Bing Crosby] hanging around the house. Back in town for a jazz festival, C. K. Dexter-Haven freely admits he's still in love with Tracy Lord. Meanwhile, magazine reporter Mike Connor [Frank Sinatra] arrives to cover the wedding festivities. As Mike Connor gets to know Tracy Lord, he starts falling for her, hard. Now Tracy Lord's being pulled in at least three directions. We know love will triumph in the end, but whose will it be? You will have to watch the film to find out.
‘HIGH SOCIETY’ has that Classic Hollywood charm, a fantastic musical soundtrack, a crazy love triangle (or maybe more of a square?), and legendary talent. High Society's got all that in spades. Frank Sinatra shows teen idols how it's done with “You're Sensational.” Bing Crosby swings with Louis Armstrong, especially hot in "Now You Has Jazz." A fun and funny script will engage viewers between songs. Grace Kelly, in her last movie before she married a real-life prince, is unfortunately a little uneven. But her beauty and elegance shine. There's a lot to love here. In a word, he is ‘sensational’…that’s all!
‘HIGH SOCIETY’ is a darling of a rom/com cocktail, going down like well-aged Cabernet while leaving behind the ticklish memory of its bubbles. It is a movie, only to have been made – or rather, remade – in the fabulous fifties; a glorious reconstitution of Philip Barry’s sensational Broadway hit, “The Philadelphia Story,” then made into the movie ‘The Philadelphia Story’ under its non-musical namesake by M-G-M in 1940 and starring the indomitable Katherine Hepburn. Philip Barry’s barbed quips never gets side-lined in this musical remake, perhaps because Cole Porter implicitly understands how important the wordsmith’s dialogue was, and takes his cue in composition to include what is lost in dialogue, through the miracle of his songs. So, what evolves on the screen becomes as richly rewarding as its predecessor; arguably, more so, since music can take us to places mere words fail to reach.
I think the key difference between ‘HIGH SOCIETY’ and ‘The Philadelphia Story’ is on presentation versus story. One chooses to focus on visual spectacles, musical numbers and a sense of the elegant lifestyle, while the other relies on the acting ability of its three main leads and the chemistry they have to lead a compelling comedy. In this regard, both films excel at what they set out to do and are individually noteworthy films. I will say that ‘The Philadelphia Story’ is to some the more thoughtful film, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t check out ‘HIGH SOCIETY’ for yourself and see how a screwball comedy adapts into a musical.
HIGH SOCIETY MUSIC TRACK LIST
HIGH SOCIETY CALYPSO (uncredited) (Written by Cole Porter) [Performed by Louis ‘Satchmo’ Armstrong]
LITTLE ONE (uncredited) (Written by Cole Porter) [Performed by Bing Crosby with Louis ‘Satchmo’ Armstrong and His Band also sung in French by Lydia Reed]
WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE? (uncredited) (Written by Cole Porter) [Performed by Frank Sinatra and Celeste Holm]
TRUE LOVE (uncredited) (Written by Cole Porter) [Performed by Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly]
I LOVE YOU SAMAMTHA (uncredited) (Written by Cole Porter) [Performed by Bing Crosby with Louis ‘Satchmo’ Armstrong and His Band]
WELL, DID YOU EVAH! (uncredited) (Written by Cole Porter) [Performed by Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra]
MIND IF I MAKE LOVE TO YOU (uncredited) (Written by Cole Porter) [Performed by Frank Sinatra]
NOW YOU HAS JAZZ (uncredited) (Written by Cole Porter) [Performed by Bing Crosby with Louis ‘Satchmo’ Armstrong and His Band]
YOU’RE SENSATIONAL (uncredited) (Written by Cole Porter) [Performed by Frank Sinatra]
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DVD Image Quality – Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Warner Home Video presents the film ‘HIGH SOCIETY’ with a very impressive anamorphic 1.85:1 VistaVision aspect ratio, but sadly the film is shown in a 1080i image. The transfer features a reasonably sharp image throughout, but the picture is by no means reference quality, which is unfortunate as I believe that this motion picture probably deserved a reference quality transfer. That said, we have far from an unrestored film here and for the most part the image is very watchable. Most of this feature takes place in well-lit locations, so shadow detail isn't taxed too much. For what little low light shots there are, the shadow detail is fairly adequate. I had no issues with low level noise. There is much debate as to the colour committal to this disc. Filmed in Technicolor, the colours visible on screen are quite vibrant and at times somewhat exaggerated. This is possibly due to several things. Some commentators have speculated that the film has gone through some sort of basic restoration process and that the colours have been ramped up to compensate for the degradation of the original print. It is also possible that what we have here is a true representation as to the original colour transfer as seen theatrically in 1956. Colour film photography was still a fairly fresh technology and some colour films did at times have an exaggerated colour image, so what we see here might just have been what the original viewers could have seen. I'll not pretend to know which opinion is the right one, but I'll gladly state that the image features bright colours that are quite appropriate to the film and until a complete restoration, it'll do. The colour from the transfer print has been well committed to this DVD.
DVD Audio Quality – Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Warner Home Video brings you the film ‘HIGH SOCIETY’ with a 5.1 Dolby Digital Audio soundtrack. It shows the limitations of the source material, as virtually all older films that have been re-mastered do, but it has great range and kick. Cole Porter's songs sound terrific crisp and clear. The dialogue quality for the majority of this programme is quite good and for the most part I had no trouble understanding the spoken and sung words here. The audio sync for much of this film is fairly ordinary. While some musical numbers would obviously have been lip synched during filming and therefore more prone to being out of sync, this problem is evident right through the film and noticeable at almost any time during the movie. There isn't a huge amount of rear activity, but the surround channels take a complementary atmospheric role in creating an expansive and enveloping soundstage.
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DVD Special Features and Extras:
Special Feature: Cole Porter in Hollywood: True Love [2003] [1080i/480i] [1.37:1] [8:59] This is a brief but interesting look at the making of the film ‘HIGH SOCIETY.’ The reference in the title to Cole Porter is fairly misleading as this featurette, which is hosted by one of the film's last living stars Celeste Holm, and recounts her days in the film which she made with Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, and Grace Kelly, of which this was Ms. Grace Kelly's last movie role before becoming the real-life Princess Grace of Monaco and is also a look at many of the aspects of the creation of the film. Celeste Holm also mentions the engagement ring Ms. Grace Kelly wore in the picture as the scene is shown. This goes from the original film version of the story, “The Philadelphia Story,” to this M-G-M remake ‘HIGH SOCIETY’ and the casting decisions that were made. This short documentary ends with newsreel footage of both the ‘HIGH SOCIETY’ movie's premiere and also included is the Grace Kelly's wedding to Prince Rainier III of Monaco. Plus, included in this featurette is Saul Chaplin who was the Associated Musical Director of ‘HIGH SOCIETY.’ Very interesting and enlightening, although far too short.
Special Feature: Gala Premiere Newsreel for ‘HIGH SOCIETY’ [1956] [480i] [1.37:1] [1:08] This is an original black-and-white newsreel feature covering the opening night of the film 'HIGH SOCIETY,' where we see many famous film stars arrive at the theatre on the big night. Short, but quite interesting. Commentated by Michael Fitzmaurice.
Special Feature: Behind-The-Scenes Notes: Here we are informed that ‘HIGH SOCIETY’ was one of the biggest motion picture events of 1956. Independent producer Sol C. Siegel originated the idea of ding a musical remake of classic Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant and James Stewart comedy ‘The Philadelphia Story’ [1940]. M-G-M Head of Production at Dore Schary enthusiastically greenlit the production in Mid – 1955. M-G-M had been developing another film called ‘Jazz in Newport,’ based on a series of New Yorker magazine articles by Lillian Ross on the Newport Jazz Festival. The filmmakers decided to combine the two projects, moving the story from Philadelphia to Newport and setting it against the backdrop of the festival. Johnny Green, who was the Music Director at M-G-M, convinced his friend Cole Porter to write the music for the film. Frank Sinatra was cast early on as a reporter Mike Connor. Elizabeth Taylor and Grace Kelly were the two choices to play Tracy Lord, but Grace Kelly won out when Elizabeth Taylor became unavailable. Grace Kelly was preparing to leave Hollywood to marry Prince Rainier III of Monaco, so the film had to be rushed into production. Fortunately, Bing Crosby had recently left Paramount Pictures after 24 years and was able to sign on to play rascally millionaire C. K. Dexter-Haven. Cole Porter first wrote a song called “So What?” for the historic first big-screen suet by legendary crooner Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra. During filming, however, that song was shelved in favour of “Well, Did You Evah?,” which Cole Porter had originally written for the 1939 play “DuBarry Was a Lady.” ‘HIGH SOCIETY’ premiered in August 1956, breaking box-office records and grossing over $13 million in its initial domestic theatrical release. The soundtrack album became a bestseller, and the Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly duet of “True Love” became a hit single. With their success, Princess Grace probably became the first sitting royalty to be awarded a gold record!
Special Feature: Cast and Crew: Here first up is a small list of the Cast that appeared in the film ‘HIGH SOCIETY,’ and they were Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Celeste Holm, John Lund, Louis Calhern, Sidney Blackmer and Louis ‘Satchmo’ Armstrong. Next, we get a short Crew list who were involved with the film ‘HIGH SOCIETY’ and they were John Patrick [Screenwriter], Philip Barry [Play writer], Cole Porter [Music and Lyrics], Sol C. Siegel [Producer] and Charles Walters [Director].
Special Feature: Millionaire Droopy [1956] [480i] [1.37:1] [6:54] This is a classic Hanna and Barbera CinemaScope cartoon featuring the ever relaxed Droopy. Spike tries to bump off Droopy to inherit their late master's fortune. This cartoon short is reported to be a reworking of an earlier title named ‘Wags to Riches’ that was originally released in 1949. Despite what is in the credits, Tex Avery had nothing to do with this cartoon. Please Note: Originally shown in the CinemasScope aspect ratio, but here we get it presented in the negative 1.37:1 aspect ratio.
Special Feature: Radio Ads [Audio only] Here we get to hear four American Radio Adverts and they are as follows: Bing Crosby; Grace Kelly; Bing Crosby / Grace Kelly and Frank Sinatra all promoting the film ‘HIGH SOCIETY.’ Please Note: You can either play each radio advert separately or Play All.
Theatrical Trailer [1956] [1080i] [1.85:1] [4:02] This is the Original Theatrical Trailer for the film ‘HIGH SOCIETY’ and features Ed Sullivan and Bing Crosby in a very unusual and interesting trailer.
Theatrical Trailer [1940] [480i] [1.37:1] [3:38] This is the Original Theatrical Trailer for the film ‘The Philadelphia Story.’
Finally, ‘HIGH SOCIETY’ is just classic Hollywood doing what it does best. The core of the story is forgettable but the performances, the music, the dialogue and the technical elements are all so top-notch that it's unmissable. And the sheer sexiness of the thing is incredible. Don't look for madcap shenanigans, though. If you've seen the film ‘The Philadelphia Story,’ you'll find most of that stuff's been replaced by musical numbers. And even though ‘HIGH SOCIETY’ is a musical, this version of the story is to some critics a much lower key film than the Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn and James Stewart classic film. So children might find it, and the adult themes, a little too understated to hold their interest. But if you love musicals, or if you are fans of Hollywood's golden era, this one's a must-see. To me ‘HIGH SOCIETY’ is a total joyful watch and to especially experience! Very Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
