High Society (DVD)

~~ High Society~~

I have although, slowly been going through my collection of musicals, they needed an airing, some are still unopened. I am a bit naughty I buy these movies with the intentions of sitting down to watch them, but life takes over and the moment has gone, they end up being filed to watch one day.

So my film for this month is High Society, which is a comedy musical that opened at the Pantages Theatre, Hollywood ...
...Oscars.

High Society was the musical version of Philip Barry's comedy play The Philadelphia Story, which was in its day one of MGM's greatest comedies and starred Hollywood greats Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant and James Stewart. Grace Kelly with her air of haughtiness was a perfect choice to play the part of debutant Tracy Lord, which is a part that was originally played by Hepburn, but as is this is a musical and Grace Kelly was ... more

~~ High Society~~

I have although, slowly been going through my collection of musicals, they needed an airing, some are still unopened. I am a bit naughty I buy these movies with the intentions of sitting down to watch them, but life takes over and the moment has gone, they end up being filed to watch one day.

So my film for this month is High Society, which is a comedy musical that opened at the Pantages Theatre, Hollywood on 1st August 1956. The film boasted nominations for Best Song and Best score at the 1956 Oscars.

High Society was the musical version of Philip Barry's comedy play The Philadelphia Story, which was in its day one of MGM's greatest comedies and starred Hollywood greats Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant and James Stewart. Grace Kelly with her air of haughtiness was a perfect choice to play the part of debutant Tracy Lord, which is a part that was originally played by Hepburn, but as is this is a musical and Grace Kelly was not a singer, the producer Sol C Siegel surrounded Kelly with brilliant musical talent, like Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Louie Armstrong.

~~ The Film ~~

Well as I have already mentioned this is a comedy musical, it is full of witty one-liners and a simple story of Boy loses girl, boy tries to win girl back from her betrothed.

The film starts with an aerial shot of the millionaire's playground, Newport, Rhode Island and we meet Louie Armstrong and his band that are on the way to Dexter's mansion (Tracy's ex husband) to rehearse for the up and coming Jazz festival. Gradually the plot unfolds and we get introduced to our characters. We are taken to the mansion where we meet Tracy Lord (Grace Kelly) her mother (Margalo Gillmore) and her little sister Caroline (Lydia Reed).

Caroline and her mother look through the mountain of expensive wedding presents discussing that Tracy has not invited her father to the wedding. At the same time Tracy discovers that her ex hubby Dexter is back in town and this is where we meet Dexter (Bing Crosby) for the first time, he tells Tracy that he still loves her deeply. Meanwhile (keep up), mom receives a phone call and is put into the position of saying yes to the press coverage for the wedding, and we go on to meet our two reporters for Spy Magazine Mike Connor (Frank Sinatra) and Liz Imbrie (Celeste Holm).

The pre wedding gets a bit silly when Uncle Willie (Louis Calhern) visits and has to be passed off as Daddy! But the daddy (Sidney Blackmer) arrives and has to be passed off as Uncle Willie. Confused yet, you will be, the big charade muddles on for a while throughout the film, with the press trying to get the real story, Dex is trying to win Tracy back, Mike Connor falls for Tracy and goes for a moonlit swim with our bride to be, oh and where is the Groom? Who's that Tracy is marrying? Wow you still here, lol, well you are going to have to watch these crazy antics and fantastic music and lyrics (by Cole Porter) to find out how it all ends.

~~ Main Characters ~~

Bing Crosby played the part of C.K. Dexter-Haven the ex husband of Tracy Lord. He was also taken on board as the co-producer. In his role as co-producer he insisted that it was filmed in Vista Vision which at the time was a revolution in film making bringing a brighter and sharper colour picture to the big screen. His character in the film was kind of sedate, yet fun and romantic.

Grace Kelly played Tracy Lord, her character came across as a dizzy, silly, rich spoilt brat, who really didn't know what she wanted, and when she got it, did not know how to handle it and what to do with it, lol.

Frank Sinatra, he played a very cheeky, dashing young reporter Mike Connor. I enjoyed his part in the film, but I am very biased as I think the young Frank Sinatra was exceedingly sexy. Anyway, he sings his way through the film with his wonderful sultry tones (it's worth watching just to here him sing).

There was a scene where Mike and Tracy were in a car supposedly driving round the island, it was quite fun to watch this as it really showed the age of the film as you watched the scenery move past them, knowing that they were sitting in the car in the studio, it was also nice to see that bit of nostalgia in movie making.

Louis Armstrong - played himself, you get the enormous pleasure of hearing him and his band on a couple of occasions throughout the film.

~~ Songs that entertain us ~~

I will list these in the order that they appear in the show. As all musicals of this era it starts off with the classical Overture.

High Society Calypso: Louis Armstrong and his band are travelling along in their tour bus towards Rhode Island. They use this song to set the scene that will greet us in Newport.

Little One: this is sung by Caroline Lord when she is trying to impress or not to impress our two reporters.

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire: (I do please lol). I would think most people would know this song, just writing about it and I am singing it to myself. It is a fun song and is done brilliantly by Frank Sinatra and Celeste Holm.

True Love: this has to be my favourite love song from the show and the one song where you actually hear Grace Kelly sing. It has been covered by Elton John and Kiki Dee in 1993. Sorry I digested then, in the show it is a lovely scene on the boat 'True Love' that this song is performed by Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly.

You're Sensational: I will set the scene for you , you have Tracy (a little worse for wear) and you have Mike (the love struck Frank Sinatra) and Mike is serenading Tracy with this song, I bet all the girls swooned when he sang this, he makes love to you with his voice and those eyes.

Samantha: let me set the scene for you again, this time you mike serenading the bride to be and you now have Dexter dressing for the evening singing 'Samantha' a song he wrote for Tracy (I know why! Why wasn't it called Tracy? Well all is revealed in the movie so it does become clear). Anyway, the movie now makes Mike and Dexter rivals for Tracy's attentions. Hang on! Isn't she marrying George? Oh dear, are you still keeping up, lol.

Now You Has Jazz: another wonderful chance to see the late great Louis Armstrong in action with his band and singing with Bing Crosby at the pre wedding party.

Well, Did You Evah? We are in the library with a very drunk Mike (Sinatra) and Dexter (Crosby) they meet over a drink and reflect on the rivalry over Tracy in this song. It is a fun song and quite catchy you will find yourself starting to join in with them.

Mind If I Make Love To You? (No I don't mind, I'm over here Frank). A slow dance by the pool as Mike sings his heart out to Tracy in this seductive scene.

~~ Trivia ~~

Cole Porter wrote the music and lyrics for the film, he wrote a total of 14 songs, 9 of which were used in the movie.

During the filming of High Society Grace Kelly got engaged to Prince Rainier of Monaco and the ring she wore in the film was actually her own newly acquired engagement ring.

When she showed her ring to the cast she referred to it as 'sweet', from then on she was teased daily about her 'sweet little ring'.

The filming of High Society was completed in March and Grace Kelly left immediately after filming for Monaco where she married Prince Rainier on 19th April 1956. The studios fast tracked the movie to get it into the cinemas to take advantage of the free publicity provided by the wedding.

High Society was Grace Kelly's last movie and the end of her acting career, as she went on to become Princess Grace of Monaco.

~~ DVD Extras ~~

Surprisingly there are extras on this DVD, starting with our regular Scene Selection giving you a choice to hope around and find your favourite scenes to play it again Sam (oops sorry wrong film).

Languages - a choice of hearing this in English, French or Italian. Subtitles come in a choice of 8 languages.

Special Features:

Cole Porter in Hollywood: True Love - This starts off with a 10 minute documentary trailer narrated by Celeste Holm with a small interview with the musical director Saul Chaplin. I believe this interview and narration was put together in 2003 which is 37yrs after the film was made so you can imagine they have aged slightly. Celeste talks you through the making of the movie with clips of the stars and clips from The Philadelphia Story and High Society. Also you get to see some premier footage and footage on Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier.

Gala Premier for High Society - a black and white news reel footage of the opening night of film in August 1956, it sounds very crackly now, but you get to see some famous names arriving at the opening like Cole Porter, Bob Hope and the newly weds of the time Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds. Sadly it only lasted about 1 minute.

Cast & Crew - I really did wonder what I was going to get when I went to this link and I was not pleasantly surprised, I actually felt a little let down, it was just a list of the cast and then as short list of the crew.

Additional Special Features: After the special features I was looking forward to this, but I was met with something very strange.

Millionaire Droopy: Apart from Millionaire I have no idea what the connection is here, but this was a full length cartoon (around 7mins) starring Droopy the dog. I haven't seen a Droopy cartoon for years it was quite funny.

Theatrical Trailer: Now this was quite innovative for its time, Bing Crosby and Ed Sullivan chatting in a studio about the movie, with Bing dropping in a line and a clip from the movie continuing the conversation and so the interview continues with further lines and further clips from the movie. This lasts about 4 mins and is quite enjoyable.

~~ My Overall Opinion ~~

Even though technically this film is a little dated and is showing its age, it still has a charismatic quality about it that catches your attention. With its witty one-liners the keep you amused and the fantastic music of Cole Porter with the sultry tones of Frank Sintra and the deep tones of Bing Crosby to keep you entertained, it is definitely worth watching. Watching Bing Crosby sing 'True Love' you can close your eyes and picture yourself floating on a luxury yacht under the moonlight. Oops I'm off in dream world again. Seriously though it is a feel good family movie, so take a trip down memory lane and treat yourself to an oldie (musical that it).

Thanks for reading

Lyn x
 

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