FILMS… High Society (1956)

#1950s #AllPosts

Bing is (still) in love with his uptown girl, but you are invited to her wedding to someone else…

 

On the day of her wedding, socialite Tracy Lord has three men to choose from, all of whom love her. What’s a girl to do?

 

High Society Official Trailer #1 – Frank Sinatra Movie (1956) HD, Rotten Tomatoes Classic Trailers

 

Have you heard… it’s with those stars.. a then future Princess (Escort), Ol’ Blue Eyes, Satchmo and the singer who defined the singing term, crooner. The film is High Society (1956) and is a fun, romantic and infectious sing-a-long movie remake of the comedy, The Philadelphia Story (1940).

For those of you who have only seen that latter original 1940 film, set in Philadelphia, the story is now set in Newport, Rhode Island. Both films centre around (Samantha) Tracy Lord who in the 1940 film was played by Katherine Hepburn and here in High Society, 16 years later and this story now a musical has the classic blonde, Grace Kelly in this her final acting role.

The plot is set about two days before Tracy Lord’s big society wedding day. She’s now about to marry one man but things get a wee bit complicated as a new man enters and her former husband re-enters her life and heart. The plot tells of her journey to make the right choices for her future love and happiness. It also tells of unrequited love, forgiveness, accepting someone the way they are and… scheming wee sisters.

Read on… You’ve just over five minutes to make the popcorn, while the musical overture is played by an unseen orchestra. The introductions to the characters and their story are then heard in song in the High Society Calypso. This jazzy prologue is sung by the film’s narrator, Louis Armstrong – the real-life singer and trumpet player – on a bus as he and his band travel to Newport. We also get a fabulous inviting aerial shot of the opulent location of this film.

In Armstrong’s gravelly-sung lyrics, he tells us that his friend Dexter – aka CK Dexter-Haven (Bing Crosby) – is “nursing the blues” as his wife Tracy (Grace Kelly) divorced him, then started a new relationship and now this “silly chick is gonna marry a square…“. Then Armstrong tells us…

End of song, beginning of story.

We then meet the famous musical talent in person, CK Dexter-Haven (Crosby) has returned home – next door to his ex-wife, Tracy and her family –  to assist in the running of the local jazz festival. He has gallantly allowed Louis and his band to use his palatial home for rehearsals.

After a catch-up between the men, Dexter gets a phone call from Tracy’s precocious wee sister, Caroline (Lydia Reed). Caroline feels strongly that her sister is marrying the wrong man and that she should remarry Dexter instead. The outspoken Caroline also tells her Tracy and mother her very uncomplimentary feelings about George, Tracy’s future husband (which were reinforced earlier with Armstrong’s “square”). This sibling attack is heard while the family discuss wedding presents and in her caustic conversation with Tracy, Caroline really vents her hatred…

Tracy: So far, I’ve received 24 nut dishes and 16 silver ice picks.

Caroline: That should give you an idea of what people think of your next husband.

All is not well, in the Lord household. Caroline and Tracy’s father Seth (Sidney Blackmer) has recently run off with a chorus girl. The strong willed Tracy is still angry with her father’s behaviour and doesn’t want him at her wedding. This clashes with the feelings of both her mother and sister who want him there and both agree it’s “good and stinking” that she won’t allow him to come. Tracy is also fed up with her sister singing Dexter’s praises.

After Tracy hears their love song – which is now a “wretched, cheap vulgar” one – wafting in from Dexter’s place, next door, she’s livid (her wee sister thinks it’s lovely, and tells her she should be grateful (she really is on Dexter’s case here)). This romantic song also doesn’t impress our narrator, who in his occasional running commentary adds…

He’s gonna get nowhere with that kind of music. Good for the feet, nothing for the heart.

So Tracy stomps next door, confronts Dexter and questions the timing of his return, just before her wedding. She believes it to be a vindictive move. Dexter tells her he still loves her and riles her even more by calling her his pet name for her, Samantha (also the name of an offending song).

We later learn that Samantha is her much-hated middle name. Dexter wrote a song about her, using this name which he then released a record. “Sam” then echoes all the other reasons for their divorce –  as previously heard in the High Society Calypso song – as she calls him, a “jukebox hero”, mocking his personal perception of his “distinguished” musical career. He’s bemused more than defensive by her outburst.

Caroline then visits Dexter at his home. They both are unhappy about Tracy’s impending groom choice, George. Caroline thinks George is snobby, pretentious and not good enough for her sister. Dexter thinks Tracy is with George as “she likes character”. Caroline – who clearly has a bit of a schoolgirl crush on her former brother-in-law – asks Dexter to write and sing a song about her, promising she won’t be offended like her sister. So he sings a romantic song called Little One (and more on this singing choice later).

Tracy is visited by her groom to be, George, and both seem happy as he “appreciates her” and he’s happy he’s earned her affection. Meanwhile, Tracy’s “wicked” Uncle Willie (Louis Calhern) is in the throes of a meeting with the head editor of Spy magazine. Willie phones Tracy’s mother and tells her that he has been offered silence from this tabloid regarding her husband’s scandalous behaviour. The catch is that the editor wants a Spy reporter and a photographer to report on Tracy’s wedding day. Tracy is angry and she reluctantly agrees to the conditions of this blackmailing tabloid head for her mother and George’s sake. She promises to act “like a lady” with these “intruders“.

The Spy reporter, Mike Connors (Sinatra) and photographer, Liz Imbrie (Celeste Holm) are then duly dispatched to the Lords’ home. It’s clear both are unhappy about reporting this story, but as Mike says a guy’s gotta eat. Both agree after seeing the Lords’ home, decor and wedding presents, that being a millionaire is not the life they want. Mike and Liz dance and sing, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?  This song – and their conversation after this – implies that Mike and Liz are sort of an item, but he isn’t the marrying kind yet. Liz says she will wait for him to get it out of his system.

On meeting Mike and Liz, Caroline and Tracy ham it up as French-speaking ladies wearing big flouncy dresses and are overly dramatic in their introductions, speech and manners. While Caroline shows her ballet skills, Tracy is delightfully darkly condescending about their lives as she learns about them… After her mother joins them the family avoid all questions about their father. The reporters join the Lords for lunch, and Dexter who has appeared on the scene – with a wedding present – invites himself.

To prevent awkward questions, after Uncle Willie now arrives, Tracy introduces him to Mike and Liz as her father. Soon after this, her real father, Seth turns up and he is introduced as “Uncle Willie”. Needless to say, the truth of the men’s identities comes out. Liz’s camera also “accidentally” gets broken by Tracy, after some family photos are taken. These include an awkward photo with Tracy and George with Dexter.

Tracy’s love life gets complicated… Alone with Dexter, he gives her a wedding present of a model yacht, named True Love. This yacht is named after the yacht on which they spent their blissful honeymoon. This prompts Tracy to get a soppy flashback, as we see a happier Tracy and Dexter, and her happy, loved up and later in a duet with Bing Dexter singing True Love, on this much bigger yacht.

After getting annoyed with her father for blaming her for his dalliance, Tracy takes Mike out on a tour of the island. Tracy talks about her concerns about her neighbours having to move on due to high taxes. Mike begins to see her as a different and nicer person than the defensive one he met on his arrival, and then they both appear to be attracted to each other.

Tracy’s bachelor ball is held the night before her wedding, and as Tracy puts it is “quite progressive” as men can attend. After she gets drunk, George sees her kiss her ex-husband and gets her to lie down, before he stresses she can make another mistake. As he (even) guards the room from the outside, Tracy escapes from a window.

Meanwhile, Liz confesses to Dexter that she loves Mike. Then after Tracy bumps into a drunken Mike they get flirty. Tracy responds passionately when he kisses her and she’s ecstatic he sees her as a real woman. She and he then jump into the swimming pool. After the still drunk Mike carries a drunken wet Tracy to the house, he’s met by George who is clearly very unhappy with his bride to be, as it’s suggested that something more than romantic has happened between them and she’s not George’s perfect goddess anymore… and tune in to see just which of these men will win Tracy’s heart (and Caroline’s approval).

This tangled web of love is seen in this fabulously 1950s ambience filled film and the witty script, as Grace Kelly shines in her role of the much loved Tracy Lord. Grace Kelly gives a credible, emotional and at times playful performance. She is contrastingly appropriate to her relationships with these three men as she responds to them in line with the story, yet staying true to her character.

Up until recently, the only man in her life was her current fiancé, George Kittredge (John Lund), who put her on a pedestal and she clearly has little oompf (read oompf as the love that you feel for the one) with him. Another man is the journalist who has come to report on her wedding day – by the name of Mike Connors (Frank Sinatra) – who knocks her off the pedestal in spectacular (drunken) style and helps her realise, who and what she wants in love. There is also the reappearance of her still loved-up ex-husband, as the one who dusts her off after her fall and loves her as her and unconditionally.

Comparing these men… George seems bland, dull and boring, and she seems more platonic in her relationship with him. In contrast, I adored those scenes where Tracy opened up to Mike and was relaxed in his company. When Mike got drunk with Tracy, both appeared to laugh and have fun together, then acted on their attraction and she felt like a “flesh and blood woman”.

Her ex-husband, Dexter knows Tracy as a person in every way and loves her despite her flaws. And when you watch this film and add up those unsaid things, and remember Kelly’s script as sometimes said in a song, it’s clear that she still loves him. Be it her remembering their honeymoon, her singing that song he wrote, Samantha and more. But I’ll let you discover which of these men she chooses.

The songs from this musical are still remembered fondly many years decades after seeing this film. I particularly enjoyed Mike’s half-drunk bonding duet with Dexter. In the apt lyrics for Well, Did You Evah!, Sinatra’s Mike even makes a wee in-joke reference to Bing’s musical genre as a crooner,

Crosby : Ba, ba, ba bum!
Sinatra: Don’t dig that kind of crooning, chum!
Crosby: You must be one of the newer fellows!

This singing banter was made all the more amusing when I learned that as a child, Sinatra had been a bit of a fan of Bing Crosby. On research, I learned this song was not originally written for this musical, but it is a better fit than the song Little One.

This love song was sung by Bing Dexter to Caroline, and really felt inappropriate as he sang this song to the much younger sister of the woman he loves (and once married). His dialogue after this did show some insights into this, as Dexter adds,

Right song, but the wrong girl.

The fun execution and choreography to the song, Who Wants to Be A Millionaire impressed me and I enjoyed Holms and Sinatra’s scenes, chemistry and on-screen rapport. I must admit also I admired Holm and Sinatra’s ability to dance around the glassware and not break anything.

I also applauded the idea of the musical prologue  – in High Society Calypso – with Armstrong on the vocals, but did hate his big band number with Crosby. This bing band number felt more like an interlude and a chance to make more popcorn. My favourite song, True Love is written about HERE, in my short and sweet review of this song in this movie.

Helen Rose designed the costumes with costume jewellery by Joan Joseff.  Jodeff also worked as a costume jeweller on the biopic Liz: The Elizabeth Taylor Story (1995), the TV Movie version of Elvis and Me (1988) (aka Priscilla Presley’s first filmed version of her autobiography) and as an uncredited crew member in the Prime Time Soap, Dynasty (1981-89). However, the engagement ring worn by Tracy belongs to Grace.

Grace Kelly’s dresses and her other costume changes showed her as very stylishly chic and very much the 1950s high society girl. Her feminine dresses were designed by Helen Rose and complemented her figure beautifully. Rose later collaborated with this actress and created Grace’s real-life wedding dress when this actress literally married her handsome Prince, Prince Rainier of Monaco. Rose also designed costumes for Grace in The Swan (1956) and for films such as Butterfield 8 (1960), Callaway Went Thataway /The Star Said No (1951) and Father’s Little Dividend (1951).

Interestingly, the last time I saw Bing Crosby on screen, was as he acted as a serial killer in Dr Cook’s Garden (1971). Unlike High Society, he didn’t burst into song every time he murdered someone. This underrated Ira Levin TV Movie was his swan song. Yet if you imagine High Society had been a prequel for this TV movie, oh Lord, he would have killed the two men in his way for True Love… as ol Satch suggests in his prologue,

But, Brother Dexter, just trust your Satch,
To stop that wedding and kill that match.

But luckily High Society isn’t a horror. As instead, we get a witty, romantic and relevant time capsule in a 1950s musical movie. I recommend this film instead, by altering the lines of the Well, Did You Evah! song and as we return to Crosby and Astaire, in their bromantic song and dance moment… One. More. Time…

What a swell party movie, a swell party movie, a swellegant, elegant party movie this is!

 

Weeper Rating:  😦 😦 😦 😦 😦  /10

Handsqueeze Rating: 🙂 🙂 🙂  🙂 🙂 🙂 /10

Hulk Rating: ‎ ‎    /10

 

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The 2nd Bing and Bob Blogathon 2024, No 13

This post was added to Hoofers and Honeys of the Classic Movie Era/KN Winiarski Writes’ 2nd Annual Bing and Bob Blogathon. Other posts with this cast include,

• Grace Kelly in Robert Montgomery Presents.
• High Society was reviewed HERE in a list of MGM Musicals.
• Celeste Holm in Magnum P I, Falcon Crest, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island and more.
• Sidney Blackmer in  Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Thriller (American Version) and more.
• Frank Sinatra in Young at Heart, The Manchurian Candidate, The Soundtrack of My Classic Movie Life and more.
• Bing Crosby stars in my Golden Hollywood Greats list and  Dr Cook’s Garden.

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