Movie Review: High Society (1956)

Rating: ★★★

          

Picture credits: Snap/Shuttershock via tatler.com

This delightful comedy musical is most conspicuously an adaptation of 1940's The Philadelphia Story and a laudable one at that. The narrative revolves around socialite Tracy Lord as she struggles over her infatuation for three different men just before the day of her wedding, one of them being her ex-husband. Needless to say, the three men return her affections on account of her timeless beauty, charm and spontaneous wit - Tracy Lord being portrayed by the alluring and beguiling Grace Kelly herself. The film features a stellar performance from Bing Crosby as ex-husband C.K. Dexter Haven, with this particular film comprising some of his best vocal chops to date. The reporter who is supposed to chronicle Tracy's wedding to her second husband is played by none other than Ol' Blue Eyes himself. Frank Sinatra delivers a "swell" performance as reporter Mike Connor, singing quite a few memorable songs from the movie including "Who wants to be a millionaire?". Nonetheless, his performance is largely overshadowed by those of Crosby and Kelly. One of the more memorable musical numbers of the movie however was furnished by both Sinatra and Crosby breaking into a rendition of "Well Did You Evah!", with some uplifting dance moves and an amalgamation of deep-voiced crescendos on both ends. 

Grace Kelly delivers a superb performance as Tracy Lord, however this is not one of her more memorable outings - the role belonged to Katharine Hepburn who was more suited to it. In the course of the movie, it seemed that Kelly was trying to re-enact the magic that Hepburn had brought to screen with the character in 1940, however it seemed like she was trying too hard to do so. Her acting seemed a bit pretentious for a role that was augmented by Hepburn's all natural easygoing devil-may-care attitude. Withal, the chemistry between Kelly and all three of her co-stars seemed lacking as there was no je ne sais quoi to it. 

Apart from these critiques, the film was an overall delight with its memorable dialogues and aesthetic setting, and is a sure one to watch with a very special and memorable performance by jazz legend Louis Armstrong as himself - he both opens the the movie with a tour de force performance of the song "High Society", and closes it with a triumphant display of his monumental skills on his seraphic trumpet.