Charles Walters’ High Society offers a melodic and appealing variation on The Philadelphia Story.
The Production: 4/5
Take Philip Barry’s social satire The Philadelphia Story, add in a handful of catchy, colorful Cole Porter tunes, and give it to a cast of great professionals under the hand of a tried-and-true director of musicals, and what emerges is Charles Walters’ High Society, an entertaining romantic musical comedy that even if it doesn’t match the urbane sophistication of the original play makes for a nifty first cousin to the original. The Warner Archive release in ultra high definition with a remixed Atmos soundtrack is a wow!
On the eve of aristocrat Tracy Lord’s (Grace Kelly) second marriage, this time to stuffy business mogul George Kittredge (John Lund), songwriting first husband C. K. Dexter-Haven (Bing Crosby) begins pulling strings to insure that things don’t go smoothly still being in love with Tracy himself. He schedules the Newport Jazz Festival headlined by Louis Armstrong and his band at the same time as the nuptials. Tracy’s Uncle Willie (Louis Calhern), likewise against Tracy’s choice, arranges for reporter Mike Connor (Frank Sinatra) and photographer Liz Imbrie (Celeste Holm) to cover the occasion for Spy Magazine hoping they can also cause a disruption to Tracy’s intentions. What no one plans on is for Mike to fall for Tracy thus adding to the list of suitors vying for her hand, and with Tracy gaining a slow but steady realization of her own foibles, it’s anyone’s guess what the wedding day will bring.
Even with a change of locale from Philadelphia to Rhode Island, John Patrick’s screen adaptation of Barry’s original play takes quite a few scenes verbatim from the script with Cole Porter’s songs used to accentuate emotions rather than using the music to move the plot along. After the middling score for The Pirate, Porter had gone back to Broadway contributing four outstanding scores (three of them hits including Kiss Me Kate, Can-Can, and Silk Stockings) before returning to Hollywood. His output here is ballad heavy to be sure, but they’re lovely ballads (Sinatra’s “You’re Sensational” besting Crosby’s “I Love You, Samantha,” Crosby and Kelly’s Oscar-nominated “True Love” a bit more appealing than Crosby’s “Little One” or Sinatra’s “Mind If I Make Love to You”). But three other items add some much-needed variety to the musical proceedings: Crosby and Sinatra tipsily share a song for the first time, interpolated from Dubarry Was a Lady “Well, Did You Evah?” (ironically, this film’s director sang the song originally in the Broadway show with his co-star Betty Grable), Sinatra and Holm’s sardonic “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” and, the film’s best number, “Now You Has Jazz” as the Old Groaner joins with Louis Armstrong explaining the vagaries of the genre. Through it all, director Charles Walters keeps a steady pace and while not doing anything fancy with shot placement manages a smoothly blithe version of the tale.
The three top-billed stars excel with what they’re best at: Bing Crosby’s voice has never been mellower, and his understated and appealing acting keeps his character’s unpleasantries at bay. Grace Kelly, in her last film before becoming Princess of Monaco, looks lovely, acts properly pompous before her champagne indulgence takes her down a peg and opens her eyes, and sings well enough to have earned a gold record for her million-selling duet with Crosby. Frank Sinatra’s voice also sparkles in his two duets and two solos though his drunk act is a bit overdone. Celeste Holm as the overlooked Liz adds some acidic charm while standing on the sidelines. John Lund as fiancé George Kittredge is properly stiff and haughty while Louis Calhern in his last role is wily and pretty spry. Tracy’s other relatives played by Sidney Blackmer (father), Margalo Gillmore (mother), and Lydia Reed (sister) are all fine but have less impact here than their characters had in the original screen treatment under George Cukor’s direction. Louis Armstrong serves as a kind of Greek chorus introducing the film with a calypso version of the title song and commenting sporadically on Dexter’s progress or lack thereof in winning Tracy back.
Video: 4.5/5
3D Rating: NA
The original VistaVision 1.85:1 theatrical aspect ratio is faithfully rendered in these 2160p/1080p transfers using the HEVC/AVC codecs. In the UHD disc, image quality is spectacular, often so lifelike that one could seemingly step right into the picture with its clarity and depth. Dolby Vision/HDR gives added luster to the Technicolor processing leading to beautiful skin tones and true color reproduction throughout. There is one outrageously awful stock shot used twice to establish setting that is so soft and grainy that it looks to be from some other film, but, otherwise, the picture is exemplary. The movie has been divided into 32 chapters.
Audio: 5/5
The Dolby Atmos newly remixed soundtrack is a revelation with beautifully delivered music and vocal separations throughout. Though there is occasional directional dialogue, most of it and the song lyrics are rooted to the center channel with the orchestral accompaniment spread bountifully throughout the remaining soundstage. The discs feature the almost five-minute overture, and, for purists, there is a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track, but I confess I only listened to make sure it was there and spent the majority of the time with the new surround mix.
Special Features: 3.5/5
Both the UHD and the Blu-ray discs contained in this package contain the same bonus material.
Cole Porter in Hollywood (8:59, HD): Peter Fitzgerald’s featurette finds actress Celeste Holm narrating the story of the making of High Society.
Premiere Newsreel (1:07, HD)
Radio Promos (15:36): several radio promotions combined into a montage where it’s obvious song excerpts from the soundtrack recording were meant to be inserted. Bing Crosby does the heavy lifting though Frank Sinatra and Grace Kelly pop in near the end to add a comment or two.
Millionaire Droopy (6:56, HD) 1956 animated Cinemascope short.
Trailers (4:03, 4:13, 0:46; HD)
Overall: 4/5
Charles Walters’ High Society offers a melodic and appealing variation on The Philadelphia Story all wrapped up in Warner Archive’s much anticipated and most welcome ultra-high definition release. Recommended!
Matt has been reviewing films and television professionally since 1974 and has been a member of Home Theater Forum’s reviewing staff since 2007, his reviews now numbering close to three thousand. During those years, he has also been a junior and senior high school English teacher earning numerous entries into Who’s Who Among America’s Educators and spent many years treading the community theater boards as an actor in everything from Agatha Christie mysteries to Stephen Sondheim musicals.
Post Disclaimer
Some of our content may contain marketing links, which means we will receive a commission for purchases made via those links. In our editorial content, these affiliate links appear automatically, and our editorial teams are not influenced by our affiliate partnerships. We work with several providers (currently Skimlinks and Amazon) to manage our affiliate relationships. You can find out more about their services by visiting their sites.
Similar threads
- Ronald Epstein
- Blu-ray and UHD
2 3 4 Tags warner- Robert Harris
- Blu-ray and UHD
3 4 5