High Society (1956)

First the good- Louis Armstrong-the grace Kelly and frank Sinatra your sensational number a convincing flirtation.grace Kelly was lot more attractive and less irritating than Katherine Hepburn in the 1940 film. the rest- Bing ludicrous as the ex suitor- looked old enough to be her grandpa. john lund twice as attractive made you wonder why she had a pensioner fixation Instead.Frank Sinatra with black hair looking like a left over from the munsters sang well enough but wasn't convincing. as a newspaper hack -then there was the always middle aged Celeste Holm in girly dresses looking like Sinatra's ma- finally there was father figure looking like serial killer, top that up with awful colour and ghastly sets- the garden was particularly awful.As it was Kelly's last film she looked as though she was already the true princess she became- .there was sense of her being above the whole dreary caper . all in all flat champagne with a plausible title change from high society to slumming it

High Society is the musical version of 1940's The Philadelphia Story, originally starring Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, and James Stewart. The problem? The original story isn't any good to begin with! Unfortunately, keeping the plot and adding songs doesn't help it turn into a good movie.In this version, Grace Kelly plays the woman every man falls in love with. She's engaged to John Lund, but her ex-husband Bing Crosby tries to win her back—and to top it all off, reporter Frank Sinatra falls in love with her while writing about her upcoming wedding! The only reason to watch this movie—unless you actually liked the original—is to watch Bing and Frankie sing and act together. In their famous number "Well Did You Evah?", they playfully make fun of each other's singing styles.If you absolutely love Cole Porter, or Grace Kelly or Frankie, I guess you can watch this one. I didn't like it. I didn't like the original. I won't spoil anything, but in both versions, I was rooting for someone who didn't end up with the girl. And when you hate an ending that much—even as famous an ending as this story's—it's hard to like the rest of the movie.

C. K. Dexter-Haven (Bing Crosby) invites a band (Louis Armstrong and His Band) to his Newport estate to practice. His neighbor and former love Tracy Lord (Grace Kelly) is getting married to the respectable George Kittredge. She disapproves and broke up with Dexter over his lowly music career. Tabloid Spy Magazine uses scandalous information about her father to blackmail the family to gain access to the wedding. They send Mike Connor (Frank Sinatra) and photographer Liz Imbrie. Tracy decides to fake out the tabloid by switching uncle Willy and her father.The cast is high-powered. Based on The Philadelphia Story, a musical remake is not absolutely necessary. It doesn't have quite the same amount of screwball fun. Grace Kelly may not have the comedic chops to deliver fully on the role. She gives off an air of someone trying to be quirky. Part of it is that her character is a little fake but it does translate into Kelly faking it. She's too high maintenance to be appealing. Crosby and Sinatra have the easy charms. I'm not a big fan of the Cole Porter songs. This has all the fire power in the world but it is not quite as fun.

Directed by Charles Walters, with a screenplay by John Patrick that was based on Philip Barry's play, this Musical remake of Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn's last pairing (The Philadelphia Story (1940)) features Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly as the formerly married couple, Dexter Haven and Tracy Lord. Frank Sinatra and Celeste Holm play reporters Mike Connor and Liz Imbrie, the characters that (Oscar winner) James Stewart and Ruth Hussey played in the original, while John Lund replaces John Howard as George Kittredge, Tracy's new fiancé. Louis Calhern plays Uncle Willie (Roland Young had previously) and Sidney Blackmer plays Tracy's father Seth (in lieu of John Halliday); Margalo Gillmore and Lydia Reed replace Mary Nash and Virginia Weidler, Tracy's mother and younger sister respectively. Louis Armstrong plays himself, a friend of Dexter's, whose band comes to play in a local contest (Henry Daniell was in the non-musical first film). Cole Porter's song "True Love" and the Johnny Green-Saul Chaplin Score were Oscar nominated.Wealthy Dexter (Crosby) is still in love with (and still lives in close proximity to) his ex-wife of two years Tracy (Kelly), and is hoping to disrupt her pending marriage to George (Lund), a duller self-made man who's put Tracy on a pedestal. Tracy's younger sister Caroline (Reed; Weidler's name was Dinah) still loves, and prefers Dexter, who invites his trumpet playing friend Satchmo to visit to play a song he'd written for her loud enough to be heard next door.Because of her father's dalliance (e.g. to keep the story from being published), Tracy must allow reporter Mike and photographer Liz (Sinatra and Holm) from "Spy Magazine" to cover her nuptials. Initially, she tries to pass her more acceptable Uncle Willie (Calhern) off as her father, but Willie's a womanizer too and he puts the moves on Liz, who's has eyes for her co-worker Mike. When Tracy's father (Blackmer) puts his daughter in her place, calling her intolerant and cold, she decides to let off steam by going for a drive with Mike and, later, getting drunk (with him) the night before her wedding. All this, eventually, works to Dexter's, and Liz's advantage.