There’s a 4K UHD disc of High Society arriving on 6.24. Forget it. Too schmaltzy. Not worth the candle.
I streamed an HD version of High Society three or four years ago, and despite my knowing the source material (Philip Barry and Donald Ogden‘s The Philadelpha Story) backwards and forwards, I began losing interest very quickly. I wanted to savor Paul C. Vogel‘s scrumptious VistaVision visuals, of course, but the tone and attitude of this 1956 film is flaccid…smug and bland and about as un-peppy as an ostensibly clever society comedy like this could be.
The director…wait, who directed it again? Charles Walters, primarily known for light, glossy musicals (Lili, Easter Parade, Summer Stock) and being a respected choreographer.
The Philadelpha Story (’40), directed by George Cukor, has the non-musical pep! It captures the flush, jaded, fleet-of-mind cynicism that…uhm, I’ve long presumed goes hand in hand with having been born into old wealth.
Katharine Hepburn starred in Barry’s original, tune-free 1939 play as well as the film. Joseph Cotten played the Cary Grant / Bing Crosby role of C. K. Dexter Haven, and Van Heflin played reporter Macauley Connor, conveyed by James Stewart in ’40 and Frank Sinatra in ’56.
Honestly? I turned off the High Society streamer before it ended. Plus Crosby, 53 at the time, was way too old for Grace Kelly, who was 24 or 25 during filming. And Kelly couldn’t hold a candle to Hepburn…sorry.
