Kelly plays the spoilt heiress Tracy Samantha Lord, a rather icy perfectionist (this generation would say 'control freak'), who is due to marry the stuffy George Kitteridge (John Lund) when her ex-husband C K Dexter-Haven (Bing Crosby), unexpectedly turns up... Still in love with her, he puts in place a subtle plan to win back her heart. Throw in an incorrigible little sister, a playboy dad, a couple of snoops from Spy magazine, Louis Armstrong (as himself) and buckets of champagne... and now you has jazz!

With a witty script and quite the line-up (it was the first time Crosby and Frank Sinatra, playing Spy magazine reporter, appeared on screen together), the romantic comedy is carried by one of Cole Porter's best - and one of his last - musical scores which includes Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, Well, Did You Evah?, Now You Has Jazz, and Kelly and Crosby's moving duet True Love.

Rarely are remakes a patch on the original but in this case High Society is an exception. That said, however, The Philadelphia Story - with an equally strong cast that includes Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant and James Stewart - is as swell a party...

Like most rereleases of older movies onto DVD, what actually makes you update your video copy are the bonus features. This version includes a short documentary on 'the making of...', narrated by Celeste Holm (born 1919, who played Spy magazine photographer). Although it makes for entertaining viewing (throwing up little snippets such as how Kelly's father warned Prince Rainier of Monaco before they got married she was a crap driver), one can't help thinking that someone cruelly substituted Holm's oxygen tank with helium. Which is slightly distracting. Other special features are a nostalgic newsreel of the film's 1956 première, the original theater trailer and, rather bizarrely, 'Millionaire Droopy', a five-minute cartoon about two dogs (Spike and Droopy) battling over an inheritance, which uh... has absolutely no relevance to High Society at all.

Overall verdict? Thoroughly entertaining and an absolute must for fans of classic musicals and all that jazz...

A very bad new edition
Review date: 2003-04-27 Rating: 6 out of 10

This underrated gem from the second Golden Age of Hollywood musicals deserves the best presentation possible, and this one is NOT it. It is blurry and unfocused, lacks definition, colours that fade into on another.
To make things even worse, the songs have no optional subtitles, which to me is a crime with musical comedy. The lyrics to this movie are great, they are sassy, they are clever, and they are the sole reason for subtitles on musicals, but here you don't get them for some reason. And neither can you skip directly into the songs.
The sound is passable, though, and the film has some of Cole Porter's most wonderful, most intimate songs, such as the rhumba 'Mind If I Make Love to You', sung by Sinatra, the spectacularly musical 'Now You Has Jazz' with Crosby and Armstrong, and the hilarious duet between Crosby and Sinatra, 'Well, Did You Evah!'.
It has always been popular to say that the comedy 'The Philadelphia Story', of which 'High Society' is a fairly obedient musical remake, is the superior film, but watch them both without prejudice,and you might find that nothing quite tops the exuberance, drunk on champagne as the characters are most of the time, of this film, the driness of Bing Crosby, commenting on a lame line from one of the others, "Oh, I wish I had said that!". Wonderful.
But, again: this is not the version that you want.

Worth re-watching.
Review date: 2002-11-02 Rating: 10 out of 10

By now you know this is a remake of "The Philadelphia Story" and may have a tendency to compare them. I did this my self at first; then I realized they each have their strong points. I even get them mixed up now and them. All you have to do is remember this is the musical. My favorite song in the list is "True Love". Of course as with everything different people are bound to have different favorites and there are plenty to chose from.
In case you are new to the story, basically C.K. Dexter-Haven (Bing Crosby) and Tracy Samantha Lord (Grace Kelly) are divorced. Tracy is getting married again. The clan is gathering. We watch as they go through the motions and emotions of courting and reevaluating their lives.

Product Details/Specifications