Today, we have a proper Classically Obsessed post, featuring two actual classic films in a post about remakes! I think we prefer to believe that remakes are the result of a modern culture that has clearly run out of ideas. You know, the same culture that brought you Fast Five? I submit that this is not the case. Shakespeare took like half his stories at least from someone else. Speaking of which, how many times has Hamlet been performed? (Speaking of which, you should totally watch the one with David Tennant. I hope I didn't mention that already.) Remakes. And this film. In 1956, someone at MGM got the idea to remake The Philadelphia Story only this time with singing. What you get is this film.
So, let's start with the story. Tracy Lord (Katharine Hepburn/Grace Kelly) is a society heiress on the eve of her wedding to George Kittredge, a man of he people who has worked his way to the top. She is annoyed by the memory of her first marriage to C.K. Dexter Haven (Cary Grant/Bing Crosby), a ne'er do well of the upper class. She struggles with her father's infidelities and also with her own inabiity to look past people's weaknesses. In the midst of this, to keep news of her father's dalliances from becoming public, she allows a reporter, Mike Conner (Jimmy Stewart/Frank Sinatra) and a photographer, Elizabeth Imbrie (Ruth Hussey/Celeste Holm), from Spy Magazine into her wedding. There's a crazy little sister, an uncle with wandering hands and she almost falls in love with Mike, waking up thinking she's slept with him, which somehow she didn't which is more perplexing in the remake because well, you know Frank Sinatra, right? The only real difference is the first is in Philadelphia (hence the name) and the second is set in Newport during the weekend of the Newport Jazz Festival which also gives the characters an excuse to sing. Did I mention High Society has Louis Armstrong and songs by Cole Porter? Also, no opening scene where Dexter shoves Tracy to thr ground, which is odd in a film with Bing Crosby. Come on, people, you were thinking it, too. Anyway, it's a great opening scene, no dialogue, says everything about these two characters. In High Society you get Satchmo.
Which is awesome, but clearly this is a different kind of film, which is interesting considering so much of High Society is lifted straight out of The Philadelphia Story. Whole reams of dialogue, sometimes it looks like the costumes. There isn't one thing in High Society that doesn't come from The Philadelphia Story, other than the singing. Anyway, I love the way the jazz band functions as the Greek Chorus in this film.
But honestly, who thought, "Sure, we'll put Bing Crosby in the Cary Grant part." By what stretch of the imagination should Bing Crosby be in the Cary Grant part? It's the only part of this remake that seems off, like couldn't Grace Kelly do better? Oh, well, I guess when Frank Sinatra is in the supporting role, you have to go higher up the food chain of 1956. Meanwhile, I showed the following clip during a presentation about Frank Sinatra one time and the girl who had just presented on Bing Crosby glared at me the whole time. It was very hard not to say, "Bitch, none of my guy's kids killed themselves while they watched his movie."
Anyway, Katharine Hepburn and Grace Kelly. Isn't that the most impossible comparison? They're both elegant, they both were in films with Cary Grant (Come to think of it, Grace Kelly was also in Rear Window with Jimmy Stewart.) and they both scream class. Yet, they're so different. Katharine Hepburn is the tenacious, fiery redhead and Grace Kelly is the cool, impossible blonde. By the way, I love the way Grace Kelly plays drunk.
Then Jimmy Stewart and Frank Sinatra. How weird is that? Jimmy clearly has an aw, shucks kind of part in his performance even as he professes his loathing of the rich, we know he's really insecure. You never get that with Frank. Somewhere after the Oscar, I think Frank became incapable of playing insecure. For example, watch him in this scene with Grace Kelly.
And also, let us fully appreciate the supporting women in these films. Ruth Hussey in the former and Celeste Holm in the latter as Elizabeth Imbrie, playing the part of the spunky girl photographer with a dry sense of humor, who will still cut a bitch if she has to. Don't make her have to. Celeste also gets this song with Frank, which is one of my favorites. Actually, almost every song in High Society is one of my favorites. It's that kind of movie.
So, this is a rare remake in which we took a good movie and made another good movie. It's bizarre. I don't even know what to say. Opinions, anyone? Let me know in the comments section. Also, Bing Crosby apologists, let me know in the comments section.
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