Movie. High Society, 1956. (HIx: 1)
A remake of Philadelphia Story; so I won’t repeat the synopsis. The differences:
1. It is done as a musical. They even drag Louis Armstrong in to add a couple numbers. The song “True Love” became a big hit, and it is indeed fetching. Many of the other numbers, and Satchmo’s mincing, faux-bashful hamming it up, are just annoying.
2. Thus the cast is made musical, and looks like this:
| Name | Role | Phila. Story | High Society |
| Dexter | Rich husband | Cary Grant | Bing Crosby |
| Mike | Poet-intellectual | James Stewart | Frank Sinatra |
| George | The bore | John Howard | John Lund |
| Tracy | The girl | Katherine Hepburn | Grace Kelly |
3. Here, Mike (actually: Macaulay) is not so much the poet and intellectual as just a swaggering cocky reporter. They needed to adapt the role to Frank Sinatra’s persona.
4. The convenient exposure of George as a hypocrite is left out; the attack on him at the end is thought to be sufficient.
5. The venue is switched from Philadelphia to Newport. In this way, the general hollowness of the upper class is paralleled by their literal decline through taxes, turning the mansions into empty husks that can scarcely be given away.
Thus, the tone is even more decadent and cynical than the original, expressed succinctly in the gay and vicious line in one of the songs:
Have you heard? it’s in the stars…
next July we collide with Mars
(they drink to it)
That about sums it up.