High Society (1956) - Diminished returns in glamorous MGM remake

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Bright, glamorous and joyous elements invite from this pleasant poster for Charles Walters' High Society

A loaded, beautiful young woman is remarrying a man who is as interesting as an ironing board.

High Society is written by John Patrick (Born Reckless (1937)), based on the 1939 play The Philadelphia Story by Philip Barry (Brights Star (1935)), and directed by Charles Walters (Good News (1947)). It is a remake of The Philadelphia Story (1940).

It is a shallow, almost trite musical comedy with Grace Kelly (High Noon (1952)) as the beauty in question; Bing Crosby (Variety Girl (1947)) as the ex-husband hanging around the palace, and Frank Sinatra (The Joker Is Wild (1957)) as a tabloid journalist, who complicates matters. Everything is quite predictable, and the dialog is not as snappy and funny as one would wish.

On top of that everyone seems to be drunk or hung over in this glamorous fluff about no one being perfect.

 

Related post:

 

Charles Walters: Cimarron (1960) - A fine epic western settler adaptation (co-director)

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 2.8 mil. $

Box office: 8.2 mil. $

= Box office success (returned 2.92 times its cost)

[High Society was released 17 July (USA) and runs 111 minutes. Shooting took place from January - March 1956 in Rhode Island and California, including in Los Angeles. Cole Porter was paid 250k $ for his score for the film, his first in 8 years. The film was the 8th highest-grossing in North America in 1956 with 5.6 mil. $ (68.3 % of the total gross). The Eddie Mannix ledger recounts a profit of 1.1 mil. $. The film was nominated for 2 Oscars: Best Song (True Love by Cole Porter), lost to Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera) by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans from The Man Who Knew Too Much, and Best Score (Musical) (Johnny Green and Saul Chaplin), lost to Alfred Newman and Ken Darby for The King and I. Walters returned with Don't Go Near the Water (1957). Crosby returned in Showdown at Ulcer Gulch (1956, short), The Phil Silvers Show (1957, TV-series) and theatrically in Man on Fire (1957); Sinatra in Johnny Concho (1956); for Kelly High Society was her last film; she retired to marry Prince Rainier of Monaco and be princess there after production finished. High Society is fresh at 82 % with a 7.10/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of High Society?

Alive Inside/Alive Inside: A Story of Music and Memory (2014) - Music reaches the lost in Rossato-Bennett's emotionally riveting documentary

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An evocative, pleasant poster for Michael Rossato-Bennett's Alive Inside

QUICK REVIEW:

This documentary follows a passionate man, who shows us how otherwise withered, sad, introverted, nearly lost elderly with Alzheimers (but also a mental patient and a sclerosis patient) are reinvigorated and reconnect with a sense of joy and identity by listening to music that has been important in their lives.

Alive Inside is an extremely touching film, which both contains disheartening footage from nursery homes and a lot of very uplifting and inspirational footage with people, whose lives are changing due to the power of music.
It is very well put together and presented here by documentary filmmaker Michael Rossato-Bennett (Period Portrait (2008), short documentary), feature debuting here.
My only inference: The film does not offer music experiences for its audiences itself. At just 78 minutes, I think it could have definitely elected to do so.

Watch the amazing trailer for the amazing film here

Cost: 0.6 mil. $
Box office: 0.25 mil. $
= Mega-flop
[The film was partially funded through a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign. It premiered in Sundance, where it won the Audience Award: U.S. Documentary. It received glowing reviews but not the stampede of audiences it deserved. It's out on DVD, Bluray and via streaming services, so search it out.]

What do you think of Alive Inside?