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

♥♥♥

 

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?

Going My Way (1944) or, Benign Father O'Malley

♥♥♥

 

A very red-dressed woman and a man in a black frock amid different other elements make up this disheveled poster for Leo McCarey's Going My Way    

 

A Catholic priest from Illinois gets sent to a New York parish in financial troubles, but his modern, fresh attitudes give rise to difficulties with the church's aging father, who built it.

Going My Way is written by Frank Butler (Untamed (1940)) and Frank Cavett (Rulers of the Sea (1939)), from a story by co-writer/producer/director Leo McCarey (Society Secrets (1921)).

Bing Crosby (Variety Girl (1947)) is appealing with his gleaming eyes and boyish manners, but it is Barry Fitzgerald (The Sea Wolf (1941)) as the aging Father Fitzgibbon who is the heart of the film and its ace, giving a warm-hearted and deeply funny, awards-worthy supporting performance.

Going My Way is troubled by labored length and two sub-plots that don't really work: Best is the one about the young girl who marries a young janitor; worse is the more central one about Father O'Malley's (Crosby) old friend and sort-of love interest Linden (Risë Stevens (Carnegie Hall (1947)). - Despite Stevens being a real-life opera singer, her opera-miming in Going My Way comes off as highly unbelievable.

Going My Way is edifying and full of warm optimism more than anything else, obviously greatly sought after in its day, when it became a sensational smash hit.

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Unknown

Box office: 16.3 mil. $ gross/6.5 mil. $ rentals (North America only)

= Uncertain - but likely a mega-hit

[Going My Way premiered 3 May (New York) and runs 126 minutes. Shooting took place in California, including Los Angeles, from August - October 1943. IMDb lists a 16.3 mil. $ US gross for the film, and Variety listed a 6.5 mil. $ North-American rental for the film in 1950. It was the highest-grossing film of 1944. The 1945 sequel was reportedly made for 1.3 mil. $, and so the cost for Going My Way was likely not more than 1 mil. $, making it a mega-hit. The film was nominated for 10 Oscars, winning 7; for Best Picture, Actor, Supporting Actor (Fitzgerald), Director, Original Story, Screenplay, Original Song (Swinging on a Star by Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Burke). It lost Best Actor (Fitzgerald - nominated both as Actor and Supporting Actor, a unique feat that would be made impossible soon after by a change in the rules), Cinematography - black/white (Lionel Lindon (The Final Hour (1965))) to Joseph LaShelle for Laura and Editing to Wilson. It also won 3 Golden Globes and 2 National Board of Review awards, among other honors. McCarey returned with Crosby for mega-hit sequel The Bells of St. Mary's (1945). McCarey returned with The Bells of St. Mary's (1945). Crosby returned in The Road to Victory (1944, short) and theatrically in The Princess and the Pirate (1944). Going My Way is fresh at 81 % with a 6.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Going My Way?