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Author
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Topic: High Society
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Paul Adsett
Film God
Posts: 5003
From: USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted March 31, 2007 03:37 PM
High Society MGM 1956
120 mins, 2400ft, color
Derann films
High Society was the big MGM moneymaker for 1956. The film is a musical remake of an earlier MGM film, the 1943 ‘The Philadelphia Story’ starring Kathryn Hepburn and Cary Grant.
The musical remake has a glittering cast, including Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Grace Kelly and Celeste Holm. Providing much of the musical back up is the inimitable Louis ‘Satchmo’ Armstrong.
Set in Newport Rhode Island at the occasion of the famed Newport Jazz Festival, the story is typically light fare for musical pictures, concerning the efforts of Dexter Haven (Bing) to recapture his former socialite wife Samantha(Kelly) on the eve of her second wedding. Sinatra and Celeste Holm are reporters sent by ‘Spy Magazine’ to cover this important social event. There are some amusing scenes throughout the film, Bing is his usual cool, laid back self, Sinatra has his eyes focussed on the icily beautiful Kelly, and the musical numbers fit very well into the story, with many Cole Porter numbers which have now become standards, such as 'Samantha', 'True Love', 'You're Sensational'. . But there are two absolute knockout numbers for which this film is always remembered, the brilliant 'That's Jazz' with Crosby and Armstrong, and the wonderful ‘ 'Well Did You Evah' sung by Bing and a slightly intoxicated Sinatra, set in the lavish bar and library of Kelly's mansion home.
The Derann S8 print of this film is generally excellent. Definition and focus is pin sharp throughout. My only complaint was a tendency towards the blue end of the color spectrum in some scenes, and some slightly washed out interior scenes mainly in the second half of the first reel of the film. But most of the film looks stunning with great contrast and rich colors, and the film always looks great through all the important musical numbers. The original film format was Vistavision, so there must be some left and right cropping of the picture frame going on, but you are never aware of this at all, there are no ‘half people’ in any of the scenes, and I don’t think there is any panning and scanning. Interesting note, you can just see the horizontal perfs of the original Vistavision print if you run up the frame line during the opening MGM logo, and the shadow of a boom microphone is clearly visible in one of the interior scenes.
The mono sound track was disappointing. Do what I did, and re-record in stereo from the DVD to get superb stereo renditions of those great Porter numbers.
Print A
Sound B (mono)
Very highly recommended
2 x 400ft Digest MGM
This film was also released by MGM in a 2 x 400ft double album version. This is a really superb digest with all the musical numbers played out in their entirety. Print quality is needle sharp and the mono sound is very good. The original color was excellent, but unfortunately my digest print has faded badly, so don’t buy a digest print unless you are sure the color is still good. But very highly recommended if you can still find a good one.
[ April 01, 2007, 08:53 AM: Message edited by: Paul Adsett ]
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