How could a movie with so much going for it be so bad?
The plot, such as there is one, is misogynist. Tracy Lord is very beautiful. She poses in glamorous costumes. People -- her little sister, her mother, her father, her ex-husband, her fiancé -- walk up to her and communicate to her what a failure as a human being she is.
Tracy is told she is hard, virginal, cold. Her father is really, really mad at her because he left his wife, her mother, for a much younger stripper, and Tracy didn't show him any "warmth." So, that makes her a -- well, you know the word.
It's all so icky.
The original play was purchased and tailored for Katharine Hepburn, at a time when she was considered box office poison. She was considered too haughty, too upper class, not warm enough.
So, Tracy Lord / Katharine Hepburn / Grace Kelly is really beautiful, and aristocratic, and we all envy her for that, and she is starred in a role where people give her a hard time for being beautiful and aristocratic. Ew!
Maybe any of this would be tolerable if "High Society" were not so starchy, dull, immobile, incomprehensible and dead on the screen. "High Society" is boringly staged. Actors pose flat on the screen, as if they were in a stage play. Action is slow and unbelievable.
"High Society" is meant to take place among multimillionaires. You could recreate the sets by shopping at a Salvation Army. They are simply tacky.
Bing Crosby, one of the greats, appears old enough to be Tracy's father, and this does nothing to add to the romance between them. His character makes no sense whatsoever. He's the millionaire grandson of a robber baron, and also, somehow, personal friends with Louis Armstrong, and a great jazz singer? This doesn't follow the logic of conventional musicals -- Crosby / Dexter-Haven performs on a stage in front of his fellow millionaires. I don't think so.
Frank Sinatra sings one good song, and that's fun, but they did something weird to his hair -- is that ... could it be ... SHOE POLISH???!!! Grace Kelly is a very beautiful woman, but she needs a good director -- Alfred Hitchcock, say -- to use her. Watching her pose in fabulous costumes gets a bit old.
Celeste Holm is utterly wasted. She and Sinatra have as much chemistry together as ... well ... as Celeste Holm and Frank Sinatra.
Tracy's father is one of the most unpleasant characters ever written, and he's played by a B movie actor who, after this, went back to his successful career as a crash test dummy.
Skip it. Not all films from the classic era and featuring classic stars are worth seeing.
The plot, such as there is one, is misogynist. Tracy Lord is very beautiful. She poses in glamorous costumes. People -- her little sister, her mother, her father, her ex-husband, her fiancé -- walk up to her and communicate to her what a failure as a human being she is.
Tracy is told she is hard, virginal, cold. Her father is really, really mad at her because he left his wife, her mother, for a much younger stripper, and Tracy didn't show him any "warmth." So, that makes her a -- well, you know the word.
It's all so icky.
The original play was purchased and tailored for Katharine Hepburn, at a time when she was considered box office poison. She was considered too haughty, too upper class, not warm enough.
So, Tracy Lord / Katharine Hepburn / Grace Kelly is really beautiful, and aristocratic, and we all envy her for that, and she is starred in a role where people give her a hard time for being beautiful and aristocratic. Ew!
Maybe any of this would be tolerable if "High Society" were not so starchy, dull, immobile, incomprehensible and dead on the screen. "High Society" is boringly staged. Actors pose flat on the screen, as if they were in a stage play. Action is slow and unbelievable.
"High Society" is meant to take place among multimillionaires. You could recreate the sets by shopping at a Salvation Army. They are simply tacky.
Bing Crosby, one of the greats, appears old enough to be Tracy's father, and this does nothing to add to the romance between them. His character makes no sense whatsoever. He's the millionaire grandson of a robber baron, and also, somehow, personal friends with Louis Armstrong, and a great jazz singer? This doesn't follow the logic of conventional musicals -- Crosby / Dexter-Haven performs on a stage in front of his fellow millionaires. I don't think so.
Frank Sinatra sings one good song, and that's fun, but they did something weird to his hair -- is that ... could it be ... SHOE POLISH???!!! Grace Kelly is a very beautiful woman, but she needs a good director -- Alfred Hitchcock, say -- to use her. Watching her pose in fabulous costumes gets a bit old.
Celeste Holm is utterly wasted. She and Sinatra have as much chemistry together as ... well ... as Celeste Holm and Frank Sinatra.
Tracy's father is one of the most unpleasant characters ever written, and he's played by a B movie actor who, after this, went back to his successful career as a crash test dummy.
Skip it. Not all films from the classic era and featuring classic stars are worth seeing.