Cole Porter’s songs delight in ‘High Society’
High Society (1956, Warner Archive Collection, 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray, NR, 111 min.). This newly remastered version of the classic musical is superb. The film, a musical take on Philip Barry’s “The Philadelphia Story,” was the first pairing of Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra – they would reunite for “Robin and the 7 Hoods” – and it was Grace Kelly’s final movie before becoming a real-life princess via marriage. The film includes what were nine new Cole Porter songs, several of which became classics, including the Oscar-nominated “True Love.”
In the film, Kelly (“Dial M for Murder,” “Rear Window,” “To Catch a Thief”) plays Newport, R.I. socialite Tracy Samantha Lord, who is about to marry for the second time. Her previous husband – Crosby as C.K. “Dex” Dexter-Haven – lives next door and is allowing musicians to rehearse at his house for the Newport Jazz Festival. Those musicians, playing themselves, are Louis Armstrong and his band. Tracy’s new husband is the very conservative George Kittredge (John Lund of “The Mating Season,” “My Friend Irma”), the very opposite of Dex, whom Tracy dislikes because he only became “a jukebox hero.” In fact, he wrote the song “True Love” for their sailing honeymoon and also wrote “I Love You, Samantha” for her.
In addition to Dex being banned from the wedding, so too seems to be her father, the scandal-ridden Seth Lord (Sidney Blackmer of “Rosemary’s Baby,” “The Count of Monte Cristo”), or at least he is among the missing … initially.
Sinatra plays part of a pair from Spy Magazine, sent to cover the wedding in exchange for suppressing the story of Seth Lord’s latest scandal. Sinatra (“From Here to Eternity,” “The Manchurian Candidate”) is writer Mike Connor, accompanied by photographer Liz Imbrie (Celeste Holm of “All About Eve,” “Gentleman’s Agreement”). During their day at the Lords, Mike becomes very close to a drunken Tracy.
The film opens wonderfully with Armstrong singing “High Society Calypso” in a bus, traveling with his band. As he finishes, he says, “End of song. Beginning of story.”
Other musical highlights include Sinatra and Holm singing “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” Sinatra singing “Your Sensational,” his personal favorite, and Sinatra and Crosby singing “Well, Did You Evah!” Crosby also sings “Little One,” “True Love” with Kelly, “I Love You, Samantha” and teams with Armstrong and his band for “Now You Has Jazz.” Sinatra’s other song is “Mind If I Make Love to You?”
The musical feast has enough comedy and a little drama to make it swell.
Extras include the featurette “Cole Porter in Hollywood,” which says only nine of the 14 songs he wrote for the film were used (2003, 8:59); the Hollywood premiere newsreel (1:07), radio promo spots, including six by Crosby, one by Crosby and Sinatra and one by Kelly (15:36); the Tex Avery cartoon “Millionaire Droopy,” with Spike trying to kill Droopy seven ways to inherit a house (6:56); and three theatrical trailers, including one in which Crosby meets Ed Sullivan (4:03). Grade: film 5 stars; extras 3 stars
Rating guide: 5 stars = classic; 4 stars = excellent; 3 stars = good; 2 stars = fair; dog = skip it
Executive Suite (1954, Warner Archive Collection, Blu-ray, NR, 104 min.). The film is one of several business ethics films of the 1950s, a group that includes “Organization Man” and “The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit.” It is about a boardroom battle for control of the Tredway Corp., after its chairman dies of a sudden heart attack without an executive vice president ready to step up.
Director Robert Wise (“West Side Story,” “The Sound of Music,” “The Andromeda Strain”) emphasizes the extremes to which executives will go to win the chairmanship, as the film takes a no-nonsense approach.
The leading candidates are bottom-line driven Loren Phineas Shaw (Fredric March of “Inherit the Wind,” “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”); Jesse Q. Grimm (Dean Jagger of “White Christmas,” “Twelve O’Clock High,” TV’s “Mr. Novak”), only he had already decided to retire but had not announced it; and even Josiah Walter Dudley (Paul Douglas of “Clash by Night,” “A Letter to Three Wives”), a top salesman.
Learning of the chairman’s death late on Friday afternoon, playboy George Nyle Caswell (Louis Calhern of “Notorious,” “Duck Soup”) sells short his company shares and shares he hopes to get from the founder’s daughter, feeling he can buy them back Monday at a lower price once the news of the death breaks. However, a good earnings report is released, causing him to panic and try to make a deal with Shaw to trade his chairman vote for enough shares to cover the trade.
The founder’s daughter is Julia O. Tredway (Barbara Stanwyck of “Double Indemnity,” “The Lady Eve”), who has just about had it with the company. She is considering jumping from an office window when Shaw seeks her vote.
Opposed to Shaw’s takeover are company veteran Frederick Y. Alderson (Walter Pidgeon of “How Green Was My Valley,” “Forbidden Planet”) and younger McDonald Walling (William Holden of “Stalag 17,” “Sunset Boulevard”), who works with the factory’s rank & file and has concern for the good of everyone. He hates the newer, lower-grade furniture being produced which does not last and is experimenting with a new chemical process. He wants the factory workers to be proud of their work.
Of note is June Allyson (“Little Women”) as Walling’s wife Mary, and some may recognize Tim Considine (“The Shaggy Dog,” TV’s “My Three Sons”) as Walling’s baseball pitching son, Mike. The woman in Dudley’s wife is Eva Bardeman, played by a subdued Shelly Winters (“The Poseidon Adventure,” “A Place in the Sun”).
The film was nominated for four Academy Awards. Extras include audio commentary by Oliver Stone; the Tom & Jerry cartoon “Hic-cup Pup” (6:23); and the Pete Smith Specialty “Do Someone a Favor” (9:02). Grade: film 3.25 stars; extras 2 stars
The President’s Wife aka Bernadette (France, 2023, Cohen Media Group, Blu-ray, NR, 93 min.). The film is a fictional account, loosely based on real life, telling the story of Bernadette Chirac, after her husband Jacques Chirac was elected president of France in 1995. Bernadette expected to finally get the position she deserved when she arrived to the Elysée Palace, because she had always worked behind her husband's back to elect him president. Instead, frustrated by being all but cast off, she takes revenge by becoming a major media figure.
Catherine Deneuve (“Belle de Jour,” “My Favorite Season,” “The Hunger”) is a delight, and pretty much the whole film, as Bernadette. Often disregarded by her husband’s other advisors, she is almost always correct, such as predicting election results.
She begins her rise in popularity by running in the local election in Correze, which she wins. Soon she has a judo champion supporting her children’s health care charity and is seen at a club with a shirtless member of the boy group 2Be3. She meets Hillary Clinton, who ignores Jacques Chirac, and issues her autobiography, “Memoir of a Tortoise.”
Michel Vuillermoz (“Midnight in Paris,” “My Life as a Zucchini”) plays Jacques Chirac, while Sara Giraudeau plays her daughter, Claude, part of Jacques’ inner circle. The director is Léa Domenach.
The extras are two deleted scenes (2:26). Grade: film 3 stars; extras ½ star
About this blog:

My music review column, Playback, first ran in February 1972 in The Herald newspapers of Paddock Publications in Arlington Heights, IL. It moved to The Camden Herald in 1977 and to The Courier Gazette in 1978, where it was joined by my home video reviews in 1993. The columns ran on VillageSoup for awhile, but now have this new home. I worked at the Courier Gazette for 29 years, half that time as Sports Editor. Recently, I was a selectman in Owls Head for nine years.