Remakes: The Philadelphia Story & High Society

It is so rare to love a particular romantic comedy and then love its 16-year later musical remake just as much, but boys and girls, that's exactly what happened to me with this pair.  Excuse my pessimism but that kind of packaging just never turns out so well but it certainly did here.

First of all why re-do a classic and why remake any film if you can't do it better?  Doesn't that sentence just scream leave it alone?Turning any classic film like The Philadelphia Story into a musical seems like pure folly to this ol' snob.  And this coming from a musical movie lover, no less.  But the musical is almost as good as its predecessor.

The films, interestingly enough, are virtually identical.  The first features three of the biggest stars the movies would ever know.  Two of them, Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant, making their fourth and final film together, knew one another very well and had honed their acting-in-tandem skills to a science.  Their comedy was rife with hidden technique, stylish, purposeful, endearing.  I thought they were a magnificent screen team.  If they weren't enough to satisfy everyone, Jimmy Stewart was added to the mix, insinuating his aw-shucks manner right into the middle of that snooty Philadelphia society.  And he would win his only Oscar for his efforts.

So how could the actorly side possibly improve from that?  Well, you may think it did.  The musical version got the appropriate title of High Society and brought to the screen two of the most famous American singers of all time in their first film together, Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra.  If they weren't enough to guarantee box office success, one of Hollywood's most beguiling and beautiful stars, Grace Kelly, was added to the mix.  What's more, the public knew this would be the final film for Kelly.  At its conclusion, she was off to Monaco and marriage to its ruling monarch.

Both Hepburn and Kelly were dream casting.  Like the character they were playing, heiress Tracy Lord, both had an air about them that screamed rich and privileged.  Both could be a little snobby.  Correction:  Kelly could be a little snobby.  Hepburn was from the moment of her birth to her dying day the epitome of East Coast snobbishness.  Kelly was even born in Philadelphia although the location of her film was changed to Newport, Rhode Island. 

Other than that change and the addition of songs to the remake, there's little difference between the two versions.  I always thought it was a gem of a story... maybe perversely I just like to see the rich get their knickers all twisted.   That happens when a rich society girl is about to marry at the family estate.  Aside from all the normal functions that would drive people batty, there are extras here in the form of four unwanted guests.

This will be Tracy's second marriage.  Her first, to C. Dexter Haven (Grant and Crosby), ran out of steam for her, although not for him.  He also happens to live next door to Tracy and wouldn't dream of missing the nuptials.  She finds his presence inappropriate and uncomfortable.  He annoys the hell out of her and their banter is part of what makes these films such great fun.

Mike Connor (Stewart and Sinatra) and Liz Imbrie (Ruth Hussey and Celeste Holm) are reporters for a scandal magazine that threatens to publish a salacious (but true) story on the Lord paterfamilias and his adulterous relationship unless it can have exclusive coverage on the society wedding of the year.   Lord has been living away from the family home for some time.  His absence need not be explained at the wedding because Uncle Willie will not only stand in for him but will impersonate him.

So the reporters arrive to experience Tracy's privilege and general smugness.  It doesn't help that Mike falls for Tracy on the eve of her wedding or that the adulterous father suddenly returns, full of repentance.  It also doesn't help that Liz is in love with Mike and that Tracy finds herself strangely attracted to him as well.

She begins to drink a little too much.  It's all gotten a bit messy for her and out of her control.  She and Mike have a relatively harmless flirtation that turns into a major (comical) dilemma for the three men involved.  Three?  Yes, what about Tracy's prospective groom (John Howard in the original & John Lund in the remake) who is played as dull, stuffy and obviously lacking in understanding the type of woman he is about to marry.  Both actors were ideally cast.
There's a slew of funny bits at this juncture that make clear what superb writing has been done.

The film's conclusion, well-known to everyone who has seen one version or another, is certainly kind of crazy but as fun as the rest of the story.  If you haven't seen either (or frankly both) of these films, do amend that.  You won't be sorry.

The kernel that sparked it all was Hepburn herself.  Playwright Philip Barry, with his cigarette holder, silk cravat, every hair in place, nails done, was from the snooty New England set that his friend Hepburn was from.  They knew each other well.  She had already appeared in a film he wrote, Holiday (also starring Grant).  Writer and actress were walking on the dock at her family home when he told her he had a play that was just so right for her.  Since Hepburn's main interest was always the stage, he got her attention.  He told her the part was not only perfect for her, but he based Tracy Lord and her eccentric family on Kate and the Hepburns.  The news couldn't have come at a better time.

Hepburn needed to work.  The movies had shunned her when she was labeled box-office poison because her recent RKO films had all died at the box office.  When one considers that one of those films was Bringing Up Baby, perhaps the finest screwball comedy ever made (with Grant again), one wonders what was in the Kool-Aid of Hollywood honchos.  So she settled into a long run with the play.  Joseph Cotten, Van Heflin and Shirley Booth supported her and it was a grand time for all. 

Best of all, perhaps, The Great Kate owned the rights to The Philadelphia Story and she saw it as a negotiating plum in getting back her film career.  She would just wait and see.  When Louis B. Mayer came sniffing around, he offered a hefty amount but the deal didn't include her as its star.  She advised him of the error of his ways.

He countered with a requirement to sign a standard seven-year contract with MGM, which didn't enthuse her, but she was determined to play Tracy Lord.  Mayer gave her director approval and of course she picked the great woman's director and her dear friend, George Cukor.  She also got leading men approval and there were only two who hit her radar... Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy.  Hepburn had not met either one of them.  I think both would have been terrific but they were working on other projects.

One of Hepburn's greatest disappointments was that she didn't get to play Scarlett O'Hara.  She was so wrong for the part.  But had she gotten it, she would, of course, worked with Gable.  I would dearly loved to have seen them make a movie together.  She was but one film away from meeting Tracy... of course, a life-changing event for both of them.

I believe it was Cukor who suggested Grant to again costar opposite Hepburn.  Ah, the old gay brigade together again.  But Grant seemed a strange choice considering his career wasn't going so hot either and he was, after all, her costar in two of her flops.  One may wonder how that was all overcome but it was and Grant came on board.  He was given the choice to play either male lead.  He did insist on top billing, something he'd never had with Hepburn.  This was an odd film on which to request it as well because Tracy Lord is without question the main character.  Nonetheless, he's top-billed.

Stewart was an ideal choice for the reporter.  His career was soaring with Shopworn Angel, You Can't Take It with You, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Destry Rides Again, The Shop Around the Corner and more.  He would bring in viewers and best yet, he'd come cheap.  He was a do-what-you're-told MGM employee.  He even accepted a rare third billing.

I thought Stewart, always one of my favorite actors, was wonderful in this part.  He was homespun and utterly charming as Mike Connor, intrepid reporter.  The famous scene where his character tells Tracy how special she is is enormously touching.  And he won his only Oscar for this role.  Yay Jimmy.  And yet... and yet, I don't think he deserved it.  He's done better work and I think this was one of those times when a performer got an Oscar because he missed getting it a year earlier for a far more worthy performance.  That, of course, would be Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

                                      

Grace Kelly started filming in a bad mood.  While the news was jammed with breathless tales of her impending marriage to Prince Rainier, her mother sold a story to the tabloids that detailed Grace's numerous liaisons with her leading men.  Crosby was one of those two years earlier when they made The Country Girl.  While we're at it, Sinatra tried his damnedest to score but Kelly nixed the idea because she was close friends with Ava Gardner, Sinatra's ex-wife for whom he was still carrying a torch.  Ultimately, this was known as a very happy set and everyone got along famously.

The locale was changed to Newport mainly to take advantage of the jazz festival being held at the same time and making delightful use of the venerable Louis Armstrong.  His performance and his band's are, as he himself would say, a gas.  The rest of the music was provided by the esteemed Cole Porter.  One of his prior songs, Well, Did You Evah?, was quickly incorporated into the story when it was realized Sinatra and Crosby had no song to sing together.  Sinatra took third billing because he would have done anything to work with Crosby who had long been his idol.  

One of my favorite scenes from both films is when the father, as irritated with Tracy as she is with him, tells her that she has all the makings of being a fine woman except the one thing she needs the most, an understanding heart.  Any time I am watching either film, I play this scene several times.

Kelly, of course, didn't have quite the bite that Hepburn had to showcase Tracy Lord but I thought the future princess did a fine job and she certainly had the pedigree for the part.  Porter wrote the song True Love for the film.  It was to be sung on a sailboat with Kelly and Crosby as he played a concertina.  Kelly's singing voice was slight but she had taken lessons and wanted to do her own singing.

The musical powers at MGM were adamant that her singing voice be dubbed and she threw her weight around and the studio head agreed with her.  She sings only a small part of the song with Crosby and I thought she was delightful, all she needed to be.  Their recording of True Love would go on to become not only a gold record but a platinum one.

The filming of the song was the final sequence to be filmed... Grace Kelly's farewell to the movies.  Crosby said that High Society was his favorite of all his films and that this sequence was his favorite of any he ever made.

All four of the leads of High Society, including Celeste Holm, were Oscar winners.  Two of the leads of The Philadelphia Story were also.  That's six Oscar winners... and Cary Grant.  A lot of acting royalty in these two films and an enchanting story, all very entertaining.  Who can ask for anything more?


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The Directors