Mark Kelly
Without Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday and their musical supporting cast, this would be a forgettable melodrama. To me the most interesting aspect of this movie is the contrast of cultures - the stuffy white world symbolized by classical/operatic music (some very excellent), the blues/jazz world of the downtrodden but resilient black population and the white "early adopters" of their music. The music is tremendous. Although this movie would never win an Academy Award except for music, the cast is overall excellent given their material. Anyone who loves Armstrong or Holiday should own this. I saw this on Turner classic movies and I'm going to buy it.
writers_reign
Anyone unborn at the time High Society was released has had much more chance of catching it in regular airings on TV and Revival houses than they have of checking out New Orleans, released nine years earlier (1947) after which it more or less dropped off the radar. Late-blooming fans of High Society could therefore be forgiven for thinking that when Bing Crosby name-checked the jazz sextet - rhythm section, Barrett deems, Billy kyle, Arvell shaw; front line, Trummy Young, Ed Hall, Louis Armstrong - in the number Now You Has Jazz, he was being innovative. Not so, Satchmo himself name-checked his own combo here, nine years earlier, though he lacked Cole Porter's ability to interlard it with such lines as 'well, you take some skins, jazz begins ... take a bass, man, now we're getting' some place ...' etc. If you dismiss out of hand the peurile 'plot' you're left with some pretty good examples of 'early' jazz performed by Armstrong himself, Zutty Singleton, Barney Bigard and - moving up a decade - Meade Lux Lewis and Woody Herman and although she'd already appeared in 13 previous films Shelley Winters rated only an uncredited scene as a member of the audience. Music: Yes, Other: No
miffmole
Just the musicians alone make this a worthwhile movie...jazz musicians like Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Kid Ory, Barney Bigard, Meade 'Lux' Lewis, Woody Herman, Zutty Singleton, and others have close-ups, and a number of them have speaking parts. There are nine musical numbers featured in the movie also.
tom-362
I was just a kid when I saw this at a midnight movie in Columbia, Missouri. Being a jazz fan I couldn't wait to see my jazz heroes. I'd like to say it was a good movie, but it was a bomb. . The story was corny. What little music there was I found to be excellent. Not only Satchmo, but there was Billie Holiday who played a maid (them's were the times). I have never seen this film on TV. Hollywood could have done a better job on this one. Still - it's worth the few moments of good New Orleans jazz.
AD
