High Society

The other night I watched  the old movie "High Society" on Turner Classic Movies ... starring Grace Kelly, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, and Celeste Holm. This comedy of manners originally came out when I was a freshman in college and I, along with many of my classmates, were gaga over the message it conveyed ... sophisticated social interactions, loose morals, plenty of alcohol consumption (without real consequences). and romantic music spiced with lots of newly-discovered jazz. I still recall the general appeal that this film engendered. Many of us imagined a fling with Grace Kelly after an evening of champagne and ballroom dancing in a well-appointed mansion.

Alas, it was all a chimera then ... as I can clearly see now in its re-viewing ... Grace Kelly driving Frank Sinatra along the curvy roads of Newport, Rhode Island without hardly turning the steering wheel (rather ironic in that this was the way that Princess Grace of Monaco perished) ... pear-shaped Bing Crosby wooing and winning his scripted svelte former wife, Grace Kelly, at least 30 years his junior ... Frank Sinatra launching into song at the drop of a cigarette ash. This movie is replete with lots of bon mots that don't survive the years. Most of the charm of this movie that I cherished 58 years ago has been interred with its actors.

But then, I strongly suspect our grandchildren will some day feel the same bitter nostalgia about today's romantic cinematic blockbusters (if there are such things?)