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Wall Street Journal

‘High Society': ‘The Philadelphia Story' Remade, Not Recycled

In present-day Hollywood, movie remakes are too often initiated without any consideration for how a past project might be meaningfully improved. The goal seems to be to present a facsimile with modest modifications rather than a thoroughgoing reimagination, but in the absence of such changes, why bother? Nearly 70 years ago, however, one of Hollywood's most honored romantic comedies was retooled in ways that remain fresh and surprising. Released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in July 1956, Charles Walters's 'High Society' had its roots in Philip Barry's 1939 play 'The Philadelphia Story,' which, the following year, was turned into a motion picture starring the triumvirate of Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn and Jimmy Stewart—the last of whom won an Oscar. That earlier picture was an instant classic for its affectionate but barbed portrait of the marital challenges of inhabitants of the Philadelphia Main Line.