It was next to impossible for me to look at this film fairly, since I saw The Philadelphia Story (with Grant and Hepburn) first and loved it so much. I think adding music to it could have been a good idea, but the music they added for this version just didn't fit in that well, seamlessly integrating into the story. I did love that the film was opened and closed by Louis Armstrong himself, as if he were some kind of omniscient narrator. There was also one duet by Sinatra and Crosby that was really good, but that was one song out of many.Most of the lines seemed to be the same from the earlier film (after all, they were both based on the same play), but the delivery just didn't seem as good for a lot of it. Well, that's not totally fair either. The biggest problem was the main actress. I really don't see what all the fuss was over Grace Kelly. Her performance was nothing but blah, and she couldn't come anywhere near Hepburn. Sinatra and Crosby were quite good, and they seemed to have some chemistry with each other that helped make up for Kelly's lack of pizazz. I think this is the first Sinatra movie I've seen, and I was quite favorably impressed with him. He was probably as good as the guy who played Mike in the earlier film. Crosby was also good, but not overly so. Still, his role was previously played by Cary Grant, and you can't top him in my book, so maybe he was better than I give him credit for.
I would say that if you like musicals and/or one of the earlier versions of The Philadelphia Story, you should see this. But I'm not sure you should. If you want to see it, just don't expect it to blow you away. Do expect it to make you want to hunt down some more Sinatra and/or Cosby films.
Rating: 3.0
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