Higher and Higher
by Tim Whelan
List Price:
Our Price: $11.49
You Save: $1.49 (11%)
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy Used: from $1.61 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD Cover Information
Actor: Frank Sinatra, Jack Haley, Leon Errol, Marcy McGuire, Mich?le MorganDirector: Tim Whelan
Brand: Warner Brothers
Producer: George M. Arthur
Writer: Gladys Hurlbut
Writer: Howard Harris
Writer: Jay Dratler
Writer: Joshua Logan
Writer: Ralph Spence
Writer: William Bowers
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 90 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-05-13
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Warner Home Video
Movie Reviews of Higher and Higher
Movie Review: Not as bad as some say, but it helps to have a fondness for history and archeology
Summary: 3 Stars
For a movie that's just about awful, there are a number of good things which a little knowledge of history, a taste for archeology and the fast forward button can help you with. Higher and Higher tells the story of Mike and Millie, while also shoehorning in Frank. Cyrus Drake (Leon Errol), a rich old coot, has gone bankrupt. His staff, led by his valet, Mike (Jack Haley), get the brainstorm to marry off the beautiful and na?ve scullery maid, Millie (Michele Morgan), to a rich man after they introduce her as Drake's daughter at the Butlers' Ball, the prestigious annual coming out affair for debs with rich daddies. Cyrus Drake's coffers will be refilled and the staff will get their back wages. But Millie secretly loves Mike. To get his attention she pretends to like very much the skinny, slightly goofy looking young man who lives across the court, a singer named Frank Sinatra. Be prepared. There's a happy ending, but not before an interminable story and a lot of dud jokes. Jack Haley, so full of insincere sincerity, a product of years on the vaudeville stage, makes a match with the beautiful Michele Morgan that is seriously unbelievable. The comedy mix-ups aren't so much tedious as just unfunny. Now on to the good stuff.
Higher and Higher was based on a 1940 Rodgers and Hart Broadway flop. It had a terrible book but some wonderful R&H songs. As is Hollywood's way, when the studio bought the rights they dumped the songs and kept the book. However, with Sinatra making his first starring appearance, they were smart enough to hire Jimmy McHugh (music) and Harold Donaldson (lyrics) to write all new songs. (A bit from one R&H song is used, "Disgustingly Rich.") McHugh and Donaldson came up with some proficient but unremarkable comedy songs, but they hit home runs for the three Sinatra ballads..."I Couldn't Sleep a Wink Last Night," "This Is a Lovely Way to Spend an Evening" and my favorite,
The music stopped
But we were still dancing
Which goes to show
That music has charms
The lights were low
So we went on dancing
I felt the glow of you in my arms
The cast of Higher and Higher is almost worth renting the movie for. They are a group of some excellent comic actors and performers. They have little good material to work with, but if you're familiar with them you'll enjoy them. Among the rich coot's staff, we're talking Leon Errol, the coot; Mary Wickes, the social secretary; Mel Torme, only 18 and in his first movie, general helper; the wonderful Paul and Grace Hartman, who only have a couple of bits, butler and maid; Dooley Wilson, chauffeur; Marcy McGuire, maid; and Ivy Scott, cook. Victor Borge in his first American movie appears as Sir Victor Fitzroy Victor, a possible match for Millie. Perhaps he wrote his own stuff, but he has some brief but funny lines that already nail his successful stage persona.
Frank Sinatra hasn't learned to do much acting yet, but he doesn't embarrass himself. He comes across as a nice young guy with none of the ring-a-ding-ding awfulness of his middle years. When he croons those three hits McHugh and Donaldson wrote for him, you almost hear the thonk plop flop of bobbie soxers fainting in the theater aisles.
As for archeology, if you are inspired to track down the clever and memorable score Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart wrote for the stage show, you'll need to dig. Since the score didn't have a big hit, unusual in an R&H musical, and the show flopped, the songs were largely forgotten. One, "It Never Entered My Mind," managed to find a life with saloon singers who knew quality. Two or three more would occasionally pop up here and there in albums. To hear the rest, you need to search out the CD Ben Bagley's Rodgers and Hart Revisited, Vol. 1. It features eight songs from the score. Ben Bagley's CD Rodgers and Hart Revisited, Vol. 3 has three more. The songs are clever and smart, as with...
Ev'ry Sunday afternoon and Thursday night,
We'll be free as birds in flight.
If on Sunday afternoon we ever fight
We'll make up on Thursday night.
Leave the dishes,
Dry your hands.
Change your wishes
To commands.
Ev'ry Sunday afternoon we'll be polite,
But we'll make love on Thursday night.
Only Hart could have come up with that funny juxtaposition in the bridge between a bit of household work and love, and with Rodgers' sweet melody.
And finally, it will be a good thing if you give Michele Morgan a second chance. She was a memorable star in France but never quite made it in the United States. However, one of her best American films is that surreal and vicious Cornell Woolrich noir, The Chase. It more than makes up for her appearance in Higher and Higher. She is superb in Carol Reed's and Graham Greene's The Fallen Idol - Criterion Collection.
Summary of Higher and Higher
From uppercrust to bread crusts! When wealthy Mr. Drake goes broke, the servants hatch a plan to restore his fortune and save their jobs: have a lovely maid pose as Drake's debutante daughter, hoping she'll land a rich beau. Soon a suitor arrives. "Good morning," he says. "My name is Frank Sinatra." Making his acting debut (he was a vocalist in earlier films) in this merry musical comedy, Sinatra plays the boy next door and (naturally) knows his way around a song, taking on five here, soloing on The Music Stopped, A Lovely Way to Spend an Evening and I Couldn't Sleep a Wink Last Night. Sinatra may be the enduring main attraction but he's not the only star on view: Victor Borge, Leon Errol, Barbara Hale, Jack Haley, Michele Morgan, Mel Torme, Mary Wickes and Dooley Wilson are also on hand. Encore!Madcap movies don't come much madder than Higher and Higher, a 1943 musical best known as the feature debut of Frank Sinatra. In fact, he plays a character called "Frank Sinatra," an aspiring singer drawn into the zany doings at the mansion next door. Seems the patriarch of the place is flat busted, and needs to invent a blueblood daughter to marry off to the nearest eligible millionaire. Manservant (and former Wizard of Oz Tin Man) Jack Haley is in charge of the shenanigans, and scullery maid Michele Morgan is drafted as the daughter (but can't Haley see she's really in love with him?). This is the kind of wacky movie universe in which the blue-collar maid has a French accent and the English nobleman has a Danish accent (it's piano comedian Victor Borge). The songs include "I Couldn't Sleep a Wink Last Night" and one Rodgers and Hart number, "Disgustingly Rich." The cast is a hoot: here's Mel Torm? in his first movie, here's horse-faced wisecracker Mary Wickes, here's Casablanca crooner Dooley Wilson. And of course Sinatra at his skinniest, sounding very dulcet of voice. The well-traveled Tim Whelan directed, and he must've done something to make Sinatra feel comfortable--the kid looks like a natural. --Robert Horton
Comedy DVD Video
DVD Video
- Action & Adventure
- African American Cinema
- Animation
- Anime & Manga
- Art House & International
- Classics
- Comedy
- Cult Movies
- Documentary
- Drama
- Educational
- Fitness & Yoga
- Gay & Lesbian
- Horror
- Kids & Family
- Military & War
- Music Video & Concerts
- Musicals & Performing Arts
- Mystery & Suspense
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Special Interests
- Sports
- Television
- Westerns
Movies most talked about in Frank Sinatra films (Part 1)
![The List of Adrian Messenger [VHS] Image](/images/The-List-of-Adrian-Messenger-VHS-6300184013-X.jpg){kind=small}
The List of Adrian Messenger [VHS]Universal Studios; Release date: 1994-01-12; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $84.95
4 for TexasWarner Brothers; Release date: 2008-05-13; DVD
Best price: $5.56
Price in other shops:
![Come Blow Your Horn [VHS] Image](/images/Come-Blow-Your-Horn-VHS-6302116996-X.jpg){kind=small}
Come Blow Your Horn [VHS]Paramount; Release date: 1991-08-08; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
Sergeants 3TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT; Release date: 2008-05-13; DVD
Best price: $7.61
Price in other shops:
The Road to Hong KongRelease date: 2002-12-03; DVD
Best price: $4.81
Price in other shops:
The Manchurian Candidate (Special Edition)LEIGH,JANET; Release date: 2004-07-13; DVD
Best price: $3.39
Price in other shops:
The Devil at 4 O'ClockRelease date: 2003-01-14; DVD
Best price: $63.27
Ocean's 11Warner Brothers; Release date: 2008-05-13; DVD
Best price: $5.74
Price in other shops:
Can-CanCancan; Release date: 2007-05-22; DVD
Best price: $9.41
Price in other shops:
Never So FewWarner Brothers; Release date: 2008-05-13; DVD
Best price: $5.57
Price in other shops:
Similar DVD Movies
A Song Is BornRelease date: 2009-04-07; DVD
Best price: $8.07
Price in other shops:
Midnight (Universal Cinema Classics)Universal; Release date: 2008-04-22; DVD
Best price: $6.56
Price in other shops:
Good NewsWarner Brothers; Release date: 2000-09-19; DVD
Best price: $12.74
Price in other shops:
Easy Living (Universal Cinema Classics)Universal; Release date: 2008-04-22; DVD
Best price: $7.07
Price in other shops:
Marriage on the RocksWarner Brothers; Release date: 2008-05-13; DVD
Best price: $2.62
Price in other shops:
Double DynamiteWarner Brothers; Release date: 2008-05-13; DVD
Best price: $0.99
Price in other shops:
The Kissing BanditWarner Brothers; Release date: 2008-05-13; DVD
Best price: $2.40
Price in other shops:
The Tender TrapWarner Brothers; Release date: 2008-05-13; DVD
Best price: $5.32
Price in other shops:
It Happened in BrooklynWarner Brothers; Release date: 2008-05-13; DVD
Best price: $5.42
Price in other shops:
Step LivelyWarner Brothers; Release date: 2008-05-13; DVD
Best price: $0.83
Price in other shops: