4. High Society (1956)
The 1956 movie-musical High Society is the quintessential wedding movie. Combining a winning mixture of romance and humour and featuring breath-taking fashion, as well as music by Louis Armstrong and Cole Porter, this Oscar-nominated film has it all. A re-telling of Phillip Barry's play The Philadelphia Story, the movie follows Rhode Island socialite Tracy Lord (Grace Kelly) who, just days before her upcoming marriage to the bland-but-respectable George (John Lund), is faced with the reappearance of her ex-husband, unreliable jazz musician Dexter (Bing Crosby). Dexter has remained in love with Tracy since their divorce and wishes to win her back, but also arriving at Tracy's Newport home is reporter Mike (Frank Sinatra), who has come to cover Tracy's upcoming nuptials for the press. Tracy finds herself torn between George, Dexter and Mike, three entirely different men, whilst all the while the plans for her upcoming wedding are becoming both increasingly complicated and out of control. Whilst the earlier adaptation of Barry's play, 1940's The Philadelphia Story, is regarded by many as the more superior of the two movie adaptations, there is much to be enjoyed in this later version. The music alone renders the film worth-seeing: Louis Armstrong and his band provide the stunning jazz soundtrack, whilst Cole Porter's hits 'Well, Did You Evah!', 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire?' and 'True Love' are used to fantastic effect. Grace Kelly, in her final feature-film role before her own marriage to Prince Rainier of Monaco, sparkles as Tracy Lord, effortlessly glamourous and wonderfully funny. The forerunner to many of today's wedding movies, High Society is a breezy, easy to watch, highly enjoyable film and most deserving of its place on this list.