Blu-ray Review: Risque, Delightful Comedy ‘Design For Living’ From Criterion

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CHICAGO – From the very first scene, a first-silent exchange in which a beautiful woman enters a train car to see two handsome men sleeping across from her and chooses to draw them on her sketch pad before falling asleep and waking up to flirt with both of them outright, “Design For Living” is a romantic comedy masterpiece. I’m stunned to admit that I had never seen the Ernst Lubitsch risque joy but now I consider it one of my favorite Criterion editions. The movie is laugh-out-loud funny with three stars at the peak of their skills — charming, engaging, enjoyable. I’ve been doing this long enough that it’s increasingly rare to see a classic film for the first time that floors me like “Design For Living.” It’s stellar.

Blu-Ray Rating: 5.0/5.0

A painter (Gary Cooper), a playwright (Fredric March), and an artist (Miriam Hopkins) walk into a French apartment. The two gentlemen are friends who fall for the same, delightful woman only to discover that she can’t choose between the two of them. She wants to date them both. There will be no sex until she decides, a “gentleman’s agreement,” but that doesn’t stop her from kissing each man in front of the other - yes, in a 1933, black & white comedy. If you think classic romantic comedies can only be of one type, you really must see “Design For Living.” This daring piece is one of those timeless gems that could be made today (if they found the right talent) and still connect with an audience. It’s a timeless piece on love, art, friendship, and the battle of the sexes. And it’s wonderfully funny and daringly risque at the same time.

Design For Living
Photo credit: The Criterion Collection

“Immorality may be fun, but it isn’t fun enough to take the place of 100% virtue and three square meals a day.” Noel Coward’s incredibly deft writing serves as the foundation for “Design For Living.” Witty and so incredibly clever, this is the kind of film one could merely listen to and be hard-pressed to subdue a smile. It’s filled with dialogue gems like “I’m afraid that you are right, but nonetheless boring” and so consistently smart, so quick on its feet, so light and airy that it’s the kind of filmmaking that can be taken for granted. “May I ask what you live on?” “Nothing. I survive by miracles.”

Design For Living was released on Blu-ray and DVD on December 6th, 2011 Photo credit: The Criterion Collection

Having Coward write your source material goes a long way (although most of the play was reportedly excised in favor of dialogue by Ben Hecht) but when the great Gary Cooper gives the least engaging of the three central performances in your film than you’ve really cast it well. Cooper is far from bad here but Fredric March fits the romantic material better, coming off a bit more believably as a French playwright caught between a friend and a woman. His co-stars fit this material like a hand in a personalized glove. Fredric March is as delightful and smooth as Cary Grant ever was and Miriam Hopkins is funny, smart, and sexy. Yes, I said sexy. One of the most unique things about “Design For Living” is that it’s a pre-code movie, meaning the censorship that kept characters from even expressing a desire to kiss was not yet in place in the film industry. When Hopkins lies on a bed in front of two men and says, “Couldn’t we all be a little more nonchalant?” it’s pretty clear that this is not your average “classic comedy.” Yes, believe it or not, people were having open, three-part relationships in 1933, despite what your grandparents tell you.

“Design For Living” is also clearly a very pre-feminist piece. Listen to Hopkins explain how her desire for both suitors makes her like a man. Men are allowed to weigh their options, date different women until they find the right one. Why can’t a woman do the same? Few actresses could have believably pulled off such a role without it seeming forced in 2011, much less in 1933, but Lubitsch perfectly balances every element of his film. It’s a great one.

Synopsis:
Gary Cooper, Fredric March, and Miriam Hopkins play a trio of Americans in Paris who enter into a very adult “gentleman’s” agreement, in this continental pre-Code comedy freely adapted by Ben Hecht from a play by Noël Coward, and directed by Ernst Lubitsch. A risqué relationship comedy and a witty take on creative pursuits, it concerns a commercial artist (Hopkins) unable-or unwilling-to choose between the equally dashing painter (Cooper) and playwright (March) she meets on a train en route to the City of Light. Design For Living is Lubitsch at his most adroit, an entertainment at once debonair and racy, featuring three stars at the height of their allure.

Special Features:
o The Clerk, starring Charles Laughton, director Ernst Lubitsch’s segment of the 1932 omnibus film If I Had A Million
o Selected-scene commentary by the film scholar William Paul
o British television production of the play Design For Living from 1964, introduced on camera by playwright Noel Coward
o New interview with film scholar and screenwriter Joseph McBride on Lubitsch and screenwriter Ben Hecht’s adaptation of the Coward play
o Booklet featuring an essay by film critic Kim Morgan

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com