Design for Living

UPC: 715515089913

Studio: Criterion

MPAA Rating: NR   Contains:[Suitable for Children]

Summary: Design for Living was based on the stage comedy by Noel Coward, though little of his dialogue actually made it to the screen. Playwright Fredric March and artist Gary Cooper both fall in love with Miriam Hopkins, an American living in Paris. Both men love the girl, and the girl can't make up her mind between the two men, so the threesome decide to move in together--strictly platonically, of course. As the men gain in success and prominence, the chasteness of the "menage a trois" begins to be threatened, and soon both March and Cooper clash over Hopkins. She reacts by marrying her wealthy but dull boss (Edward Everett Horton). Miriam is bored to tears until March and Cooper invade one of her husband's stuffy parties and chase the tiresome guests away. Miriam's husband huffily agrees to a divorce, and the girl returns to her unorthodox relationship with her two former suitors. The subtle homosexual implications of the Noel Coward stage original were dissipated by the presence of the aggressively masculine Gary Cooper and Fredric March in the film version of Design for Living. Replacing these implications were the equally subtle but more "mainstream" boudoir innuendos of director Ernst Lubitsch. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Category: Comedy

Features: "The Clerk", starring Charles Laughton, director Ernst Lubitsch's segment of the 1932 omnibus film If I Had a Million
Selected-scene commentary by film scholar William Paul
British television production of the play Design for Living from 1964, introduced on camera by playwright No?l Coward
New interview with film scholar and screenwriter Joseph McBride on Lubitsch and screenwriter Ben Hecht's adaptation of the Coward play

Design for Living

Format: Blu-ray

Release Date: 12/06/2011

Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Pre-1954 Standard

Audio: DD1 Dolby Digital Mono

Runtime: 91 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Region: Blu-ray region A (North America, Central America, South America, Japan, Taiwan, North Korea, South Korea, Hong Kong, Southeast Asia)

Craig Butler

When first released, Design for Living was assailed for the incredible liberties it took in transferring the material from stage to the screen. Indeed, director Ernst Lubitsch and screenwriter Ben Hecht kept only a single line of dialogue from the witty, sparkling Noel Coward comedy -- and that one line was hardly itself distinguished. In other hands, this would have been a recipe for disaster; fortunately, Lubitsch and Hecht were enormous talents themselves, and the film they concocted from the barebones of Coward's play is sharply observed, slightly daffy and a total delight. It's true that Gary Cooper is a little out of place in high-style comedy of this sort; he's a little too "downhome" to pull off some of what is asked of him. Nevertheless, his natural charisma is sufficient to overcome this deficiency, and his innate masculinity is used to interesting effect. On the other hand, Fredric March is right at home, turning in a deliciously comic performance that never takes a false turn. He's matched by Miriam Hopkins, creating some subtly wonderful variations on a madcap theme and proving irresistible in whatever she does. Lubitsch's hand is deft as always, especially in the near-wordless opening and the invasive through-the-windows shot after Tom has left for London. If the play has been coarsened somewhat, the film is still a treat. ~ Craig Butler, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Mathilde Comont  Actor 
Grace Hayle  Actor 
Helena Phillips Evans  Actor 
Nora Cecil  Actor 
Charles French  Actor 
Adrienne D'Ambricourt  Actor 
Lionel Belmore  Actor 
James Donlan  Actor 
Emile Chautard  Actor 
Mary Gordon  Actor 
Rolfe Sedan  Actor 
Jane Darwell  Actor 
Olaf Hytten  Actor 
Vernon Steele  Actor 
Thomas Braidon  Actor 
Armand Kaliz  Actor 
Nathaniel W. Finston  Composer (Music Score) 
Ben Hecht  Screenwriter 
Ernst Lubitsch  Director 
Ernst Lubitsch  Producer 
Fredric March  Actor 
Gary Cooper  Actor 
Miriam Hopkins  Actor 
Edward Everett Horton  Actor 
Franklin Pangborn  Actor 
Isabel Jewell  Actor 
Harry Dunkinson  Actor 
Wyndham Standing  Actor 

Country: USA