Design for Living
Design for Living • 1h 31m
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch • 1933 • United States
Starring Fredric March, Gary Cooper, Miriam Hopkins
Gary Cooper, Fredric March, and Miriam Hopkins play a trio of Americans in Paris who enter into a very adult “gentleman’s agree¬ment” 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 story and a witty take on creative pursuits, the film 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 sexiest, an entertainment at once debonair and racy, featuring three stars at the height of their allure.
Up Next in Design for Living
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Joseph McBride on DESIGN FOR LIVING
Director Ernst Lubitsch and famed screenwriter Ben Hecht thoroughly reworked the dialogue and structure of Noël Coward’s original play for their film adaptation. In this 2011 interview, film historian and screenwriter Joseph McBride discusses Coward, the approach to the adaptation, and the career...
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DESIGN FOR LIVING Selected-Scene Comm...
In this selected-scene commentary, Professor William Paul, author of “Ernst Lubitsch’s American Comedy,” provides a visual analysis of the film and traces the development of the director’s style from TROUBLE IN PARADISE to DESIGN FOR LIVING.
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The Clerk
Between TROUBLE IN PARADISE and DESIGN FOR LIVING, Ernst Lubitsch directed a segment of the 1932 omnibus film IF I HAD A MILLION for Paramount Pictures. The film is a series of vignettes about a dying tycoon, played by Richard Bennett, who decides to give his money to eight randomly selected stra...
