Design for Living: Notes on the Play
By December 26, 2011
Noël Coward’s play Design for Living was produced for Broadway in 1933, starring Coward, . . . Read more »
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 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.
| Tom Chambers | Fredric March |
| George Curtis | Gary Cooper |
| Gilda | Miriam Hopkins |
| Max Plunkett | Edward Everett Horton |
| Mr. Douglas | Franklin Pangborn |
| Stenographer | Isabel Jewell |
| Housekeeper | Jane Darwell |
| Director | Ernst Lubitsch |
| Producer | Ernst Lubitsch |
| From the play by | Noël Coward |
| Screenplay | Ben Hecht |
| Original music | John Liepold |
| Cinematography | Victor Milner |
| Editing | Frances Marsh |
| Art direction | Hans Dreier |
| Costume design | Travis Banton |
By December 26, 2011
Noël Coward’s play Design for Living was produced for Broadway in 1933, starring Coward, . . . Read more »
By December 06, 2011
Ernst Lubitsch’s Design for Living (1933) is what sexy should be—delightful, romantic, . . . Read more »
By December 06, 2011
Ernst Lubitsch’s Design for Living (1933) is what sexy should be—delightful, romantic, . . . Read more »
March 07, 2012
A celebration of one of the great cosmopolites of the twentieth century, in one of the . . . Read more »
By December 26, 2011
Noël Coward’s play Design for Living was produced for Broadway in 1933, starring Coward, . . . Read more »
December 20, 2011
“Anyone under the illusion that movies have grown more sophisticated about sex as society has . . . Read more »
By December 06, 2011
Ernst Lubitsch’s Design for Living (1933) is what sexy should be—delightful, romantic, . . . Read more »