There aren’t a lot of Noel Coward’s words in Ernst Lubitsch’s adaptation of his stage play Design for Living, but the basic plot is there, and with a smart script, witty acting, and that unmistakable Lubitsch direction, the essence of Coward is there even if the words aren’t. This pre-Code romantic comedy hasn’t been much seen over the decades after its initial release because the Production Code refused to grant it a seal owing to its über-sophisticated view of sexual couplings, but Lubitsch and writer Ben Hecht have let the audience supply the raunch: all of the sexual dalliances going on in this scenario are definitely being played off screen and in our heads.
Design for Living (Blu-ray)
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch
Studio: Criterion
Year: 1933
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 1080p AVC codec
Running Time: 91 minutes
Rating: NR
Audio: PCM 1.0 English
Subtitles: SDH
Region: A
MSRP: $39.95
Release Date: December 6, 2011
Review Date: December 4, 2011
The Film
4/5
Commercial artist Gilda Farrell (Miriam Hopkins) meets close friends playwright Tom Chambers (Fredric March) and painter George Curtis (Gary Cooper) on a Paris train, and she’s equally smitten with both of them. While insisting that they’ll maintain a gentlemen’s agreement to keep sex out of their equation, she pushes and prods Tom to get his play into shape and then personally makes sure that theatrical producer Douglas (Franklin Pangborn) sees the manuscript and puts it into production, and finds a number of commercial portrait opportunities that allow George to make a name for himself. However, being human and not a gentleman, Gilda can’t help but slide into a relationship with George while Tom is off in London overseeing the opening of his play. When Tom returns to Paris hurt that she’s chosen George over him, she welcomes him into her bed while George is away. What’s a modern threesome to do when there’s equal attraction between all parties?
Ben Hecht famously bragged that his script for Design for Living contained but a single line from the original play, but the scenario Noel Coward built wherein a modern woman finds herself enjoying a sexual smorgasbord and thus makes her own mating choices instead of waiting for a man to decide her fate is preeminent Noel Coward, and despite some changes of names and some time lapses in structure, the stories are basically the same in both play and film. Lubitsch garners a great amount of satisfaction out of the female being the aggressor in these pairings and thus puts the focus on the female character rather than on either of the men (despite the fact that the actors playing the men’s roles were bigger stars at the time than his leading lady). And there are delicious bits of visual comedy as Lubitsch’s camera pokes around the bachelors’ slatternly apartment (cigarette butts everywhere, dust rising like heavenly clouds every time someone plops onto the sofa, George’s frayed clothing) and especially in the film’s first ten minutes as the three protagonists check each other out in clever ways which are either silent or spoken in non-subtitled French. Lubitsch never lets the tone of the piece get too serious or bitter despite lots of broken hearts along the way, and by keeping the two leading men generally innocents being manipulated by a more sophisticated woman, the heady concoction remains more or less aloft until the famous final fadeout.
Fredric March had some experience with handling fast-paced, witty dialogue in some of his previous films (particularly The Royal Family of Broadway), so he has no trouble sliding into the mood of this light comic piece. For Gary Cooper, it was a bumpier introduction to the world of sophisticated boudoir comedy, and with Lubitsch’s expert hand, he doesn’t embarrass himself despite being essentially miscast. Miriam Hopkins was one of Lubitsch’s favorite actresses (this was her third movie with him), but she, too, doesn’t really have the chic glamour and easy grace with dialogue that, say, Norma Shearer or Kay Francis would have brought to the role, but she gets the job done. As advertising executive Max Plunkett who plays a major role in the proceedings, Edward Everett Horton is less fussy than usual, and he has a great comic moment on the morning after his honeymoon night without uttering a sound.
Video Quality
3.5/5
The film is offered in its theatrical aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and is presented in 1080p using the AVC codec. There are some noticeable black scratches along the right side of the frame in the early going and an unfortunate white scratch or two that come along in the middle left portion of the picture during the film’s final ten minutes, products of the nearly eighty-year old movie’s age, but for the most part, there are fewer quibbles with the image than one might think. Grayscale is very good with black levels pretty good and whites better than good. Contrast has been dialed in nicely to offer a filmlike image that offers above average sharpness. There is some aliasing that causes momentary flashing on March’s typewriter keys and on some steps late in the movie, but otherwise, there are no glaring artifacts. The film has been divided into 10 chapters.
Audio Quality
3/5
The PCM 1.0 (1.1 Mbps) audio track offers the dialogue clearly (most important with all of the sophisticated banter going on), but there is noticeable hiss throughout that is fairly subdued but that sometimes rises to disconcerting levels. There is also some momentary flutter to be heard in the track, again expected with this almost eighty-year old soundtrack.
Special Features
4/5
“The Clerk” is the Ernst Lubitsch-directed segment of the movie If I Had a Million which features Charles Laughton as a world-weary bookkeeper. It runs 2 ¼ minutes in 1080i.
Critic William Paul offers a select segment audio commentary comparing scenes in Design for Living with Ernst Lubitsch’s previous film Trouble in Paradise (also starring Miriam Hopkins). This 35 ½-minute video essay is presented in 1080p.
Critic Joseph McBride discusses the screenplay of the film in comparison to Coward’s original play and offers a frankly better commentary on the movie than William Paul offers in the previous bonus feature. It runs 22 minutes in 1080p.
A 1964 ITV version of Design for Living is introduced by Noel Coward and features Daniel Massey as the playwright, John Wood as the artist, and Jill Bennett as Gilda offering the viewer a superb opportunity to compare and contrast the two different interpretations of the story. This runs 73 ½ minutes in 1080i.
An enclosed 23-page booklet offers the cast and crew lists, a wonderful selection of stills from the movie, and critic Kim Morgan’s celebratory analysis of the movie.
The Criterion Blu-rays include a maneuvering tool called “Timeline” which can be pulled up from the menu or by pushing the red button on the remote. It shows you your progress on the disc and the title of the chapter you’re now in. Additionally, two other buttons on the remote can place or remove bookmarks if you decide to stop viewing before reaching the end of the film or want to mark specific places for later reference.
In Conclusion
4/5 (not an average)
Design for Living is a fascinating Criterion Blu-ray release. The package offers both the film and the play for a viewer’s delight and a number of other interesting bonus features along with the best video and audio we’re ever likely to have for this title. Recommended!
Matt Hough
Charlotte, NC
