Design for Living (U)

Based on a Noel Coward play, Design for Living has a wisecracking script from Ben Hecht and is directed by Ernst Lubitsch, the man who made last year’s top scoring film, To Be or Not to Be.  But the story of this film also provides afascinating insight into the extraordinary history of Hollywood cinema in the first half of the 20th century.

 

On its initial release, Design for Living was loved by the audiences who first saw it, making it one of the top 10 grossing films in its year of release, but it was broadly rejected by critics and labelled a "lesser Lubitsch". Looking through the lens of time, we can reassess the key critical negatives and see the film in a new light.

 

First, the critics were aghast that Noel Coward's, undoubtedly witty, lines had been cast to the four winds and replaced by a wisecracking script from the pen of Ben Hecht. Second, they could not take seriously Gary Cooper in the role of a struggling artist in the Bohemian quarter of Paris between the wars, and his performance is referred to as "clunky.

 

But Lubitsch knew more about cinema and audiences than the critics and it was obvious to him that Coward's play would not work cinematically. The play opens with the characters and their various relationships already established, and the story of how they met and came to be where they are is revealed by the spoken dialogue, Lubitsch and Hecht realised this would require an overly complex flashback structure and decided on a complete rewrite, filling in the back story to show how the characters met in a coherent chronological time line. They also felt that Coward's lofty, urbane, sophisticated characters would not wash with cinema audiences during the Great Depression and decided to make the characters more naive and exuberant.

 

It works wonderfully; the opening scene of the film and the meeting of the protagonists is exquisite and audacious, and the film proceeds with deliciously mischievous aplomb.

 

Gary Cooper actually lends terrific vigour and naturalism to his role. He was a worldly actor fluent in French and this film gave him the rare opportunity to demonstrate his versatility and comic talent. He fits in perfectly with the intelligent and vivacious Miriam Hopkins and the versatile gadabout Fredric March, and the chemistry between this loony ensemble is perfect. 

 

But to compound the film's problems, as well as critical disapproval, shortly after its initial release it received the unwelcome attention of the sinisterly
named, National League of Decency.  The League of Decency was an extreme, and extremely powerful, lobby group bent of rooting out what they referred to as “The incalculable influence for evil exerted by the motion picture screen".  They turned their baleful eye and influence on Design for Living and, astonishingly, thanks to their efforts it was eventually refused a certificate and banned.

 

Subsequently  the film has been totally neglected, rarely screened and was never available for home viewing on any format, until its first appearance on DVD in 2005 as part of a collection of Gary Cooper's complete film catalogue. It finally appeared in its own right as a stand-alone DVD release in December 2011.

 

Hurst Village Cinema therefore if therefore offering a very rare treat, the chance to see this wonderfully witty comedy on the big screen and marvel at the crass stupidity which has denied people the chance to see it in intervening years.