GamerTab That was an excellent one.

SanEat A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

HotToastyRag Sometimes Noel Coward is great, and sometimes he's stinky-just like one of the leading men in the film Design for Living: Fredric March! Based on a Noel Coward play, this extremely nasty pre-Code movie would never have been made if Hollywood waited a short year. I'm so glad they didn't wait, because it's absolutely delightful and hilarious.In France-because where else would this movie take place?-Fredric March and Gary Cooper are friends and roommates. They both fall in love with Miriam Hopkins, who acts and sounds exactly like Ginger Rogers in this romantic comedy, and Miriam falls in love with both of them! She can't pick between them, so she proposes that they all three live together as friends. They agree to the "gentleman's agreement," but Miriam soon reclines on the bed and sighs, "Unfortunately, I'm no gentleman." But which one does she say it to?Design for Living is funny, sweet, charming, and sexy. Unless you have a moral objection to the premise, I highly recommend you rent the movie for girls' night. There are countless quips and quotable lines, perfect coming timing from Edward Everett Horton, and a natural chemistry between the threesome. I'd love to see this performed onstage sometime!

blanche-2 For me, of course, there would be no choice. A young Gary Cooper - talk about a dream walking.Noel Coward's "Design for Living" was a play Coward wrote for himself and Lunt and Fontanne to star in, concerning a woman, Gilda, who can't decide between two young men and best friends in love with her, Tom and George. So the three decide to live together platonically. Tom leaves to work on his play, and while he's away, George and Gilda sleep together. Later on, alone with Tom, she sleeps with him, and George catches them together. Then Gilda makes a decision.Only one line from the original play was retained for the film. Though it is precode, the sex is inferred. Given the Lubitsch touch, it's a delightful, sexy comedy with pretty Miriam Hopkins as the winsome Gilda, Fredric March as Tom, a playwright, and Gary Cooper as George, an artist.The three young, attractive actors under Lubitsch's direction really make the film and situation sing.March was never much for comedy, though he does an okay job. Hopkins was a wonderful actress with many Broadway credits before getting into films, and Cooper was just so darned gorgeous I have no idea how he was except my impression is that he was very good. Had I been Hopkins - no choice! A charming film.

wes-connors On a train to Paris, playwright Fredric March (as Thomas "Tom" B. Chambers) and his painter friend Gary Cooper (as George Curtis) are interrupted while snoozing by attractive blonde Miriam Hopkins (as Gilda Farrell). A commercial artist, Ms. Hopkins banters with her fellow Americans about art, then goes to work for her virtuous boss, Edward Everett Horton (as Max Plunkett). Mr. Horton doesn't approve when Hopkins begins dating both Mr. March and Mr. Cooper. Horton has known Hopkins five years, and hasn't made it "to first base," but her new friends get Hopkins there quickly.Roommates eleven years, March and Cooper both fall in love with Hopkins. "Curious to have a little bit of feminine fluff breaking up our friendship," March tells Copper. The bed in the men's apartment seems to have collected a lot of dust (watch as Hopkins throws herself on it). Hopkins says she loves both men. Since they all like each other, the three decide to live together, to "concentrate on work" and make "a gentlemen's agreement" to "forget sex." But, when March or Cooper leaves Hopkins alone with the other, abstinence becomes difficult. Moreover, Hopkins reminds the men, "I am no gentleman." This Noel Coward play was dramatically altered, by writer Ben Hecht, for director Ernst Lubitsch and Paramount. Great credentials, but something was lost in the translation. "Design for Living" intends to be a modern, sexy comedy. Looking back on it, you can appreciate what they were attempting with Hopkins' character. But, despite Mr. Lubitsch's clever opening, there isn't much "chemistry" between Hopkins and her leading men. And, despite Mr. Hecht's clever writing about their laundry, long-time roommates March and Cooper have no screen rapport. Though good, the film doesn't add up.***** Design for Living (12/29/33) Ernst Lubitsch ~ Fredric March, Gary Cooper, Miriam Hopkins, Edward Everett Horton

bkoganbing Design For Living is one work that definitely deserves another film version if for no other reason than to finally give the movie-going public what Noel Coward's vision in 1933 really was. All we got from this film is a title and the idea of a play about a menange a trois. Noel Coward said that one line of his dialog also got into this film. No wonder he had such an aversion to Hollywood.Gary Cooper artist and Fredric March playwright are roommates and both unsuccessful commercially at their art. One day they meet another artist on the train who sketches them while they're taking a snooze and said artist Miriam Hopkins is taken with both of them. In fact so taken that she can't make up her mind which one she really prefers. The easy solution is take both of them and she does, though the relationship is most platonic. But men will be men and hormones will do their nasty work. For a little stability in her life Hopkins takes up with Edward Everett Horton and stability he brings her with the side efrect of dull. Even a platonic thing with March and Cooper is better than marriage with Horton. Nevertheless his fuss budget character is probably the best thing about this film version of Design For Living. Lubitsch's best touch in this film is Horton going through his file cabinet and finding his marriage contract under "M" past maintenance bill and masking tape or something like that. Tells you all you know about Horton's priorities and his business like approach to marriage.If Ernst Lubitsch had directed a faithful version of Design For Living with Noel Coward it probably would be a classic. Coward's wit needs all the preserving it can get. With March and Cooper you got a pair of Hollywood's best leading men who did good with the antiseptic script they got. Another version of Design For Living will contain more than subject idea and a title. Somebody out there start casting for a remake.