00:07Hi there, I'm Alicia Malone. Welcome to TCM Summer Romance, where today's pick is a pre-code
00:13comedy, which means it's fast, funny, and a little racy. From 1933, it's designed for living.
00:20The original source material was a play by Noel Coward, which had been a hit on the New York
00:25stage. Paramount Pictures bought the rights for a film adaptation, and they made a very smart choice
00:31in giving the directorial reins to Ernst Lubitsch. He was known for creating sophisticated romantic
00:38comedies that had a European sensibility and a delicate elegance that became known as
00:45the Lubitsch touch. Originally, Ernst Lubitsch wanted to assign his regular screenwriter,
00:50Samson Rafelson, to adapt the script, but when that didn't work out, he chose Ben Hecht.
00:56And Hecht essentially threw out most of Coward's play, saying that it was too upper class and too
01:01British. He brought it down to earth and rewrote the dialogue for an American audience, and somehow
01:08he managed to stay on the razor's edge of decency, just adding in enough double entendres to get the
01:14script past the senses. The plot follows a love triangle, or in modern day parlance, I guess we
01:20could call it like a polyamorous relationship. Gilda, played by Miriam Hopkins, meets two charming
01:27artists on a train, Tom, played by Frederick March, and George, played by Gary Cooper.
01:32This was Ernst Lubitsch's first truly American film. I mean, it is partly set in Europe, but the
01:39characters are distinctly American, and the three leads are so appealing that they pull off this
01:45provocative story, and you completely understand why they need to make a gentleman's agreement.
01:51Also, with Edward Everett Horton, who was always the perfect foil in romantic comedies,
01:56here it is from 1933, Design for Living.
02:09Thank you very much.
