User reviews

Who would have possibly realized in this bubbly and frothy romantic comedy, behind the scenes was a looming tragedy. While shooting this film with Gregory Peck by day, Lauren Bacall was nursing dying husband Humphrey Bogart. It was quite an ordeal for her.

Fortunately she's called on to be a fashion designer, beautiful and chic and Lauren Bacall can do that in her sleep. I'm sure working on this film took her mind off what she was dealing with at home.

As has been said, this borrows heavily from Woman of the Year. And like in Woman of the Year, the male lead is a sports columnist. He's also doing a bit of crusading journalism going after racketeers in the boxing game. Which, by the way, in real life was also going on, giving Designing Woman a certain current topicality.

Gregory Peck may be reprising Spencer Tracy, but I think he's poaching here on Rock Hudson's territory. Still he does have some good moments as Mike Hagen, sportswriter and would-be Bob Woodward. His best moments are with Dolores Gray, his jilted girlfriend who dumps a plate of ravioli in his lap at a posh restaurant and later in her apartment hiding from Bacall and wrestling with Gray's pink poodle for his shoe which the dog appropriates for a chew toy.

The rest of the cast nicely fills out their roles. Two standouts for me are Mickey Shaughnessy as a punch-drunk ex-pug who is Peck's appointed bodyguard. It seems like Mickey Shaughnessy was in about every good film in the 1950s and worked with everyone. The second is Jack Cole, choreographer who plays a choreographer in a show Bacall is designing costumes for.

We've certainly come a long way from 1957 when you had to hide the fact a character was gay. If Designing Woman was made today Jack Cole would be openly gay and no nonsense about it. Let us say his presence in the mad finale is absolutely crucial to Peck's and Bacall's life and marriage.

It's not exceptionally funny or momentous, just pleasant in the same agreeably polished sort of way the Rock Hudson-Doris Day comedies are. Peck is a New York sports writer who meets Bacall's fashion designer while on leave in California at a posh hotel. They marry on a whim after a brief courtship and soon discover their clashing lifestyles will be a greater problem than they anticipated. Delores Gray plays Peck's old flame who isn't quite ready to fade into the background; Sam Levene and Tom Helmore lend capable support as Peck's editor and Bacall's business partner, respectively. A minor Minnelli production that breaks no new ground, it's a delightful diversion all the same.

"Designing Woman", a title which is a word-play on a female's desire to obtain a worthwhile husband and on the profession followed by the female lead, is what used to be known as an engaging comedy. A 'designing woman' is exactly what she is not; nor is the sportswriter she falls in love with in any way naturally conniving. But circumstances in this undeniably charming, situationally humorous and dialogue-rich film force her to become (naturally) suspicious and him to mislead her. The couple are portrayed by Lauren Bacall and Gregory Peck who have said they had and appear to have had great fun in making this New York-based comedy of manners. There were a number of male-versus-female films made in Hollywood between 1939 and 1973, the Golden Age of physical production there; while most of the writers took a reactionary anti-feminist position, the author of this film, George Wells, instead, here championed a mutually-desired and mutually-agreed equality between the two protagonists. Peck is the central character; but Bacall is the focus of much of the plot. In fact the opening sequences of the film take place on the West coast; Peck awakens to find himself befriended and his story filed by Bacall, after he had had a bit too much to drink. They begin an affair and swiftly decide to wed. But going back home to New York, they discover that "happily ever after" is harder than "I do". Abandoning his smaller bachelor digs for her luxurious apartment, they discover that their lifestyles, acquaintances and pursuits hardly match. One famous scene involves his rough-hewn card buddies trying to hold their regular game in her apartment. Also, Peck had been dating a pretty model , played by Dolores Gray, and has to hide the relationship, explain it away and generally engage in fancy footwork on several occasions; having her creative friends do their work while his card game buddies are present, pretending he does not know Gray, on whose musical designer Bacall is working when they meet at a fashion show; this is only the beginning of the story. Because Peck is also under a death threat from gamblers, he has to pretend to be away covering road baseball games while he's really holed up with a punchy ex-prizefighter bodyguard played by Mickey Shaughnessy. Of course, when Bacall discovers his old girl friend was Gray and that Peck has been lying about where he is, she assumes he has been cheating on her. The gangsters after Peck is played by Ed Platt and Chuck Connors, while Peck's helpful editor is Sam Levene. Under Vincente Minnelli's solid direction, the pace of this fast-moving comedy that only sometimes slows down for smart dialogue never flags. The fine cinematography was done by Gene Alton, set decorations by Edwin B. Willis and Henry Grace. Costumes were the work of veteran Helen Rose, with original music by Andre Previn. The bright art direction was by E. Preston Ames and William A. Horning, In the cast supporting the principals are Tom Helmore, Alvy Moore, Jesse White, Carol Veazie and Jack Cole. Bacall shows intelligence and toughness as the designer while Peck is more nuanced. This is a well-remembered and critically favored comedic effort, with a surprisingly satisfying ending. The screenplay won an award in 1957. Catch it when you can.

Helen Rose, MGM's Oscar-winning fashion guru, suggested the idea for this bit of fluff and the original casting was supposed to have been: Grace Kelly (eventually, Lauren Bacall), James Stewart (then, Gregory Peck), and Cyd Charisse (finally, Dolores Gray). George Wells won an Academy Award for his witty script and the production values were about the best that MGM could muster. Bacall gives a sly and glamorous performance, probably a little difficult for her since her husband, Humphrey Bogart's health was becoming a very serious concern while this film was in production. (Humphrey Bogart died in January of 1957.) Peck matches Bacall with a humorously masculine presence that was right-on. Dolores Gray tosses off a couple of jazzy production numbers (with the emphasis on her singing...presumably Cyd would have unfurled those legendary legs and would have been dubbed had singing been required.) And Mickey Shaughnessy provides a bit of cruder comic counterpoint as a punch-drunk boxer ("I'm makin' a comeback!") Minnelli, as usual, uses Metrocolor and CinemaScope to creative effect and Andre Previn contributed a main title theme that's instantly memorable.

The DVD now available restores the widescreen ratio and there's a curious "Behind-the-Scenes Minidocumentary" featuring costume designer Helen Rose, shot in black-and-white, in which she seems to be responding to questions posed to her by an unseen person whose questions were not actually recorded on the soundtrack! Wonder why they didn't fix that omission for its inclusion on the DVD version. Anyway, it's fun and worth a look.

I was born in 64 and grew up watching all those great (and not so great) old movies from the 30s onwards on TV. My love of cinema continued and I've been an avid moviegoer ever since. I am sad that as most of these movies are no longer shown on TV, audiences are not exposed to them and therefore don't see their value. Many young people couldn't contemplate watching a B&W movie under any circumstances. Amongst my own world I often encourage them to watch a rare appearance of an old 'classic' in the streaming schedules. That said, I watched this film today (2023) and whilst I recognised it as a film I enjoyed 40 years ago, its polite sexism undermines any enjoyment today. It makes the leading man seem narrow and shows a fragile ego (and if you can do that to Peck, there's no hope for any other chap). And it makes the leading lady seem silly and childish (which because Bacall could never be that, makes her character a bit unbelievable). It occurs to me that this is a problem with many American movies of the 50s, and that it strangely doesn't apply to the output of the 30s and 40s. I suspect its because of the post war desire to put women back in their place (the home etc). These mainstream 50s movies despite their amazing design and production values and the charismatic stars of the day, really are becoming anachronistic in ways that 'suspension of disbelief' cant overcome (at least not at this distance). I recently watched Pillow Talk, the Doris Day/Rock Hudson vehicle that is probably the best example of this genre. I must say it stands up well. I think the script and the direction there are pacier and funnier, and maybe precisely because it is the most extreme example of this genre (virginal almost 40 years old Doris and closeted Gay icon Rock) it stands outside it now, we enjoy the game knowingly. The same can't work here, and doesn't. Pity, there are still things to enjoy, but it has too many cringe inducing cliches even for a sixty year old white male like me, so god knows what the young would say, with their intolerance of other spheres etc.

The Wikipedia entry for "Designing Woman" describes it as a whirlwind romance between two young professionals, but in one respect this is not quite accurate. Neither of the protagonists is particularly young; Lauren Bacall would have been 33 in 1957 and Gregory Peck 41. Moreover, Peck was not the studio's first choice for the role. That would have been either James Stewart or Cary Grant, both several years older than him. I make this point because the film seems to have been quite deliberately conceived as a whirlwind romance between two rather older people who have had longer to develop their own conflicting lifestyles and who therefore have greater difficulties in coming to terms with one another than would a young couple in their early twenties.

Peck plays Mike Hagen, a sports journalist, and Bacall Marilla Brown, a fashion designer. (Hence the title of the film). They meet and fall in love while he is covering a golf tournament in California. Their problems start when they marry and move back to New York, where both are originally from. Mike's interests are sport (naturally enough) and drinking and playing cards with his male friends. Marilla's are fashion (naturally enough) and the theatre. As a result they move in quite different circles of friends, and never the twain shall meet. (When they do, chaos normally ensues). One of Marilla's friends is a very camp theatrical director named Randy, who is used to smuggle in some coded references to homosexuality at a time when direct references would have been forbidden by the Production Code. Although nobody in the film ever accuses Randy of being gay, or even insinuates such a thing, he nevertheless rather defensively insists on letting people know that he is married with children, as if to say "I know what you're all thinking, even if you don't say it!" (The director Vincente Minnelli was himself married with children but nevertheless bisexual).

Another difficulty in their marriage is caused by Marilla's jealousy about Mike's ex-girlfriend Lori. A third plotline concerns Martin Daylor, a corrupt boxing promoter whose activities Mike has exposed in his newspaper and who as a result is threatening Mike. (Mike seems to report on a wide range of sports; besides golf and boxing we learn that he also covers baseball and basketball).

This is in many ways an agreeable film- Peck and Bacall make an attractive couple and the script is often witty, although perhaps not quite deserving of its Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. It is not, however, a film which really stays in the mind- when I recently watched it I realised that I was in fact watching it or the second time and had forgotten all about the first time (which was, admittedly, a number of years ago). It can perhaps best be categorised as enjoyable but frothy trivia, a genre which Hollywood did very well in the fifties. 6/10

While Designing Woman isn't as famous as other romantic classics, like Pillow Talk or Woman of the Year, there's a lot to love about this hidden gem from 1957. On a sad note, Humphrey Bogart was dying during the filming of this movie. Lauren Bacall said in her autobiography that Gregory Peck was a wonderful friend to them, and that his kindness and strength helped her survive the terrible tragedy. So, in case you sense any sort of tension in Lauren's performance, I hope you'll cut her some slack.

Lauren plays a fashion designer, and Greg plays a sports writer. They fall in love and get married, but after their impulsive decision, they soon find they have very little in common. My favorite scene is when they are ordering at a restaurant. Lauren has previously revealed that she eats a lot when she's happy and in love, so when she orders a humungous meal, she looks at him sheepishly as they both realize she's fallen in love with him. It reminds me of the fantastic line from Sex, Lies and Videotape that Andie MacDowell says: "The last time I was happy, I got so fat!"

All in all, it's pretty funny, with jokes about hangovers, sex, and infidelity that snuck past the strict Hollywood censors. If you like either of the leads, or if you like cute, smart flicks from the 1950s, give this one a try. It's as if Lauren's character from How to Marry a Millionaire met Greg's character from Roman Holiday and fell in love!

A harmless, delightful screwball comedy of 1950s, starring Mr. nice guy Gregory Peck and ice queen Lauren Bacall. I cannot say this film fully exploited both stars' spellbinding charm and 120-minutes is rather too long (there were several times sleepiness almost predominated me). Also the supporting cast is meagre except a foolishly amusing performance by Mickey Shaughnessy as the punchy boxer/bodyguard.

The Oscar-winning script deserves more chewing to relish the tit-for-tat rivalry between two leads, after an unexpected flash marriage, they realize that they ought to overcome many differences between them to make their wedlock work.

One might feel distanced about being alarmed when the wife found out that her husband hid a picture of a beautiful lady from her, then made a fuss about it, and the discrepant milieu of sport reporter and fashion designer is also over-exaggerated, which all tamper the appreciations from my peers.

The end actually ended in a mess, the action part is annoying more than ridiculous, the choreography-cum-combat contrivance is rather a solid laughingstock than an innovation.

Nevertheless, for whom I consider a nostalgic spectator of Hollywood in the Golden Age, this film could satisfy you in every respect.

Cute and charming movie. Bacall and Peck have great chemistry as a newlywed couple who have more differences than they think starting out together. Bacall is funny and chic in her gorgeous gowns by Helen Rose and Peck is funny and charming as a gruff sports writer. This is a true gem.

Vincent Minnelli directed this movie with verve. The idea of the movie came from MGM's designer Helen Rose, a woman who knew about fashions. The screen play by George Wells, works well in the beginning of the movie.

The idea of bringing together these two different people had already been done, especially as vehicles for Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn. The allure here lies on the stars. Gregory Peck and Lauren Bacall made an excellent couple.

Lauren Bacall, at the height of her beauty, comes out best. She was a fine comedy actress who had a sense of style and timing. In portraying Marilla, Ms. Bacall offers a side of her that hadn't been tapped before, having been seen in heavier roles. This movie seems to have been tailor made for her.

As the sports writer, Gregory Peck, plays comedy, which was not his forte. At times, he appears wooden, but it probably was the direction from Mr. Minnelli, who wanted to show the big contrast between the lovers. Mr. Peck's Mike Hagan is completely different from his role in "Roman Holiday", but he carries it off and shows he was having a great time playing this sports reporter.

Dolores Gray, as Lori Shannon, has a few good moments playing the woman that is dumped by her steady boyfriend. There are a lot of familiar faces in the cast. Sam Levene, Tom Helmore, Mickey Shaugnessy, Jesse White, Chuck Connors, Edward Platt and Jack Cole, who plays the part of the Broadway choreographer that makes a statement of not being gay, when everyone can see otherwise!

Designing Woman (1957)

I continue to disappoint my own optimism about movies from this period--that decade between the real end of the Old Hollywood and the real start of the New. (Let's say the nether zone of 1956 to 1965). But seeing a movie like "Designing Woman" is a chance to see what exactly these movie makers were up to. After all, the actors, directors, photographers, and writers were the same, almost to the letter, as ten years earlier. They were not idiots or failures in any sense. So...

What has happened here to my eye has to do with style, an intentional shift to a very glossy, very false, very stylized kind of late 1950s mise-en-scene. Sometimes (in other movies) this rises above. Hitchcock's late 50s films come to mind. And exceptions for particular subsets of the audience exist (and blossom) like the Doris Day films and other period comedies. Some dramas that really still have resonance like "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and "Charade" also show the slick detachment of the movie machinery working out well, though with affectations, too.

So, here's director Vincente Minnelli, who directed the remarkable 1951 romantic critique of the end of Old Hollywood, "The Bad and the Beautiful." And here are the two towering leads. Lauren Bacall is of course a legend linked first of Bogart, and to hard core Old Hollywood dramas. And Gregory Peck is better known for more serious movies like "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "Cape Fear." Even the great cinematographer John Alton has a resume a mile long. The writer, I admit, is less known, and the story here is thin, for sure, but he won an academy award for it, which shows how time changes perceptions. But, in all, the larger artistic intentions of the writer and director really bring a cool, dry dullness. It's a revelation to see it for what it is.

It's almost like the director and producer know this isn't going to be a serious movie no matter what, that it can't be. Even the gruesome boxing match turns into a lighthearted repartee, and the glitzy high society stuff is generic and oddly lifeless (Billy Wilder does this material better, for example). And be warned, the format is itself uninvolving, with key parts switching to a simple voice-over, explaining what was happening, but not in a moody film noir way, just information.

Is it worthless? Of course not. The scenes are often very complicated visually, with a huge array of extras. The filming really is gorgeous, though more static than it needs to be. There is dancing shoehorned into the plot (though both dancers are fairly dull as people, try as they do). There is a classic kind of clash of cultures that is meant to be the set-up for all the gags, Bacall the rich pampered woman of culture and Peck the working class sportswriter.

Ugh, so the timing is off, the jokes flat, and the progress utterly slow. All these high production values are disposable. I hate the fact that I love all these people and thought the movie a dud. See for yourself.

While I am devoted to musical theatre I had somehow missed this gem. For once the elements of light comedy, musical theatre and drama are mixed perfectly to create an engaging and entertaining film. Highlights include fine acting by all of the stars and an excellent display of the ground-breaking choreography of Jack Cole, who doesn't have to satisfy star turns and can display his talents fully.

In the tradition of classic farce, the clashing lifestyles of a sportswriter and a fashion designer are played for humor rather than war. A serious subplot involving Mob involvement in boxing blends in well.

A Tracy-Hepburn picture sans Spence and Kate. Of course, when it had those two it was called "Woman of the Year"--complete with the punch-drunk pug (Wm Bendix there, Mickey Shaughnessy here). This one tries to hide its origins by loading up on subplots, taking on in addition to romance sports writing, boxing, Broadway, fashion design, and Damon Runyon's world of gangsters. Toooooo much, it does none of them well and they stumble over one another. The gangster angle is especially clumsy and intrusive. The subplot that does work is the ex-partners subplot, which adds the single bright spot in the whole thing: Dolores Gray, who steals the flick without half trying. It doesn't help that Peck and Bacall appear to be 4th choices for their roles. Neither is a good fit--Peck plays the kind of liar and conman William Holden could get away with easily, but Peck is just too staunch and upright. You end up disliking him for being so dishonest. Bacall plays a rather ditzy flake, with the same problem--she's just too solid and down-to-earth to carry it off, and ends up mugging. It's just plain embarrassing to watch her fly off the handle. Chemistry? None. Must've been a terrible year for stories and screenplays if this manipulative junk won an Oscar.

How this thing won an Oscar for "best original screenplay" is baffling. It's an almost direct rip-off of Woman of the Year, a vastly superior film.

(1) Sportswriter meets sophisticated upper-clawss lady, (2) they marry impulsively, (3) incompatibility ensues, (4) happy ending. Except: that movie has Tracy and Hepburn (their first collaboration), and this one has Atticus Finch and Margo Channing ("Applause"). Gregory Peck lumbering through a comedic role is cringe-inducing - just as it was in Roman Holiday. Lame, weak pallid, overblown remake of a classic film. It has technicolor and fashions - that's it. 1 out of 10.

I thought the film had some enjoyable performances. Peck is a little wooden but perhaps this was meant to be part of his character. I liked the hoodlums very much and they seemed to be enjoying themselves. The monologues by the characters work very well and the film still surprises and entertains the viewer.

Sports reporter Mike Hagen (Gregory Peck) and fashion designer Marilla Brown (Lauren Bacall) as well as others recall their whirlwind romance and marriage. It begins with Mike attending a golf invitational function in Beverly Hills. He's hungover the next morning and can't remember that he's met her the night before. They have a fun time together and quickly get married. They fly back together to NYC and their lives back home start to drive them apart.

It's a functional rom-com with two Hollywood stars. They have reasonable chemistry together. The constant narration with the main premise of these people recounting their story got a bit annoying. I wanted the characters to just have the relationship and not be constantly commenting on it. The movie has its cute moments but no big laughs. Both leads do a fun job.

Good stuff from Minnelli and Bacall with Peck filling in admirably for Cary Grant. A mob-trouble sportswriter meets a fashion designer, and their domestic bliss is thwarted by various mobsters, ex-girlfriends, and perhaps neuroses. One bit that has a seemingly feminist dancer pull out a picture of his three sons to prove his manhood reminds one perhaps of Minnelli himself -- particularly when he turns out to be a karate expert in a particularly fun and well-staged fight scene.

This one may not be for everyone but for me, a fan of old Hollywood style who enjoys a clever script delivered by voices with the timbre of Peck and Bacall, some boxing and musical theatre scenes and references, allusions that require a knowledge of cultural mores - hang on this film was made for adults! I do not find the film slow because I don't need something "happening" every two minutes. I tend not to enjoy serve-volley comedy that much. I enjoy character driven comedy that takes a bit of time to develop so that the line or action is funny only because it is that particular character who delivers them.

If you see it for nothing else, the scene in which Peck takes Bacall to the fights is one of the funniest ever staged.

Staggeringly hungover sports-writer Mike Hagen (Gregory Peck) meets, and soon marries, sexy fashion designer Marilla Brown (Lauren Becall), and promptly gets tangled-up in a web of well-meaning lies involving ex-girlfriends (sexy showgirl Lori (Delores Gray)) and threatening gangsters (lead by Edward Platt (likely best remembered as agent 86's 'Chief')). The two leads have a smart script and play off each other beautifully and the rest of the cast, which is full of recognisable character actors from '50s and '60s movies, TV, and commercials, is great. Mickey Shaughnessy is especially entertaining as punchy, inarticulate palooka Maxie Stultz who takes his assignment as Mike's body-guard very seriously, and A-list jazz-choreographer Jack Cole looks like his enjoying his role as an almost stereotypical hoofer who bristles when his 'manliness' is questioned. The story follows a predictable path (as soon as you see that the dog likes to steal shoes, you just know what's gonna happen) but the foreshadowing is part of the fun, and the whole romantic tangle eventually sorts itself out after a brawl that would be at home in an early Jackie Chan film. The woman's fashions are fabulous (and fabulously dated) and the animal wrangling impressive (all three main characters manage to catch a full size-poodle in mid-flight). All in all, a fun film with an interesting casting back-story involving both Hollywood and real-life royalty.

Witless romp featuring Gregory Peck as a sports-writer who has a whirlwind courtship with fashion guru Lauren Bacall, leading to a quick trip to the altar. CinemaScope fluff directed by a water-treading Vincente Minnelli does allow Peck to loosen up for a change, but the screenplay seems to have been written around the opportunities for mini-fashion shows (indeed, costumer Helen Rose devised the movie's premise, which helped win a Best Screenplay Oscar for writer George Wells). It's very slow on laughs until the amusing farcical conclusion. Peck and Bacall are not quite the sparkling romantic duo they're meant to be, nor is the lackluster supporting cast any help. Good to look at, perhaps, but certainly not memorable. *1/2 from ****

Lauren Bacall is a "Designing Woman" in this vibrant, sophisticated 1957 comedy directed by Vincent Minnelli and starring Gregory Peck, Delores Gray, Sam Levene, Tom Helmore, Mickey Shaughnessy, Jesse White and Chuck Connors. Suggested by costume designer Helen Rose, this story of a designer marrying a sportswriter is a loose remake of "Woman of the Year" - two people meet, fall in love, marry hastily, and then discover that they're from different worlds. And Mike Hagen (Peck) comes with baggage - an ex-girlfriend (Delores Gray) who is starring in the show Mirella (Bacall) is doing the costumes for, plus he has mobsters after him because of a series of stories he's writing.

It's a recipe for good fun, some beautiful '50s fashions and most of all, excellent acting by the entire cast. Bacall and Peck work beautifully together, both displaying wonderful comic timing, the highlight being the ravioli scene. Mickey Shaughnessy is hilarious as Max, the punch-drunk fighter, and Delores Gray is sexy and sings up a storm as performer Laurie Shannon. Minnelli keeps the pace moving and gives us a good taste of putting on a Broadway show and some of the personalities involved.

Someone on the board mentioned that the Peck and Bacall looked as though they were having fun. Hopefully, that's true. This was made shortly before Humphrey Bogart's death - the film was actually released about 5 months after he died - and it's a tribute to Bacall's professionalism that she was able to pull off a comedy under such circumstances. I don't think her personal life could have been much fun at all.

Gregory Peck is a sports writer and Lauren Bacall a fashion designer. They meet, have a whirlwind romance and get married only to discover they have nothing in common which inevitably leads to misunderstandings and adventures.

Enjoyable piece of romantic / screwball tomfoolery full of snappy dialogue and witty one liners. It was original intended for Cary Grant and Grace Kelly and it is easy to see how that might work well here. However whilst not quite as gifted in that type of comedy as Grant and Kelly, Peck and Bacall equip themselves well and have a lot of fun fighting and falling over. There are some fun set pieces, a very well trained poodle and an eclectic but enjoyable supporting cast.

I've seen at least parts of this before, but I sat through it today and couldn't stop shaking my head. Stagey, stilted, and wooden.

Only a few minor actors (viz Jesse White as Charlie Arneg) seem to be at ease and make their dialogue natural. Bacall and Peck barely utter a believable syllable throughout the entire production, so you could really care less if they live happily ever after or get hit by a bus. (Dolores Gray is actually the much more sympathetic character.)

The direction often seems more like choreography, with Bacall or her friends moving about the set in exaggerated or bizarre fashion. Scenes meant to be charmingly madcap (the party at the newspaper; the party at her apartment; the poker game cum theater get-together) are simply manic without being funny.

Maybe Doris Day and James Garner could have breathed life into this film.