Inclubabu Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Plustown A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Cassandra Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Martin Bradley With a screenplay by Ben Hecht, direction from the great Ernst Lubitsch and impeccable performances from Fredric March, Gary Cooper, Miriam Hopkins and Edward Everett Horton "Design for Living" is a joy from start to finish. It is, of course, an adaptation of the play by Noel Coward and it's better than the original. A romantic comedy, a sex comedy, it has a sophistication that only Lubitsch could give it and the American cast actually add a dimension that Coward's brittle Britishness lacked. Fans love it but in the Lubitsch canon it isn't that well know. It really shouldn't be missed.

kurosawakira Lubitsch is usually very hit-and-miss for me, polarizingly so. His adaptation of "Design for Living" (1933), however, falls somewhere in between: it doesn't provoke much of a reaction. There are moments of which the whole of "Trouble in Paradise" (1932) is made of, moments of comic and cinematic brilliance, and there are tepid moments of sluggishness where the playfulness turns against itself. "To Be or Not to Be" (1942) feels much like that, but if it's to your liking, that should be recommendation enough to see this.The best moments occur towards the beginning, and for me the film just doesn't exude the kind of easy-going splendor I find in "Trouble in Paradise". So much so that at times the film feels even gaumless (lacking not in wit but in vitality). The beginning in the train is brilliant, however, and would make my "train scene" list beside "City Girl" (1930) and "Zéro de conduite" (1933).Much like in "Ruggles of Red Gap" (1935), the one piece without which the structure would fall can be found in the sidelines. Edward Everett Horton's Plunkett is an altogether wonderful character, the one whom I recall with most fondness.

Spondonman So many people at their peaks produced this classic - Lubitsch, Hecht, March, Cooper, Hopkins, Horton and Paramount, getting it past the Hays Office just before its peak. Personally I regard Lubitsch's Trouble In Paradise from the year before as one of the best films ever made, but this is certainly one of his best pieces of work too.Miriam Hopkins meets fellow Americans Gary Cooper and Frederic March on board a French train, and after an odd beginning their relationship develops into love. She loves the pair of them and they both love her, but whilst plenty of gaiety was displayed by all three there was no gayness between Cooper and March. I don't know if Noel Coward approved. The three agree to a gentlemen's agreement of No Sex, which is maintained, broken and for the benefit of the Hays Office re-established in the orgasmic climax in the taxi which re-visits the orgasmic climax in the taxi of Trouble In Paradise. There's no music in the film itself – but for the occasional dead section where people are going up stairs or dropping theatrically onto sofas for instance you could just supply some of the background music from Trouble In Paradise from your head. The actors are all delightful in their roles, especially Miriam Hopkins playing the blonde who decides not to decide. It's a charming albeit pretty frank theme expertly handled by Lubitsch, slyly toying with his audience as usual, though I suppose if he could come back today and re-make it that any charm would be lost in graphic scenes of sex and violence – back then it was discipline that was required instead.What does it all mean – Three is the Magic Number! It also means this is a beautiful film, sure with a few minor faults mainly associated with a few stodgy stagey scenes, but well worth the watch at least for being out of the ordinary.

zetes Lubitsch's adaptation of the Noel Coward play about a ménage à trois starring Gary Cooper, Fredric March and Miriam Hopkins. The two men play a painter and a poet, and Hopkins the girl who moves in with them as their muse and critic. Edward Everett Horton plays the more down-to-Earth man who also vies for Hopkin's attention. Apparently, only the plot of Coward's play is kept here, with all of the dialogue excised because it was too dirty for 1930s Hollywood. Even with that, the film was censored on release and, after 1934, when the Hayes Code was in stronger effect, it wasn't allowed to be shown at all. As it is, it's quite a fantastic movie, as you might expect from Lubitsch. It's funny and charming, but it's also quite a bit darker and more serious than the American films he had made before it in the sound era. I'd really like to read and/or see the original Coward play, but Lubitsch's version is undoubtedly a very good film.