SmugKitZine Tied for the best movie I have ever seen

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

filippaberry84 I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

vincentlynch-moonoi While this is not one of the great movie comedies, I found it rather enjoyable. I'm not sure the casting was perfect. At first, I didn't find Walter Pidgeon to be logical for the male lead...I was thinking more along the lines of Cary Grant. But as I got further into the film, it occurred to me that Cary Grant (my favorite actor) would probably have played it too hard to the comedy side, while Pidgeon could play it with humor, but also on the sentimental side. In reality, although this is not the typical Walter Pidgeon role, he actually is quite good in it. Esteemed character actor Guy Kibbee was not right in the part of the senior judge...he made the concluding courtroom scene just a little too silly. And, Lee Bowman's part -- as the "other" man -- could have been defined a little more sharply. I felt a little sorry for Edward Arnold, who was once a leading man himself, but was made to look a bit foolish in this film.Rosiland Russell was perfect as the female judge. In the past couple of years, as I've seen more of the old Rosiland Russell films, I have come to realize what a fine actress she was, particularly in comedy.The story moves along reasonably well, although perhaps it's a bit far-fetched to think anyone would attempt to influence a judge in the manner done here, but it makes for a gently funny script.I doubt this will end up on very many home DVD shelves, but it's rather pleasant, and worth watching...at least once.

marymorrissey lee Bowman is sexy, Walter p is not... when RR begins to fall for him, how depressing it is! it's pathetic and sad and what about the other girl he's stringing along? I'm not sure if her loose ends were tied up cause I went to the kitchen to get mango which was a messy affair.I thought Rosalind was very funny and all the actors were, except WP was just so unappealing but perhaps that was deliberate as he might have been intolerable if he were appealing. . . anyway this movie has some of the most sexist sequences of any movie I've ever seen in my half century on the planet.I enjoyed the costumes though some of them were actually rather awful.the artist is adorable!

blanche-2 Walter Pidgeon is a reporter who agrees to do some dirty work for his boss in "Design for Scandal," also starring Rosalind Russell and Edward Arnold. After Arnold takes a beating in his divorce case, presided over by Russell, Pidgeon offers to help him out in return for getting his job back (when he thought he was going to die, he told off the boss - always a mistake). His assignment is to devise a scandal involving the judge so that his boss can have her removed from the bench. Pigeon follows the lady on her vacation and makes his play, enlisting the help of his girlfriend to build an alienation of affections case.This is a very mild comedy, highly predictable, and this type of role wasn't Pidgeon's forte. He's quite handsome in the role, but the part called for someone like Cary Grant, Errol Flynn, Clark Gable - an attractive, fast-talking rogue. Russell, like Celeste Holm and sometimes Katharine Hepburn, played these strong career women since her beauty was not conventional. She's very good, but the theme is always the same, isn't it - a successful career is fine but you're deluding yourself. What you really want to do is take off those tailored suits and get a man - because being a smart and successful woman will never win you anything important. It all gets a little tired, but it does give me some insight into why my mother turned out the way she did.

robertmarburger Walter Pidgeon distinguished himself in many films, but Design for Scandal isn't one of them. He is grievously miscast as a womanizing, fast-talking reporter out to besmirch Judge Rosalind Russell's reputation in order to save his boss's. Pidgeon looks uncomfortable much of the time, and delivers most of his lines without conviction or commitment.Russell, too, gave many memorable performances in both dramas and comedies. Not here. As she so frequently did in the 40s, she panders to Hollywood convention by playing a brittle, sophisticated career woman who finds she needs a man to achieve true happiness. I wonder if many women didn't find that stereotype demeaning, even in 1941.