Good 50's Films: Designing Woman

1957 Romantic Comedy
From MGM
Directed by Vincente Minnelli

Starring
Gregory Peck
Lauren Bacall
Dolores Gray
Sam Levene
Chuck Connors
Mickey Shaughnessy
Tom Helmore
Jack Cole

Yes, I am recommending a romantic comedy!  Me.  I can hardly believe it myself.  Perhaps it grabbed hold of me because it's another stylish offering from the multi-talented Vincente Minnelli and perhaps because it stars two favorites of mine over the years, both seemingly quite enjoying a rare, for both of them, romp in comedy.

The source of the comedy is the issues that develop when two people who barely know one another marry.  He is a sportswriter and she is a fashion designer.  A jealousy factor is thrown in when they discover that each was involved in another romance at the time they got married.    Further complications occur when her ex-boyfriend, a Broadway producer, has enticed her to design the costumes for his new play which stars the ex-girlfriend.

Hitting the funny bone is something that feels like real life... the friends of each who don't care for the others' friends.  No big surprise.  Her crowd is snobby, effete showbiz types (one, a choreographer, who has his masculinity trampled) and his are an  ex-boxer who's taken one too many punches to the head and other challenged men who know little about life outside the jock world.  There are a few thugs who want to make mincemeat out of our writer for the unflattering things he writes.

The free-for-all finale is played for slapstick when most of the cast is involved in a brawl in an alley behind a theater.  The thing that makes it funny (or ludicrous depending on one's point of view) is that the fey choreographer with his quick moves and high kicks pretty much is responsible for taking out the thugs and allowing our married couple to presumably live happily ever after.

Neither the director nor his two stars were the original choices.  It's been said that MGM designer Helen Rose came up with the story idea.  It's probably also true that she acquired some of that idea from the 1942 Tracy-Hepburn comedy, Woman of the Year.  While the male leads in both films are sportswriters, Hepburn was not a fashion designer... obviously, what a laugh that would have been.  But Rose was and she envisioned the heroine of the piece to be the same.

Rose also came up with her idea to be able to dress her good friend Grace Kelly in the lead.  (Rose would design Kelly's wedding dress.)  Kelly, in turn, thought her Rear Window costar James Stewart would be perfect for the husband and they had been looking for another property to do together.  Stewart signed on with the proviso that Kelly must also appear in the film.  Joshua Logan, who had been basking in the glow of helming Picnic, was to direct.

Logan dropped out and would go on to direct South Pacific.  It seems odd to me that Minnelli was not assigned to the film in the first place (this entire story has his name all over it) but perhaps he was already working.  Kelly caused delays as well and by the time filming was to begin she was living in a pink palace and Minnelli imagined Peck in the role.  His hiring was certainly against type since Peck had only done two comedies and would only do two more.  He had, of course, done the romantic-comedy, Roman Holiday, which is more romance than comedy while Designing Woman is more comedy than romance.

I thought Peck pulled off the assignment with great aplomb.  Obviously drama or comedy, this is just one damned good actor.  His easy way with Bacall is so obvious.   He had leading-lady approval.  They had known one another casually (their politics were the same) but they would become lifelong friends as a result of this film.  They, too, always wanted to find another script for the two of them and in 1993 they costarred in the TV movie, The Portrait.

Bacall has long said that this was the best movie-making experience she ever had.  She proved equally adept at comedy and she certainly never looked better.  All actresses want to be showcased in the way Bacall was here.  Rose pulled out all the stops.   I may not be able to go on and on about women's clothes but I sure in the hell know gorgeous when I see it.  I got through her brushing her hair back every 10 seconds and thought it sexy-cute how she nibbled on Peck's earlobe.

Bacall had not been working while she stayed home attending to the dying Bogie.  She felt she needed to get out of the house more-- not necessarily to work-- and when she was offered this film, she originally demurred.  Thankfully Bogie encouraged her.

I'll have to hand it to the supporting cast for being colorful.  I'm sorry that Cyd Charisse backed out of playing the former girlfriend but Dolores Gray (never a favorite) did well.  She is at the heart of one of the film's best scenes where she and Peck are in a posh  restaurant and while... well, here, have a look: 

There was no one better at the time to play a punch-drunk ex-fighter than Mickey Shaughnessy.  I'm almost surprised he didn't cop an Oscar nomination.  He shadows Peck for awhile to keep the latter at arm's length from the baddies looking for him.  In double beds in a hotel, Shaughnessy sleeps with his eyes wide open, staring at the ceiling.  Funny stuff.

Sam Levene, as Peck's editor boss, was his usual crusty, yelling self.  Tom Helmore was his usual polished self as Bacall's former beau.  The following year he would slip into a more sinister role as Kim Novak's husband in Vertigo.  Chuck Connors menaced Peck but not as badly as he would the following year in the superior western, The Big Country.

Choreographer Jack Cole (think Monroe's Diamond's Are a Girl's Best Friend in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, among countless others) was appropriately fussy as the choreographer for the play in the film.  When Peck questions his masculinity, Cole's character whips out pictures of his wife and kids... something Minnelli might do in real life.  Wink-wink.

While others were exemplary in their assignments to give the film its stylish look, whether it's chic apartments or glamorous clothes or rich colors, it all decidedly has Minnelli's stamp.

The film's only Oscar went to George Wells for his writing of this snappy dialogue.  It should also be noted the use of narration is spot-on, is often done on screen and one character right on the heels of another and another, all very cheeky and amusing.

In the hands of another director, this might have been a stale comedy, another quirky look at a challenging marriage, done oh so many times.  But Minnelli gives Designing Woman a playfulness and an energy along with his usual visual flourish.  In hindsight I think it was a stroke of genius to not cast known comedy actors.  And it never hurts that the leading actor and actress are so attractive and this entertaining.

By the way, did you ever read about my meeting Bacall?



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