Design for Living

Gary Cooper, Fredric March and Miriam Hopkins play a trio of Americans in Paris who enter into a very adult "gentleman's" agreement in this continental pre-Code comedy, freely adapted by screenwriter Ben Hecht from a play by Noël Coward and directed by Ernst Lubitsch (The Shop Around the Corner, Ninotchka, Trouble in Paradise). A risqué relationship comedy and a witty take on creative pursuits, the film concerns a commercial artist (Hopkins) unable—or unwilling—to choose between the equally dashing painter (Cooper) and playwright (March) she meets on a train en route to the City of Light. Design For Living is Lubitsch at his most adroit, an entertainment at once debonair and racy, featuring three stars at the height of their allure.