Design for Living (1933)

Design for Living (1933), directed by Ernst Lubitsch.

A painter and a playwright, "partners" for 11 years, fall in with a young woman who loves them both. Equally. She moves in with them with the understanding: "forget sex".

When one of the men has to take a trip, how long will that agreement last with the two who remain behind in Paris?

A pre-code romantic comedy, meaning the witty dialogue and sexual situations are more frank than would be allowed later. Even so this is still the era of funny and sexy suggestion rather than display.

Well-played by all involved:

• Miriam Hopkins: both clever and honest: "A man can meet two, three or four women and fall in love with all of them, and then, by a process of interesting elimination, he is able to decide which he prefers. But a woman must decide purely on instinct". Which she thinks is dumb.

• Fredric March (top billing!) and Gary Cooper: her roommates. Lots of comic business for them.

• Edward Everett Horton: also in love with her. His rendition of a fussy straight man on his wedding night is a hoot.

Lovely cinematography by Victor Milner, unusually so for the early 1930s. Photography was starting to recover from the disruption sound inflicted on the silent age.

Screenplay by Ben Hecht from a Noel Coward play.

Available on Blu-ray from Criterion. The source is in remarkably good shape. Some scenes have vertical scratches. I'm surprised there is no commentary track.