Design For Living (film) - Production

Production

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Coward wrote a succession of popular hit plays. On Broadway, Design for Living was a popular and critical hit starring Lynn Fontanne, Alfred Lunt and Coward, and its risqué ménage-à-trois theme made it controversial. Design for Living was one of more than a dozen of Coward's plays made into feature films.

Ernst Lubitsch initially asked Samson Raphaelson to write the screenplay, but he had no interest in adapting Coward. The director then turned to Ben Hecht, and they opted for a loose adaptation of Coward's plot, completely rewriting the play. In the original, the three main characters were sophisticated, urbane and cynical. Hecht changed the men's names, and the trio became naïve and exuberant, living the bohemian life worry-free in the middle of the Great Depression.

Lubitsch hoped to cast Ronald Colman and Leslie Howard as the male leads, but Colman demanded too much money and Howard didn't want to risk comparisons to the play's original cast. The director originally cast Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. as George, but the actor contracted pneumonia and had to withdraw just before filming began, and he was replaced by Gary Cooper. Lubitsch cast Paramount contract player Fredric March as Tom. According to the New York State Writers Institute website, a highlight of the film is the scene where, while struggling at his playwriting, he begs Miriam Hopkins, as Gilda, to smack him between the shoulder blades. Gilda was a role well-tailored for Hopkins' talents. Comic character actors Edward Everett Horton and Franklin Pangborn completed the principal cast.

Before officials began enforcing the Production Code in 1934, leading to censorship of sexuality from films, Paramount and other studios produced many with sexual or controversial content, including films starring Mae West, W. C. Fields and Marlene Dietrich and the fantasy films of Josef von Sternberg. From 1929 to 1934, Lubitsch "made Paramount the nec plus ultra of sophisticated sexiness," joyously weaving adult sexuality, cosmopolitan flair and a disdain for convention into his films, which included The Love Parade, Monte Carlo, Trouble in Paradise, The Smiling Lieutenant, and One Hour with You. Censorship difficulties arose with Design for Living due to sexual discussions and innuendos in the film. The Hays Office eventually approved it for release, but the film later was banned by the Legion of Decency, and in 1934 it was refused a certificate by the PCA for re-release under the strict new rules. The film's risqué subject matter also attracted press notice.