Designing Woman

1957, Movie, NR, 117 mins

starstarstarstar
Vincente Minnelli, George Wells, and a heck of a supporting cast have done the impossible; they've made Peck somewhat funny. The famous stoneface plays a sports reporter who has written a hard-hitting series of articles that have exposed corruption in the boxing game. Having recently married clothes designer Bacall, Peck has left behind his messy digs in the Village to move into Bacall's chic Upper East Side flat. Although they are uncomfortable with each other's friends--he hangs out with the jock set, she's involved with a silk-and-satin crowd--Peck and Bacall try to make their unusual marriage work. However, matters are complicated by the arrival of Peck's former girl friend, Gray, and Bacall's former boy friend, Helmore. What's more, villains are after Peck because of the series he's written on boxing. Bacall gives an especially good performance here (no small accomplishment, considering that she was under great emotional strain because her husband, Humphrey Bogart, was dying at the time the film was being shot). Shaughnessy also does a bang-up job as a punchy ex-pug who is Peck's bodyguard, and White is well cast as a fink, as are Levene as a sports editor and Connors as a mobster. The very funny script took the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Dore Schary's last film for MGM, DESIGNING WOMAN is an odd entry in the great filmmaker's long list of credits in that it is pure entertainment with no underlying message. leave a comment
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Designing Woman
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