SimonJack At the mention of Gregory Peck's name, any number of great films might come to mind. "The Keys of the Kingdom" of 1944 had four Oscar nominations. "Gentlemen's Agreement" of 1947 won three Academy Awards, including best picture. "Twelve O'clock High" of 1949 won two Oscars. "Moby Dick" of 1956 won international awards. "To Kill a Mockingbird" of 1962 won three Oscars including Peck's Oscar and a Golden Globe as best actor. These are among many superb roles Gregory Peck had in dramas, war films and Westerns. One doesn't readily think of Peck in comedies, and yet he did make a few comedy romances. The best known of those would be "Roman Holiday" of 1953, which was a big hit mostly for the role of the relative newcomer to film, Audrey Hepburn. But, Peck had two genuine comedies around this time. "Man With a Million" was a 1954 British film that showed Peck with some talent for comedy. I think his best genuine comedy is this 1957 film, "Designing Woman." Make no bones about it, Gregory Peck is not a comedian. He doesn't deliver snappy, witty lines, or give dialog that evokes laughter. But he can play a straight face with comedy situations that are very funny. And, he can act a frazzled part that leads to laughs. Those are what he does mostly in this film with co-star Lauren Bacall. The story is a good one and won an Oscar for George Wells. Peck is a New York newspaper sports writer, Mike Hagen. Bacall is a fashion designer, Marilla Brown. No two more opposites would be likely to hit it off. But they do, and their opposites in almost everything lead to some very funny situations. The film gets a further boost out of a supporting cast that has some very good performances. Bacall is very good in her role and it was good to see her back in films after the January death of husband Humphrey Bogart. Considering this film's success, one wonders how Peck and Bacall might have fared in further pairings, comedic or otherwise. This film is a good watch for the whole family. The kids may especially like the antics of a dog.

secondtake Designing Woman (1957)I continue to disappoint my own optimism about movies from this period--that decade between the real end of the Old Hollywood and the real start of the New. (Let's say the nether zone of 1956 to 1965). But seeing a movie like "Designing Woman" is a chance to see what exactly these movie makers were up to. After all, the actors, directors, photographers, and writers were the same, almost to the letter, as ten years earlier. They were not idiots or failures in any sense. So...What has happened here to my eye has to do with style, an intentional shift to a very glossy, very false, very stylized kind of late 1950s mise-en-scene. Sometimes (in other movies) this rises above. Hitchcock's late 50s films come to mind. And exceptions for particular subsets of the audience exist (and blossom) like the Doris Day films and other period comedies. Some dramas that really still have resonance like "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and "Charade" also show the slick detachment of the movie machinery working out well, though with affectations, too.So, here's director Vincente Minnelli, who directed the remarkable 1951 romantic critique of the end of Old Hollywood, "The Bad and the Beautiful." And here are the two towering leads. Lauren Bacall is of course a legend linked first of Bogart, and to hard core Old Hollywood dramas. And Gregory Peck is better known for more serious movies like "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "Cape Fear." Even the great cinematographer John Alton has a resume a mile long. The writer, I admit, is less known, and the story here is thin, for sure, but he won an academy award for it, which shows how time changes perceptions. But, in all, the larger artistic intentions of the writer and director really bring a cool, dry dullness. It's a revelation to see it for what it is.It's almost like the director and producer know this isn't going to be a serious movie no matter what, that it can't be. Even the gruesome boxing match turns into a lighthearted repartee, and the glitzy high society stuff is generic and oddly lifeless (Billy Wilder does this material better, for example). And be warned, the format is itself uninvolving, with key parts switching to a simple voice-over, explaining what was happening, but not in a moody film noir way, just information.Is it worthless? Of course not. The scenes are often very complicated visually, with a huge array of extras. The filming really is gorgeous, though more static than it needs to be. There is dancing shoehorned into the plot (though both dancers are fairly dull as people, try as they do). There is a classic kind of clash of cultures that is meant to be the set-up for all the gags, Bacall the rich pampered woman of culture and Peck the working class sportswriter. Ugh, so the timing is off, the jokes flat, and the progress utterly slow. All these high production values are disposable. I hate the fact that I love all these people and thought the movie a dud. See for yourself.

maryszd I have seen this beautifully made film many, many times and never get tired of it. I hope eventually all of Vincente Minelli's films come out on Blu-ray. They deserve to be seen in every bit of their gorgeous detail. Even this film's flaws make it richer. Gregory Peck's acting as sportswriter Mike Hagen is stiff and lackadaisical and Lauren Bacall also seems somehow preoccupied (possibly with her husband Humphrey Bogart's poor health). But their personal malaise as actors reinforces one of the central themes of the film, that is, the near impossibility of creating a truly compatible marriage. The sexually ambiguous character of Randy Owens (Jack Cole) also undermines (in a good way) the gender stereotyping that Mike Hagen and his buddies desperately cling to. Dancer Lori Shannon and producer Zachary Wilder are the only true adults in the film; it's their eventual pairing at the end of the film that gives it a sense of emotional completion.Designing Woman also presents a wonderful cinematic vision of New York; it evokes a time when the world of musical theater and Broadway played a central role in American popular culture.

teddy_dancer94087 I watched this with my girlfriend last night. Her reaction was so-so until the ending, the wild "dance" by Jack Cole.Otherwise, some great scenes, but somewhat formulaic: sportswriter meets dress designer, let's see what happens. Peck is wonderful and Lauren Bacall shows that her beauty had only improved since TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT ten years earlier.But again, stick around for the finale. It's worth the wait.They say a comment needs ten lines.So there.And there.And there.