Warum hab' ich ja gesagt?

A harmless, delightful screwball comedy of 1950s, starring Mr. nice guy Gregory Peck and ice queen Lauren Bacall. I cannot say this film fully exploited both stars' spellbinding charm and 120-minutes is rather too long (there were several times sleepiness almost predominated me). Also the supporting cast is meagre except a foolishly amusing performance by Mickey Shaughnessy as the punchy boxer/bodyguard.

The Oscar-winning script deserves more chewing to relish the tit-for-tat rivalry between two leads, after an unexpected flash marriage, they realize that they ought to overcome many differences between them to make their wedlock work.

One might feel distanced about being alarmed when the wife found out that her husband hid a picture of a beautiful lady from her, then made a fuss about it, and the discrepant milieu of sport reporter and fashion designer is also over-exaggerated, which all tamper the appreciations from my peers.

The end actually ended in a mess, the action part is annoying more than ridiculous, the choreography-cum-combat contrivance is rather a solid laughingstock than an innovation.

Nevertheless, for whom I consider a nostalgic spectator of Hollywood in the Golden Age, this film could satisfy you in every respect.

I thought the film had some enjoyable performances. Peck is a little wooden but perhaps this was meant to be part of his character. I liked the hoodlums very much and they seemed to be enjoying themselves. The monologues by the characters work very well and the film still surprises and entertains the viewer.

Helen Rose, MGM's Oscar-winning fashion guru, suggested the idea for this bit of fluff and the original casting was supposed to have been: Grace Kelly (eventually, Lauren Bacall), James Stewart (then, Gregory Peck), and Cyd Charisse (finally, Dolores Gray). George Wells won an Academy Award for his witty script and the production values were about the best that MGM could muster. Bacall gives a sly and glamorous performance, probably a little difficult for her since her husband, Humphrey Bogart's health was becoming a very serious concern while this film was in production. (Humphrey Bogart died in January of 1957.) Peck matches Bacall with a humorously masculine presence that was right-on. Dolores Gray tosses off a couple of jazzy production numbers (with the emphasis on her singing...presumably Cyd would have unfurled those legendary legs and would have been dubbed had singing been required.) And Mickey Shaughnessy provides a bit of cruder comic counterpoint as a punch-drunk boxer ("I'm makin' a comeback!") Minnelli, as usual, uses Metrocolor and CinemaScope to creative effect and Andre Previn contributed a main title theme that's instantly memorable.

The DVD now available restores the widescreen ratio and there's a curious "Behind-the-Scenes Minidocumentary" featuring costume designer Helen Rose, shot in black-and-white, in which she seems to be responding to questions posed to her by an unseen person whose questions were not actually recorded on the soundtrack! Wonder why they didn't fix that omission for its inclusion on the DVD version. Anyway, it's fun and worth a look.

Who would have possibly realized in this bubbly and frothy romantic comedy, behind the scenes was a looming tragedy. While shooting this film with Gregory Peck by day, Lauren Bacall was nursing dying husband Humphrey Bogart. It was quite an ordeal for her.

Fortunately she's called on to be a fashion designer, beautiful and chic and Lauren Bacall can do that in her sleep. I'm sure working on this film took her mind off what she was dealing with at home.

As has been said, this borrows heavily from Woman of the Year. And like in Woman of the Year, the male lead is a sports columnist. He's also doing a bit of crusading journalism going after racketeers in the boxing game. Which, by the way, in real life was also going on, giving Designing Woman a certain current topicality.

Gregory Peck may be reprising Spencer Tracy, but I think he's poaching here on Rock Hudson's territory. Still he does have some good moments as Mike Hagen, sportswriter and would-be Bob Woodward. His best moments are with Dolores Gray, his jilted girlfriend who dumps a plate of ravioli in his lap at a posh restaurant and later in her apartment hiding from Bacall and wrestling with Gray's pink poodle for his shoe which the dog appropriates for a chew toy.

The rest of the cast nicely fills out their roles. Two standouts for me are Mickey Shaughnessy as a punch-drunk ex-pug who is Peck's appointed bodyguard. It seems like Mickey Shaughnessy was in about every good film in the 1950s and worked with everyone. The second is Jack Cole, choreographer who plays a choreographer in a show Bacall is designing costumes for.

We've certainly come a long way from 1957 when you had to hide the fact a character was gay. If Designing Woman was made today Jack Cole would be openly gay and no nonsense about it. Let us say his presence in the mad finale is absolutely crucial to Peck's and Bacall's life and marriage.

It's not exceptionally funny or momentous, just pleasant in the same agreeably polished sort of way the Rock Hudson-Doris Day comedies are. Peck is a New York sports writer who meets Bacall's fashion designer while on leave in California at a posh hotel. They marry on a whim after a brief courtship and soon discover their clashing lifestyles will be a greater problem than they anticipated. Delores Gray plays Peck's old flame who isn't quite ready to fade into the background; Sam Levene and Tom Helmore lend capable support as Peck's editor and Bacall's business partner, respectively. A minor Minnelli production that breaks no new ground, it's a delightful diversion all the same.