La donna del destino

Vincent Minnelli directed this movie with verve. The idea of the movie came from MGM's designer Helen Rose, a woman who knew about fashions. The screen play by George Wells, works well in the beginning of the movie.

The idea of bringing together these two different people had already been done, especially as vehicles for Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn. The allure here lies on the stars. Gregory Peck and Lauren Bacall made an excellent couple.

Lauren Bacall, at the height of her beauty, comes out best. She was a fine comedy actress who had a sense of style and timing. In portraying Marilla, Ms. Bacall offers a side of her that hadn't been tapped before, having been seen in heavier roles. This movie seems to have been tailor made for her.

As the sports writer, Gregory Peck, plays comedy, which was not his forte. At times, he appears wooden, but it probably was the direction from Mr. Minnelli, who wanted to show the big contrast between the lovers. Mr. Peck's Mike Hagan is completely different from his role in "Roman Holiday", but he carries it off and shows he was having a great time playing this sports reporter.

Dolores Gray, as Lori Shannon, has a few good moments playing the woman that is dumped by her steady boyfriend. There are a lot of familiar faces in the cast. Sam Levene, Tom Helmore, Mickey Shaugnessy, Jesse White, Chuck Connors, Edward Platt and Jack Cole, who plays the part of the Broadway choreographer that makes a statement of not being gay, when everyone can see otherwise!

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.

Cute and charming movie. Bacall and Peck have great chemistry as a newlywed couple who have more differences than they think starting out together. Bacall is funny and chic in her gorgeous gowns by Helen Rose and Peck is funny and charming as a gruff sports writer. This is a true gem.

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.

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.