During a whirlwind trip to Beverly Hills, the eight-day romance ends in marriage for sportswriter Mike Hagen and fashion designer Marilla Brown. When they return to New York together, they discover their lives are, in fact, very different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mike is working to expose a corrupt boxing promoter, and Marilla is designing costumes for an upcoming musical starring Mike\u2019s ex-girlfriend, Lori Shannon. Through a series of mishaps and miscommunications, it appears their relationship will fail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have seen a few of Lauren Bacall\u2019s<\/a><\/strong> movies, but Designing Woman<\/em> is the first of her earlier films I\u2019ve watched. I can absolutely see why she\u2019s considered a cinematic icon. Bacall commands the screen. She strikes an incredible balance of strength and vulnerability, and who can resist that smoky voice?<\/p>\n\n\n\n I adore Gregory Peck<\/strong>, so it wasn\u2019t exactly a chore to watch these two try to mend the differences in their relationship. He’s terrific as Mike Hagen and once again gets to put his comedic chops on display. I laughed out loud at a scene where he tells his ex (played by Dolores Gray<\/strong>) that he’s married, and she calmly dumps a plate of ravioli on his lap. Peck’s muted response is so perfectly timed and executed that I would love to check out some of his other light-hearted work soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The movie itself is the \u201cmiscommunication\u201d trope personified and, as a result, can be quite silly. How often have we watched a romantic comedy and realized all would be sunny and sweet if the two leads just talked to one another? Since they released Designing Woman<\/em> in 1957, I\u2019m willing to give it a pass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It helps that Bacall and Peck\u2019s chemistry is captivating enough to carry the movie past some of the story’s more implausible moments. While it’s a catalyst for some of Mike and Marilla’s misunderstandings, I’m not sure how important the “crooked boxing promoter” is to the story. It feels slightly out of place in tone, but the brawl that concludes the conflict is funny enough that I can’t complain too much about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I’m starting to love watching some of these older films. There’s just an elegance to them that you can’t find in modern rom-coms anymore, and I’m excited to watch more. I have read it’s a reworked version of Katharine Hepburn’s Woman of the Year<\/em><\/a>, but I can’t compare the two until I finally see it. Even so, I would definitely recommend giving Designing Woman<\/em> a watch. (ETA: I have watched Woman of the Year! Link added.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Watched:<\/strong> 01\/05\/2022
Notable Song<\/strong>: Won’t You Come Home by Devendra Banhart<\/p>\n\n\n\n