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Designing Woman
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Designing Woman | |
|---|---|
 Designing Woman movie poster |
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| Directed by | Vincente Minnelli |
| Produced by | Dore Schary |
| Written by | George Wells |
| Narrated by | Lauren Bacall |
| Starring | Lauren Bacall Gregory Peck Dolores Gray |
| Music by | Billy Higgins André Previn W. Benton Overstreet |
| Cinematography | John Alton |
| Editing by | Adrienne Fazan |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| Release date(s) |  May 16, 1957 |
| Running time | 118 min |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Designing Woman is a 1957 Academy Award winning romantic comedy about the world of fashion. It is directed by Vincente Minnelli and stars Lauren Bacall and Gregory Peck. This screwball comedy has generally been well received.
Contents |
While on vacation, a sports journalist (Peck) meets an ambitious fashion designer (Bacall). The two instantly create a bond and get married, only to soon realize they have little in common.
Moreover, Bacall gets angry at Peck who has forgotten to inform her he is already engaged. What follows is a continuing series of misunderstandings and mishaps.
Lauren Bacall was dealing with her husband Humphrey Bogart's deadly illness during the shooting of the film. According to her autobiography, she mainly took the role (which was originally planned for Grace Kelly [1]) to get some time off of the troubled situation at home.
James Stewart had turned down the role that went for Gregory Peck. One of the supporting actors was the famed choreographer Jack Cole, whom director Minnelli was familiar with from his previous musicals.
The original concept for the film reportedly was the idea of Helen Rose, who designed dozens of gowns and dresses for Bacall for Designing Woman.
The movie ended up being one of Bacall and Peck's more successful films both critically [2] and commercially [3], with Bosley Crowther of the New York Times comparing the leading couple with Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy and proclaiming, "it obviously makes an endeavor to generate the same kind of verve and general sardonic humor as flowed from that older comedy team. It does, too — at least, in certain stretches."[4]
As for modern reviews, website Rottentomatoes.com has given Designing Woman an overall positive note, regarding it 72 per cent "fresh" as opposed to "rotten" [5], while the website Allmovie.com gives it two and a half stars out of five, crediting Bacall for giving a "sparkling comic performance" [6].
DVDverdict.com proclaims the comedy as "shiny, polished, and entertaining" and states that "it has held its value well over the years. [7]"
- Academy Award for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen (George Wells) - won
- Laurel Award for Top Female Comedy Performance (Lauren Bacall) - 3rd place
- Laurel Award for Top Comedy - fifth place
- Writers' Guild of America's WGA Award for Best Written American Comedy - nominated