There's always a silver lining!

The only good thing about being sick is having all the time in the world to lay about the house and catch up on all of the movies I've DVR'd in the past month. I started coming down with something last Friday and, since then, I've been literally floored by whatever "it" is.

Today I watched Design For Living (1933) and Lady Be Good (1941).

Frederic March, Miriam Hopkins, & Gary Cooper in Design For Living (1933).

Design For Living is best described as a pre-code sex romp. And it is. But it's a little too wordy for me. This makes sense though, seeing as how it was adapted from a play originally penned by Noel Coward. One of the reasons why I've wanted to see this movie for so long was because it stars Gary Cooper (alongside Frederic March and the enchanting Miriam Hopkins). We all know how I feel about Coop! But, despite his gorgeous presence, nothing could make me like this film. Yes, the story was a clever one: a woman meets two men on a train, falls in love with both of them, and then agrees to live with them as long as sex isn't involved. And that's where my love for this film stops. It could have been SO much better if the lines were wittier and the scenes shortened. Plus, for a film that has Edward Everett Horton in it, it hardly made use of the zany, lovable character actor AT ALL! Where were the laughs?!

Original artwork for Lady Be Good (1941)

Next came Lady Be Good. And believe me when I say that I really wanted to like this film! In my eyes, it ended up being a little better than Design For Living, but only by a hair (and only because of Eleanor Powell). This film's cast was superb: Lionel Barrymore, Ann Southern, Robert Young, Red Skelton and the aforementioned Powell. With a cast like that, you'd hardly expect to dislike this movie, but I did. Here's my beef: Powell had top billing on this film and yet she was only a supporting player, playing second fiddle to Young and Southern. And, to make matters worse, MGM's top female dancer only had two musical numbers in the entire 2-hour film! How is that even possible?! If it had been up to me, there would have been a Powell number at every 10 minute interval! What a waste of a colossal talent. Way to go MGM!

Having said all that, I think I'm going to leave you with Eleanor Powell's "Fascinatin' Rhythm" number from Lady Be Good (she taps her way into the number at the 1:50 mark):