Design for Living

Noël Coward's teacup wit and elegance hardly suits the beer glass temperament of his screen adaptor Ben Hecht, who later complained of the author's 'vaudeville patter with an English accent', not to mention a 'superiority complex that went over big with sofa-cushion menders'. The script galumphs when it should glide, and neither the director nor the stellar cast can bring this would-be soufflé about a bohemian ménage-à-trois (Cooper paints, March writers, Hopkins flits between them) to the right fluffy consistency.