Staggeringly hungover sports-writer Mike Hagen (Gregory Peck) meets, and soon marries, sexy fashion designer Marilla Brown (Lauren Becall), and promptly gets tangled-up in a web of well-meaning lies involving ex-girlfriends (sexy showgirl Lori (Delores Gray)) and threatening gangsters (lead by Edward Platt (likely best remembered as agent 86's 'Chief')). The two leads have a smart script and play off each other beautifully and the rest of the cast, which is full of recognisable character actors from '50s and '60s movies, TV, and commercials, is great. Mickey Shaughnessy is especially entertaining as punchy, inarticulate palooka Maxie Stultz who takes his assignment as Mike's body-guard very seriously, and A-list jazz-choreographer Jack Cole looks like his enjoying his role as an almost stereotypical hoofer who bristles when his 'manliness' is questioned. The story follows a predictable path (as soon as you see that the dog likes to steal shoes, you just know what's gonna happen) but the foreshadowing is part of the fun, and the whole romantic tangle eventually sorts itself out after a brawl that would be at home in an early Jackie Chan film. The woman's fashions are fabulous (and fabulously dated) and the animal wrangling impressive (all three main characters manage to catch a full size-poodle in mid-flight). All in all, a fun film with an interesting casting back-story involving both Hollywood and real-life royalty.
Review of Designing Woman
