Design for Scandal

DESIGN FOR SCANDAL (1941) Walter Pidgeon, Rosalind Russell Lively Script. Pidgeon orchestrates a scandal to help his boss get even with a judge (Russell) for a ruling in a divorce case. Pidgeon, a fixer/reporter (more like an experienced con-man) is an amoral opportunist. Russell, the judge, is cold and emotionally walled-off from the world as Pidgeon tries to seduce and compromise her.

In my opinion Pidgeon deserved to be indicted despite how glib and affable he was.

Pidgeon's performance is adequate, he's likable as always. Russell is also adequate and beautiful. But I was distanced from immersion into the story by both of their slightly wooden line delivery. I kept getting the sense they were speaking lines, acting. The script was snappy, maybe that was the problem? Too snappy for ordinary people to be saying.

I think that's one of the problems with these movies from the 40's that have such great writing. It undermines the credibility of our character identification. Who speaks like that? Who is that smart, that quick? Yet it's the same thing we enjoy so much, the thing that makes such movies rise above the rest.

So, the answer is to have characters that the audience can believe are smart enough to be delivering such quick-witted comebacks.

Also, the deliveries from the two lead characters here sounded a bit overly rehearsed.

I liked this movie from the start and as it developed but drifted away emotionally during the last act.

Lots of wonderful supporting cast including the great (and aging) Edward Arnold, the ubiquitous Guy Kibbee, and Leon Belasco (playing a sculptor).

Rosalind Russell day on TCM ! in this one, she's judge Porter, hearing the divorce proceedings between the Blairs (Eddie Arnold, Marybeth Hughes). she rules in favor of the wife, but mostly because Mr. Blair couldn't keep his big mouth shut, and kept yelling out in court. so when the judge goes on vacation, Blair sends his reporter Jeff (Walter Pidgeon) after her to get her to lower the alimony. Jeff even researches the judge's past, so he will have things in common. it's all way over the top, and overdone. so much effort put in by Pidgeon/Jeff, and the judge rebuffs him at every opportunity. and a precocious, troublesome tot Freddie thrown in, for more laughs. Bobby Larson was in a couple Peppers films, and was even in Bank Dick, with W.C. Fields. and Russell would be nominated for four oscars, but sadly, not for probably her best known work "His Girl Friday", which she had just done the year before. Directed by Norman Taurog, who had already won the oscar for Skippy. Design for Scandal story seems to be written by Lionel Houser; died quite young at age 41. this one is just okay. looks like it was released just around the time of pearl harbor, probably hurting its success. too bad they didn't give Guy Kibbee more lines (the Superior court judge). he could always jazz up a film.

I'm sure William Powell was not available so in the MGM pecking order Walter Pidgeon got to star with Rosalind Russell in what turned out to be her last MGM film Design For Scandal. Pidgeon's part seemed to be cloned from Bill Powell's role as the reporter in Libeled Lady.

Pidgeon is a reporter who works for Edward Arnold a rich publisher who hates to part with a nickel. Arnold just got taken to the cleaners in a divorce settlement from gold digging Mary Beth Hughes and he's mad as hell at Judge Rosalind Russell for really socking it to him.

There's some really dirty pool played here as Pidgeon romances Russell so that Jean Rogers playing his girlfriend can sue her in a trumped up alienation of affections suit. What happens here is what happens in all movies of this type. You can truly figure out what's going on here.

The leads are fine, but Edward Arnold really steals this film as the 'mastermind' behind this scheme. His reactions every time another bill is brought to him are priceless.

Rosalind Russell plays another one of those patented career woman roles she did so well. Her fans who like to see her in these parts will be pleased.

Delightful romantic comedy with a plot that is, basically, a rehash of "Libeled Lady" (1936), beautifully done with nice cast. Rosalind Russell appears as a judge — as she would again in "The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer" (1947) — but also as a career woman whose repressed femininity makes her easy game for unscrupulous ladies' man Walter Pidgeon. That particular feature adds interest to the interaction between both characters and even, in a way and to a certain extent, gives this unpretentious little comedy a sort of an edge on the aforementioned classic screwball comedy. The chemistry between the leading couple is perfect and both are great in their respective parts. Arnold is also effective in another of his roles as a ruthless businessman (here a newspaper editor), the kind of characterization he played to perfection in several Frank Capra's comedies. Famous 'Vera Vague' (Barbara Jo Allen) plays a bit part, and the character that made the actress's fame is credited under hers (between parentheses) in the main titles.

Gold digger Mary Beth Hughes divorces Edward Arnold. Judge Rosalind Russell awards her an enormous alimony. Arnold wants a reconsideration, but it will have to go through Judge Russell, and Guy Kibbee refuses to transfer her to another division. So Arnold sets his fixer, Walter Pidgeon on her to stir up some scandal while she's on vacation on Cape Cod -- my, how 2024! -- by wooing her.

It's early in the series of movies in which Miss Russell would portray an authority figure who would fall for some scoundrel, so there's some freshness about it. Miss Russell would later describe these as

In all those types of films I wore a tan suit, a grey suit, a beige suit and then a negligee for the seventh reel near the end when I would admit to my best friend on the telephone that what I really wanted was to become a little housewife.

Lee Bowman plays the dull boyfriend who gets dumped in that seventh reel; Barbara Jo Allen (Vera Vague) and Thurston Hall also appear.