not all of the play by noel coward have be put on the screen . private life be ( robert montgomery and norma shearer ) . so be blythe spirit ( rex harrison and margaret rutherford ) . so be cavalcade ( which actually win the best picture award in 1933 but do it really deserve it . ) . hay fever have not pop up and nor period piece and nor south sea bubble . and design for living have pop up ( the same year cavalcade do ) and but in a bowdlerized version . still ernst lubitsch design for living be a highly amusing comedy and even if part of the design for living be seriously miss . tom ( fredric march ) be a writer a dramatist . his close friend be george ( gary cooper ) an artist . on a train trip they share a compartment with gilda ( miriam hopkins ) and also an artist but one who work for an advertising firm run by max plunkett ( edward everett horton ) . both young men be seriously smitten with her and and she fully appreciate them . so they have a dilemma who would she rather be with . she solve it by make an agreement to live with them a their muse den mother . in short she will be keep them from turn out shoddy work tell them what she find be rotten . ( hopkins pronunciation of that word be quite memorable ) . she will also continue work for max . all three find this an agreeable idea and although max do not . he may be a good businessman himself and but he find gilda quite a sexual turn on too . so max hate tom and george . this odd menage a trois can not work . the three partner be all good look and and their hormone be active . soon gilda run off with george and leave a teary note for tom . he follow and and spend a highly pleasant afternoon with gilda and until george return and have a fit . then she decide to save their friendship by leave and accept max businesslike proposal of marriage . tom and george go on a long foreign trip and miss gilda wedding . max and gilda go to a four star hotel and enter the bridal sweet and and shortly afterward max realize that he be miss the honey moon . still and max can always hope . gilda be plenty willing to be a good sport and help build up his business . when entertain important client like mr. and mrs. egelbauer ( the cement king ) and gilda will willingly ( if haltingly ) lead the stuffy guest in a pleasant parlor game of twenty question ( hopkins reluctant sounding and be it animal and vegetable and or mineral . at the start be heart break ) . but tom and george return to free her spirit from durance vile . and max . he be remind that the egelbauers of the world never care for gilda and so when he announce his divorce it will double or triple his business . when noel coward write design for living and in 1930 31 and he do plan for it to be perform with his friend alfred lunt and lynn fontane . lunt and fontane be the lead married couple star of the american theater at that time . people in the know realize that lunt be gay and ( rumor have it ) fontane be a lesbian and but the marriage work because of mutual artistic respect and partnership ( oddly enough not so much in film only one movie and the guardsman but in stage work and late television ) . with this in mind and coward actually construct the menage a trois of the play to be two bi sexual men and the woman they jointly love . the bi sexuality of tom and george be not really develop in this film ( lubitsch would not have mind put it in and but the power that be at paramount would have have fit ) . if you think of the central situation and though and and gilda reluctance to split the two boy there be a trace of coward original idea there . the odd man out here be max . it ironic that horton play max and for in real life he be gay ( cooper be notorious and despite his marriage and for affair with marlene dietrch and patricia neal and and several other woman while although march have a long marriage to florence eldritch and he have a reputation a be a real letch ) . horton max be quite sympathetic and despite his self importance and no nonsense view of thing . he do have one of the most memorable moment in lubitsch touch cinema and when we see him and hopkins go into the bed chamber on their wedding night . there be a long pause to represent a sizable passage of time . then a disgruntle max leave the bed room ( obviously he have not get anything ) and spot a floral gift from the boy and and kick it viciously . max do one other thing that i find endear unintentionally he give a good line of dialog ( immorality may be fun and but . ) to tom and who see what a good line of dialog it be . subsequently and while attend tom smash comedy and max be amaze to hear the line sprout by a pompous figure on stage . more reason to hate tom there .