Design for Living is a 1933 American pre-Code romantic comedy film directed by Ernst Lubitsch from a screenplay by Ben Hecht, based on the 1932 play of the same name by Noël Coward.

Starring Fredric March, Gary Cooper, and Miriam Hopkins, the film is about a woman who cannot decide between two men who love her, and the trio agree to try living together in a platonic friendly relationship.

[3] On Broadway, Design for Living was a popular and critical hit starring Lynn Fontanne, Alfred Lunt and Coward, and its risqué ménage-à-trois theme made it controversial.

According to the New York State Writers Institute website, a highlight of the film is the scene where, while struggling at his playwriting, he begs Miriam Hopkins, as Gilda, to smack him between the shoulder blades.

From 1929 to 1934, Lubitsch "made Paramount the ne plus ultra of sophisticated sexiness,"[8] joyously weaving adult sexuality, cosmopolitan flair and a disdain for convention into his films, which included The Love Parade, Monte Carlo, Trouble in Paradise, The Smiling Lieutenant, and One Hour with You.

Notwithstanding the fact that Mr. Coward's clever lines were tossed to the four winds and that the whole action of the story is materially changed, Mr. Lubitsch, who knows his motion picture as few others do, has in this offering... fashioned a most entertaining and highly sophisticated subject, wherein his own sly humor is constantly in evidence.

He has been ably aided and abetted by Mr. Hecht in this slaughter of the Coward play, and, if the original was sharper and brisker than the picture, the latter is filled with clever fun and the story, still with a decided Parisian flair, moves along swiftly and surely.

"[15] Louis Chilton of The Independent writing in 2023, "Witty, humane and progressive, Design for Living has aged shockingly well, and arguably remains the urtext for exploring throuples on film.

"[16] Similarly, Toussaint Egan and Pete Volk wrote on Polygon in 2022 that Design for Living was one of the best pre-Code films, calling it a "clever comedy with charismatic and attractive movie stars in the leading roles […] a romp of a time from one of the all-time great directors.

"[17] The film was released on DVD on May 31, 2005, as part of The Gary Cooper Collection, which also includes The Lives of a Bengal Lancer, Peter Ibbetson, The General Died at Dawn, and Beau Geste.