Design for Scandal *** (1941, Rosalind Russell, Walter Pidgeon, Edward Arnold) – Classic Movie Review 10,640

Can you imagine Rosalind Russell as a judge or a sculptor?

Well, here in director Norman Taurog’s airily funny 1941 MGM black and white comedy Design for Scandal, she plays both, paired as Cornelia Porter with Walter Pidgeon as Jeff Sherman, an amoral news reporter who is sent to get her seduced, compromised and then disbarred as a judge while on holiday at Cape Cod after she has found against his bossy boss Judson M Blair (Edward Arnold) in a costly alimony case.

The very bright playing by a genial, smart-talking cast is a couple of notches ahead of the nevertheless lively, witty bantering script, an original screenplay by Lionel Houser.

Also in the cast are Barbara Jo Allen [Vera Vague], Jean Rogers, Mary Beth Hughes, Donald Meek, Guy Kibbee, Lee Bowman, Thurston Hall, Leon Belasco, Robert Emmett Keane and Anne Revere.

It was a hit, earning MGM a profit of $139,000.

The opening credits run Barbara Jo Allen (Vera Vague) after the character she played on the Bob Hope radio programme. She was regularly billed thus until she finally simply went by Vera Vague.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,640

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