Trouble in Paradise ***** (1932, Miriam Hopkins, Kay Francis, Herbert Marshall) – Classic Movie Review 1989

Based on László Aladár’s play The Honest Finder, producer-director Ernst Lubitsch’s 1932 sophisticated comedy Trouble in Paradise is a masterclass in just how to be both brilliantly clever and hilariously witty. Herbert Marshall and Miriam Hopkins star as Paris jewel thieves who set out to con a beautiful, wealthy, widowed perfume company owner (Kay Francis). But then Marshall falls for her, arousing Hopkins’s jealousy and annoyance.

Marshall plays high-class European gentleman thief Gaston Monescu, who meets his soul mate in Hopkins’s Lily, a pickpocket masquerading as a countess. The two join forces and go to work for Francis’s Madame Mariette Colet, the owner of the Colet perfume company to work a sting on her. But Gaston, who works as Madame Colet’s personal secretary under the alias of Monsieur Laval, soon finds himself caught in a romantic entanglement between the two women.

With its deliciously witty lines, stylishly elegant Lubitsch direction and gracefully polished acting, it is an impeccable example of the art of high comedy. Ex-actor Lubitsch acted out every scene for his players on the set – is this why the performances are perfect? They certainly have a perfect screenplay with polished dialogue to go on, written by Samson Raphaelson, Lubitsch (uncredited) and Grover Jones (adaptation).

It rattles gleefully and gracefully along in just 83 breathless minutes.

You get it all exactly right and yet there are no Oscars or nominations, and merely tepid box-office (budget $519,706, US/ Canada box office $475,000). But history is on its side and it is now – and for some time – recognized and enjoyed for the all-time great classic it is.

Edward Everett Horton, Charlie Ruggles, C Aubrey Smith, Robert Greig, Leonid Kinskey, George Humbert. Rolfe Sedan, Luis Alberni, Hooper Atchley, Nella Walker, Perry Ivins, Tyler Brooks and Larry Steers co-star.

Trouble in Paradise is freely based on the 1931 play The Honest Finder (A Becsületes Megtaláló) by Hungarian playwright László Aladár.

Miriam Hopkins and Herbert Marshall.

Lubitsch contributed uncredited to the writing and Raphaelson contributed ideas to the directing. Though Grover Jones is credited with the adaptation, he did not contribute significantly. His credit is based on a contractual obligation, and he did little more than tell stories. Lubitsch suggested that Raphaelson did not read László Aladár’s source play. Herbert Marshall’s master thief Gaston Monescu is based on the exploits of a real person, George Manolescu, a Romanian con man whose memoir was published in 1905, and had been the inspiration for two silent movies.

We are lucky to have Trouble in Paradise. The pre-Code film was not approved for reissue in 1935 because of its adult themes and sexual innuendo, and it was not seen again until 1968.

It is a sleek and lovely looking movie. The Art Deco sets are designed by Hans Dreier, the head of the Paramount Pictures art department, and the gowns are designed by Travis Banton.

It was selected in 1991 for preservation by the US National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.

The cast are Miriam Hopkins as Lily, Kay Francis as Madame Colet, Herbert Marshall as Gaston Monescu, Charles Ruggles [Charlie Ruggles] as The Major, Edward Everett Horton as François Filiba, C. Aubrey Smith as Adolph J. Giron, Robert Greig as the butler Jacques, Leonid Kinskey, George Humbert. Rolfe Sedan, Luis Alberni, Hooper Atchley, Nella Walker, Perry Ivins, Tyler Brooks and Larry Steers

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1989

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