Trouble in Paradise (Ernst Lubitsch, 1932)

When world-famous thief Gaston Monescu (Herbert Marshall) turns his sights on wealthy heiress Marietta Colet (Kay Francis), he finds himself in a trap no policeman could have devised: a love triangle with the M. Colet and his lover and fellow crook Lily Vautier (Miriam Hopkins).

• "I know all your tricks."
• 
  
• "And you're going to fall for them."
• 
  
• "So you think you can get me?"
• 
  
• "Any minute I want."
• 
  
• "You're conceited."
• 
  
• "But attractive."
• 
  
• "Now let me say..."
• 
  
• "Shut up. Kiss me."

Man, no matter how many times I watch it, Trouble in Paradise always sweeps me up.

Taking place in a magical world where characters are judged not by their desires but by whether they are willing to hide them, the film is often held up as one of the final and best examples of sexual frankness in pre-Code Hollywood.

And no one was better at discussing sex than Ernst Lubitsch. 

I recently re-read Scott Eyman's biography of the filmmaker and it spurred me to re-watch Trouble. 

I first watched the movie about 15 years ago. I was in the middle of post-graduate studies, and I was taking a paper on depictions of love.

From memory I think I also wrote about The Lady Eve.

The world of the film is a game.

And the game is sex.

The film’s tone is unsentimental.

I always take a certain melancholy from the film.

The world the characters live in is a sham. They take pleasure from it, but they do not take it for granted. They know the money and jewels can pass, that they can always get more.

The melancholy also comes from the knowledge that this type of movie was on the way out.

Our antiheroes get away with it, almost providing a coda to the pre-Code era.

Kay Francis, a favourite on this blog, plays the besotted tycoon with a preening confidence that never comes across as conceited and arrogant.

As the thief who steals her heart, Herbert Marshall is all unflappable charm. As the third piece of the central love triangle, Miriam Hopkins is his opposite - a spinning ball of energy who could bring their whole caper down.

Apparently some of the onscreen chemistry was the result of offscreen shenanigans - the very married Marshall had affairs with both of his co-stars. 

It is a testament to how sly this film is that the central romantic triangle does not go a predictable route - Marshall and Francis May bid farewell but there is no sense of regret to their parting, only a savouring of what they shared.

Filled with wonderful moments of visual storytelling (the use of a gondola ornament is a brilliant take on the eureka moment), and wordplay (“You see, Francois, marriage is a beautiful mistake which two people make together. But with you, Francois, I think it would be a mistake”), Trouble in Paradise comes off as a miracle of imagination and understatement.

I always come away enraptured, and also dumbfounded at the ease with which it handles every element. It is the work of a cinematic magician, one of the best to ever do it. 

A masterpiece.

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