Trouble in Paradise (1932)

A gentleman thief and a lady pickpocket join forces to con a beautiful perfume company owner. Romantic entanglements and jealousies confuse the scheme.

Director:

Ernst Lubitsch

Writers:

Aladar Laszlo, Samson Raphaelson (screenplay),

Stars:

Miriam Hopkins, Kay Francis, Herbert Marshall

2 wins.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Miriam Hopkins	...	Lily
Kay Francis	...	Madame Mariette Colet
Herbert Marshall	...	Gaston Monescu
Charles Ruggles	...	The Major (as Charlie Ruggles)
Edward Everett Horton	...	François Filiba
C. Aubrey Smith	...	Adolph J. Giron
Robert Greig	...	Jacques, Mariette's Butler
Leonid Kinskey	...	The Communist
George Humbert	...	Waiter

Storyline

High class European thief Gaston Monescu meets his soul mate Lily, a pickpocket masquerading as a countess. The two join forces and come under the employ of Mme. Colet, the beautiful owner of the Colet perfume company. Gaston works as Mme. Colet's personal secretary under the alias Monsieur Laval. Rumors start to fly as 'M. Laval' steals Mme. Colet away from her other suitors. When the secret of his true identity catches up to him, Gaston is caught between the two beautiful women.

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Plot Keywords:

thief | jealousy | perfume | pickpocket | love | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Crime | Romance

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Certificate:

Passed

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Italian Russian Spanish German

Release Date:

21 October 1932 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Honest Finder

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$519,706 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

83 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The scenes in which Herbert Marshall is running up and down the stairs at Madame Colet's were done with a double who is only seen from the rear. Mr. Marshall lost a leg in WWI and although it was almost impossible to notice that he used a prosthesis, he could not perform any action that called for physical agility.

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Goofs

(at around 10 mins) A very clearshadow of a boom mic moves against the wall/screen behind Lily, anticipating her next action (rising and moving toward Gaston).

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Quotes

François Filiba: You know, if I like a man I remember him... and if I don't like him I never forget him.

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Crazy Credits

In the opening credits the words 'Trouble in' appear and then a bed before the word 'paradise,' subliminally indicating that sex is at least part of the film's plot. It was done so subtly for the time that censors didn't notice it until the film's attempted re-release in 1935.

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Connections

Referenced in Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the Mainstream (2005)

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Soundtracks

"Colet and Company"
Music by W. Franke Harling
Lyrics by Leo Robin
Sung by Tyler Brooke on radio

User Reviews

"Con-stantinople!"

In the first minutes, two nobles dressed to the teeth--the Second Earl of Bastrop and Lady Higgenbottom, let's say--exchange brittle, achingly witty repartee. It's all rather droll until Lady H. picks up the telephone to inform her staff at home that she'll be late for dinner. The director, Ernst Lubitsch, cuts to the other side of the conversation--and we see a fat landlady in a hovel crawling with cats looking baffled at the receiver and saying, "Whaddaya sayin'?" At that moment, you know that Lubitsch and his ideal-mate screenwriter, Samson Raphaelson, are playing a pretty sophisticated game--and in the nearly seventy years since this movie, comedy directors from Billy Wilder to George Cukor to Woody Allen have been playing catch-up.

TROUBLE IN PARADISE remains the most perfect of all sound comedies--it makes you feel as if you had consumed some celestial compound of champagne and helium. The surprise of the movie today is not the pleasure of its Lubitschian elegance, but the fact that the movie is screamingly funny at every turn--Lubitsch's smart bombs never miss their mark. And for all the applications of his "touch" we're grateful for, Lubitsch never again made anything so flawless--in these less-than-ninety minutes, he and Raphaelson turned dialogue comedy into Mozartean music.