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Trouble in Paradise

Director: Ernst Lubitsch
Year: 1932
Run-time: 1 hr 23 min
Source: Flixfling

Notable For: We're in the middle of a sudden influx of great American comedies, and Lubitsch's Trouble in Paradise is one of the best.  It's not quite screwball comedy, but it has a wonderful energy (like Love Me Tonight), and like the best escapist entertainment, there's never any real sense of danger or inescapable drama to the proceedings.  Lubitsch is a director I was looking forward to - his films have an ineffable energy (the famous "Lubitsch touch") - somehow he plays to the best of his actors' strengths, and the three leads in this film are all iconic in their own way.  You know you're in for a great treat from the very first moment.

Verdict: This is one that I'd love to return to, to reveal to newcomers.  So many great scenes, little details that stand out.  The way that Herbert Marshall runs up and down stairs, barely moving his upper body as his feet scurry along (especially remarkable since he apparently lost a log in WWI).  The way that Kay Francis, playing the duped heiress, always seems to be both knowing and gullible at the same time.  Money is both everything and nothing to her.  The fierce energy of Miriam Hopkins, that she can barely contain inside of her eyes as she pretends to be Francis' secretary.  It's difficult to explain why this film is so pleasurable - I suppose there have been few directors as assured in their abilities as Lubitsch.


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