Produced and directed by Ernst Lubitsch, Trouble in Paradise (1932) was adapted by Grover Jones from the play The Honest Finder by Aladar Laszlo, with a final screenplay by Samson Raphaelson. The movie concerns two lovers who both happen to be high-society thieves. When they meet, Gaston Monescu (Herbert Marshall) and Lily Vautier (Miriam Hopkins) are instantly smitten by each others’ ability to seamlessly, quietly steal one another’s prized possessions from under their noses. They fall in love and begin a glorious career of taking rich people’s money.
Buy Trouble in Paradise (Criterion Collection)Into their happiness comes Madame Colet (Kay Francis) who is fabulously wealthy as the CEO of a perfume empire, Colet and Company. She is also gorgeous and soon finds her eyes settling on the charming Monescu. Following her around like two lost puppies are Madame Colet’s suitors, Major (Charles Ruggles) and Francois Filiba (Edward Everett Horton). These two characters are responsible for 70% of the laughs. It isn’t that the rest of the cast are not funny – they are. Instead, Ruggles and Horton have so much comedic chemistry that the others are smart enough to just get out of their way and let them be funny.
It is possible that Madame Colet is really in love with Gaston Monescu; it is possible that Lily Vautier is not happy about their “affair”; it is possible that Gaston Monescu is in love with both Madame Colet and Lily Vautier; but, in the end, it is all about who will end up with the money. Kay Francis is wonderfully slinky as Madame Colet. Her eyes sparkle, her lips pout, and her dialogue, like all the dialogue in the film, is witty and charming. The scenes where Lily and Gaston steal from each other, and get away with it, while sitting right next to each other are a laugh-out-loud farce that is endlessly fun to watch.
Trouble in Paradise is a pre-Code film released just a few years before the Production Code went into full swing. This leads to a playfully “adult” film – meaning adults will appreciate it the most – with beautiful, form-fitting gowns for the ladies and endless innuendo for both the ladies and the gentlemen. It is all quite tame by today’s standards: Paramount tried unsuccessfully on several occasions to re-release the film, but were denied until 1968 (which is, of course, absolutely ridiculous). Trouble in Paradise is no trouble at all, and the Special Features add huge amounts of information and value.
Special Features:
- 4K UHD + Blu-ray combo edition
- New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
- Audio commentary featuring Scott Eyman, biographer of director Ernst Lubitsch
- Introduction by filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich
- New video essay by critic David Cairns
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- An essay by critic Farran Smith Nehme
Criterion Liner Notes:
“Trouble in Paradise is presented in the aspect ratio of 1.37:1. This new 4K restoration was created from a 35 mm nitrate print from the collection of the UCLA Film & Television Archive and a 35 mm composite duplicate negative provided by Universal Pictures. The restoration of the original monaural soundtrack, undertaken by the UCLA Film & Television Archive and The Film Foundation, with funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation, was created from a 35 mm nitrate print at Audio Mechanics.”
