(Ernst Lubitsch, US 1932, 82 min., 35mm)
A hilarious romance about three subjects the movies have always excelled at serving up and dishing out: sex, crime, and conspicuous consumption. Trouble in Paradise is “the Lubitsch touch” at its most sardonic and exalted.
“It is a comedy for three characters, plus comic relief in supporting roles. Herbert Marshall plays a gentleman jewel thief, Miriam Hopkins plays the con-woman who adores him, and Kay Francis is the rich widow who thinks she can buy him but is content to rent him for a while. They live in a movie world of exquisite costumes, flawless grooming, butlers, grand hotels in Venice, penthouses in Paris, cocktails, evening dress, wall safes, sweeping staircases, nightclubs, the opera and jewelry, a lot of jewelry. What is curious is how real they manage to seem, in the midst of the foppery.” – Roger Ebert (1998)