Thursday Romantic Comedy Classic

Welcome to a new weekly feature here at Movies with Abe, Thursday Romantic Comedy Classic. I’m taking a course called The Romantic Comedy where we’re charting the history and development of romantic comedies from the 1920s to the present. We’ll be watching some pretty iconic films, some of which I haven’t seen before. Each week, I’ll be providing a short review of one romantic comedy classic from the annals of history.

Trouble in Paradise
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch
Released October 12, 1932

This splendid screwball comedy is exhilarating and enjoyable from start to finish. The tale of two con artists, portrayed by Herbert Marshall and Miriam Hopkins, who try to scam a wealthy heiress but get caught up in their own duplicity along the way is wonderfully entertaining throughout and a true demonstration of the fact that films from seventy years ago can be just as clever and engaging as movies today. The director’s signature Lubitsch Touch helps to make this film a very suggestive farce that never shows anything that could be termed inappropriate but certainly implies it. Marshall and Hopkins play off each other in such a way that emphasizes having fun above all else, and they’re an exceptional pair. Even more impressive than their on-screen chemistry is that between Marshall and actress Kay Francis, who stars as Madame Colet, the widow who criminal Gaston Monescu sets his preying sights on for his next con. The three of them together are so fantastically fun, and the inventive (and novel at the time) use of sound to create opposing characters with different levels of enthusiasm and energy is brilliant. Most importantly, the story is a grand scheme that’s ultimately defined by the creativity of its characters, and it’s a marvelous instance of an ensemble cast working together in fine form, and a truly memorable and terrific film.

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