Thief Gaston Monescu and pickpocket Lily are partners in crime and love. Working for perfume company executive Mariette Colet, the two crooks decide to combine their criminal talents to rob their employer. Under the alias of Monsieur Laval, Gaston uses his position as Mariette's personal secretary to become closer to her. However, he takes things too far when he actually falls in love with Mariette, and has to choose between her and Lily.
Miriam Hopkins Kay Francis Herbert Marshall Charles Ruggles Edward Everett Horton C. Aubrey Smith Robert Greig Luis Alberni Hooper Atchley Tyler Brooke Marion Byron Louise Carter Gino Corrado George Humbert Perry Ivins Leonid Kinskey Gus Leonard Carl M. Leviness Fred Malatesta Eva McKenzie Donald Novis Hector V. Sarno Rolfe Sedan Larry Steers Frederick Sullivan Nella Walker Stanhope Wheatcroft Florence Wix
Belades ston paradeiso, Неприятности в раю, 트러블 인 파라다이스, 낙원에서의 곤경, 천국의 말썽, Beminnelijke schelmen, De firma Adam en Eva, Escándalo en el paraíso, Неприємності у раю, The Golden Widow, The Honest Finder, Thieves and Lovers, Nevolje u raju, Ärger im Paradies, Mancia competente, Haute Pègre, Un ladrón en la alcoba, 天堂里的烦恼, Ladrão de Alcova, Probleme în Paradis, Tjuvar i paradiset, Неприємності в раю, 極楽特急, צרות בגן עדן, Útěk z ráje
USA
Salt Lake City, Utah
USA
Boston, Massachusetts
Hong Kong
Hong Kong International Film Festival
Switzerland
Locarno Film Festival
Greece
Athens Film Festival
Italy
Il Cinema Ritrovato (Restored Version)
Portugal
Brazil
USA
Canada
USA
UK
Hungary
Sweden15
Spain
Denmark
Ireland
FranceTP
ItalyT
Portugal
FranceTP
FranceTP
FranceTP
Germany
Brazil
Canada
Denmark
France
Germany
Greece
Hong Kong
Hungary
Ireland
Italy
Portugal
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
UK
USA
93
What the movies are all about - hot thieves scamming and then falling in love.
This was made in 1932 for general audiences. What happened? when was America so sophisticated? and how could we have gone so far in the other direction?
Peter Bogdanovich
"If I were your father, which fortunately I am not, and you made any attempt to handle your own business affairs, I would give you a good spanking - in a business way, of course."
"What would you do if you were my secretary?"
"The same thing."
"You're hired."
Watching one of Lubitsch Continental drawing room Pre-code masterpieces, like Trouble in Paradise (1932) or Design for Living (1933), feels now like witnessing a lost art. Witty, louche comedic gems where crime pays and creates sexual frisson. Theft goes unpunished and polyamory unjudged. Was the world ever this sophisticated and subtle? How did Hollywood forget how to do this?
I feel like someone in the thousand or so years between the sacking of Rome and Donatello -- one who’s known only flat, exaggerated medieval saints and gargoyles. Then suddenly he comes across a Grecian sculpted Venus and marvels at the delicate curves and drapery and wonders how it was accomplished and if anyone would ever be able to do this again.
"Darling, remember, you are Gaston Monescu. You are a crook. I want you as a crook. I love you as a crook. I worship you as a crook. Steal, swindle, rob. Oh, but don't become one of those useless, good-for-nothing gigolos."
So charming, yet so devastating. Amorality is very hard work. I love how the three leads are in complete harmony while doing very distinct things. Lubitsch somehow did this and Broken Lullaby in the same year, and in between them, covered all the European emotional terrain in the early 30s.
Here we have a typically sophisticated and fashionable comedy graced by the renowned Lubitsch 'Touch'; a film which wears its amorality as a badge of pride and notable for the quickfire wit and acting skills of Miriam Hopkins and Herbert Marshall as they portray jewel thieves plying their trade across Continental Europe.
This is a production of such elegance and lightness that we can only weep for an art form seemingly lost forever..
There’s something almost otherworldly about how modern pre-code Hollywood can feel. From the humor to the acting to even the technical filmmaking, there’s so much at play here that still feels “hip”. So often we forget that, even 90 years ago, people were still scandalous and perverse as ever. I was having quite an anxious night and this movie brought me back down, and for that alone I’m grateful. I’m excited to watch more Ernst Lubitsch, who one of my favorite college professors always raved about and I wish I had listened sooner!
Money is the greatest ambition but an even grander folly in director Ernst Lubitsch’s “Trouble in Paradise.”
While gangsters were tommy-gunning up one half of Great Depression-era cinemas, an entirely different robbery was underway on the other side. You could say it was manslaughter versus slaughter by manners.
In Lubitsch’s “Paradise,” wealth, those who have it, and those who pursue it are locked an eternal battle of wits. All appear to be armed to the teeth, but down to the last, they are packing blanks. Barbed fire is exchanged, but the only casualty is peace and tranquility. And good riddance to that.
“Paradise” and its story about two cons scamming a rich young widow is, on its surface, peak escapist…
In many ways, dazzling. Just pristine in its construction — acting, cinematography, direction (such a light touch!) and that dialogue! But in this house it’s Miriam Hopkins supremacy. (Except when it comes to Bette Davis, y’all know what’s up.) So it’s a touch frustrating she gets sidelined a bit in the second half because she’s the character/performance who most captured my interest. You’re supposed to steal from the rich, not fall in love with them!!
Ernst Lubitsch was a COWARD for creating such a powerful, interesting woman just to keep her sidelined for a majority of the runtime. If Trouble in Paradise had been centered around Lily instead of Gaston, I would have given it at least two more stars.
Ernst Lubitsch always conveyed a palpable satisfaction in subverting Hollywood's professed doctrines of decency, and in Trouble in Paradise his quick and inventive humour took swings at every moral principle he could conjure. It's ingenious from the beginning, and there are numerous creative strategies employed in the representation of sexuality within the film while additionally demonstrating that criminality is a rather seductive and trendy pastime.
The depraved cast of characters, as well as the atmosphere, always remains lively, and the rampant and layered betrayal throughout the narrative together with the widespread fundamental motives of intense and selfish desires are always presented satirically. There's an unmistakable European charm to Lubitsch's films, and he skillfully manipulates the humorous visuals to give rise to those qualities without overworking them.
