Trouble in Paradise

This film was invisible for more than a decade. Made in 1932, before the Hays Code began to be enforced strictly, it was refused a reissue after 1935, and Paramount could not put it back into circulation until 1968. The studio was refused once more in between: in 1943 it wanted to make a musical version, and that was blocked too. The reason is simple: its thieves are not punished and its sexuality is never rebuked. Two professional thieves meet by stealing from each other. Gaston and Lily go into partnership and plan to rob Madame Colet, who owns a wealthy perfume company. Gaston takes a job as her secretary. Then he falls for her, and the question becomes less which woman he will choose than which life. Lubitsch's method is at its purest here. Sex is never shown, only implied through a closed door, a clock, a shadow. This was also the film that first got people talking about the Lubitsch touch, and Lubitsch counted it among his own favourites. Miriam Hopkins, Kay Francis and Herbert Marshall star, with Francis borrowed from Warner Bros for the part, and Charles Ruggles and Edward Everett Horton in support. Who it is for: viewers who like classical Hollywood comedy, the freedom of the pre-Code period, and what goes unsaid. Who it is not for: anyone wanting things stated. Every joke rests on implication, and some only resolve if you know the constraints of the period.