Skip to main content

Trouble in Paradise (1932)

Trouble in Paradise. Feature film. (1932, 83 mins) IMDB

...There certainly is trouble in paradise...

A

must see film.

If the same film was made today, shot for shot, you would enjoy it and not know it was from 1932. It stands up even if the film stock could use a restoration.

It's the dialogue. The romance. The acting. The compositions. The film is a tour de force. And did I mention it was made in 1932? It's hard to image how it could have been improved.

There is a three-act structure to the story which is crisp and lean. The film shows how images can set a scene quickly and completely. It is an example of what film can do.

The story is straightforward. A suave and charming crook is in Venice. He robs a fellow of his wallet and cash right in the man's hotel room. He pretends to be a baron and is in love with a woman who pretends to be a countess, but like him, she's a crook. In a hotel scene where they are to have a romantic dinner, we and they realize they are both crooked and thieves and madly in love.

Flash forward to Paris where we met the second woman and the third leg of this love triangle. She's Madame Colet. She's fabulously rich, owns a prominent perfume company. She spends money as if it were sand to brush off your body after a day on the beach.

Enter our two crooks who want to rob her blind and who come into her employ as secretaries.

They wait for the big score but before that arrives, the man from Venice recognizes our thief and he must leave or be thrown in jail. He and his lover will escape to Berlin with whatever they can take, but not so fast. He's in love with the beautiful and rich Madame Colet.

There are scenes in this film that last no more than one second. That's what I mean by lean. There are no cheats. A one second scene tells us so much.

TROUBLE IN PARADISE is a students of filmmaking should watch over and over because there is so much to learn from it.

My few words here have only gave an overview.

There is, for example, a scene where Gascon and Colet embrace and kiss. We see different shots of the moment, but most of what we see isn't direct shots of them especially not even a close-up. Instead, we see a reflection of their embrace on a bed. That's filmmaking.

Posted 2009/02/17 at 17h58ET in Movie Commentary.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A Piece of the Action (1977)

Saturday, March 7, 2009 A Piece of the Action. Feature film. (1977, 135 mins) IMDB ... Who would you have over for dinner? Sidney Poitier or Bill Cosby. ... A PIECE OF THE ACTION is the third film starring Bill Cosby and Sidney Poitier. Poitier also directed the films. (And yes, I would be fascinating to have both them sitting around a table for dinner.) We're in Chicago and I love the setup for this film. It's clever, fun and interesting. It starts during the dark of night. Crosby is a cat burglar robbing a vault in a bank. He's by himself, all the tools he needs, and doesn't speak a word of dialogue for at least the first twenty minutes of the film. It must have been killing him. His robbery goes off successfully. (It includes a jump from a six or seven story window. There was a similar scene in their earlier films.) When the cops arrive during the daylight, they haven't a clue and we catch a glimpse of James Earl Jones as a detect...

If Only We Could Agree

Monday, June 11, 2012 ... have you been accused of misspelling a word you know is correct ... S usanne O’Leary wrote an interesting article on her experience with the variations of the English language in different countries. You know the obvious ones like colour with or without a “u” but less obvious ones like travelled versus traveled. Growing up in Sweden she learnt English in school—the UK variation. In publishing her books, she read reviews where she was criticized for improper spelling. False accusations as it turns out. While I write tire and cozy, it’s not incorrect to write tyre or cosy. Same language. Both accepted. Just different. You can read her write-up here along with the numerous comments posted by readers. I found it interesting, but that’s me. As a Canadian I deal with this issue everyday. I feel her pain when she’s criticized for something based on ignorance. No fun. I was told by a boss that “data are” isn’t correct. It should be “data is.” Read...

No Reservations (2007)

Saturday, May 2, 2009 No Reservations. Feature film. (2007, 104 mins) IMDB ... I so much wanted to like this film but couldn't ... T his film had two things I like a great deal: romance and cooking, but they didn't come together for me in this film. I think I know why. The female lead doesn't strike me as a romantic leading lady. That's just me. I also found the story line stale and uninteresting. Our hero lives in NYC working at a fine dining restaurant where she is the chef and dictator. Everything about her life is about cooking. Nothing else seems to matter. No children. No relationships. Then her life is kicked apart. Her sister and niece travel to visit her but before they arrive, there's an accident. The mother dies and little Zoe has to live with her aunt. Our hero struggles to include a new person into her life but what follows is so predictable as to be boring. To add even more complications to our hero's life, her sous...