You know how in romantic comedies today, all jokes regarding sex don’t leave anything to the imagination, can have heavy profanity, and even sex scenes that bare all for the audience to see? Well, this next film may have come out during the Pre-Code era but it became the sexy film that it was using the craft of innuendos. Ernest Lubitsch’s Trouble in Paradise is about a romantic couple who attempt to steal from a famous perfume manufacturer but romantic entanglements complicate the mission.
So the characters of Gaston and Lily are too people who are perfect for each other. They’re both conmen, sneaky, sexy, and scheming. They put pulling the ultimate con into an art form. Love sexual innuendos? This is the film for you as Lubitsch added plenty of them or as its called “The Lubitsch Touch.” We can hear it through the dialogue and the imagery in a way that doesn’t draw too much attention to itself. It’s even in the opening sequence where you see “Trouble in…” and then you see an image of a bed. Gee, what can paradise mean? Even in the scene where the clock hands change, I wonder what was done to pass the time? Can you guess? Hmmm? You can even think of when Gaston and Lily are showing each other what they stole resembling to stripping off articles of clothing.
The whole time I was watching this film, I kept thinking that Kay Francis reminds me so much of Isabella Rossellini from Blue Velvet. Anyone agree? Anyways, I liked how the ending was completely different from what I imagined it would be. Definitely not tradition or a mainstream ending that would be made today. Cherish this film as a sexy film that leaves more to the imagination than making what would be today as a raunchy film.
Watch the first film that shows The Lubitsch Touch and write in your reactions:
Oh, For the Love of 1001 Films! 