Trouble in Paradise (1932)

I had never heard of the director of this movie, Ernst Lubitsch, until my youngest son started a class that examines the director's body of work.  He was a German Jew who was first a successful comic actor and then a director during the Wiemar Republic.  It was a time when Jews were allowed the full rights as citizens in a legal sense but still very much outsiders to German society in many ways.  In that context, Lubitsch thrived.  Starting during WWI he made silent films that were sophisticated, sexy, and polished.  The narrative did not depend on slapstick and it was this quality that American filmmakers wanted him to bring to Hollywood.

This is his first talking movie, and it is sensational.  One hypothesis about why it fell into obscurity is that it is very suggestive and that starts with the opening credits.  The film opens with 'Trouble in" and there is a double bed in the background that is in view for several seconds before the words 'Paradise' appear.  So the viewer is immediately clued in that this is going to have something to do with a troubled romance that includes, but is not limited to, sex.  Very risque for 1932, or maybe it wasn't and it became so later.  In any case, the acting is perfect, a mix of sultry and comic in just the right proportions.  If you missed Ernst Lubitsch's work, get this DVD, and don't skip the 47 minute German silent film from 1917, Das fidele Gefangnis (The Merry Jail).