Trouble in Paradise (1932)

Con artists Lily (Miriam Hopkins) and Gaston (Herbert Marshall) cross paths and fall in love. They team up to swindle air-head perfume heiress Madame Colet (Kay Francis), but things become shaky when Gaston crosses paths with a previous mark and starts to get a little too close to his current one.

Miriam Hopkins was TCM’s star of the month, and the least I could do would be to see one of her films. I knew nothing about her but discovered she was the hottie in the good version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Here she was quite quirky and adorable. Herbert Marshall and Kay Francis too.

Marshall had but one leg, lost in the Great War, and you wouldn’t know it. They used a stand-in when he needed to run up stairs. Clever and charming, he and his growing relationship with Madame Colet is the primary focus of the film. Miriam’s Lily has a secondary but still important role in the scam. It was probably Kay’s performance that stood out the most for me. Between the three actors, they had fourteen spouses. Hollywood, am I right?

Veteran character actors Edward Everett Horton and Charles Ruggles play as an unlikely comedy team, two men vying unsuccessfully for Colet’s affection. Friends, but not really. They both have appeared in a ton of films and always stand out.

Funny, charming, and clever, Ernst Lubitsch lives up to his reputation. AMRU 3.5.

The Shop Around the Corner (1940)

The lead salesman (James Stewart) of a small shop in Budapest is trading letters with a woman from the personals and falls in love. Turns out, she’s the new sales girl he can’t stand. Oh, spoiler alert! I got that in in time, right?

Actually, that’s just part of the setup, and a lot goes on here besides the romance. What's going on with the owner and Alfred? What's going on with the sales guy who acts like a dick all the time? And the errand boy? The Shop Around the Corner is a character study at it’s heart, and fairly chatty as plays-turned-movies tend to be.

Frank Morgan, aka The Wizard, is the shop owner with personal problems. He’d die before he reached 60. Old friends may remember Felix Bressart as a Russian from Ninotchka, or Greenberg from To Be or Not To Be. He’d die before he gets as old as Frank. Margaret Sullavan played the love interest. She’d die before she got my age. Errand boy William Tracy younger still. So it goes.

The Shop Around the Corner is a Christmas romantic comedy, but don't let that fool you. It’s an interesting, layered story and well acted. There is action outside of the love interest, but it never becomes cluttered. It's clever, witty, and charming. Director Ernst Lubitsch built a world that feels complete and inviting, and the events that transpire inside have weight and meaning. I can’t say I’ve ever not been pleasantly surprised by his films. AMRU 4.

"Doctor, do I call you a pill-peddler?"

Ninotchka (1939)

Just before the onset of World War II three Russian operatives arrive in Paris to sell the legally confiscated jewels of the former Grand Duchess. Unfortunate for them, they chose the same hotel that the Grand Duchess (former) herself was staying at. Her lover (Melvyn Douglas) interrupts the sale and makes a claim on them. The operatives are living the Paris lifestyle waiting for the courts to decide, but Soviet government grows impatient and suspicious. They send in their sternest and most serious envoy to take over negotiations, Nina Ivanovna Yakushova (or Ninotchka to her friends, had she any).

A Lubitsch rom-com written (at least partially) by Billy Wilder, how can it go wrong? Greta Garbo, who underwhelmed in Grand Hotel, sparkles. First as the comically humorless Russian agent then as love-lorn and conflicted. She and the Grand Duchess' lover (soon to be former) cross paths without knowing who they are. He takes a fancy to her and she finds him amusing enough. Then things get complicated.

Hey, Bela Lugosi is here! Briefly. He has a quick and unimportant scene late in the film telling Ninotchka to check in with the same three operatives again, this time in Constantinople (not Istanbul). Was he begging for bit parts already?

Wonderfully written, delightfully performed, Ninotchka is a lot of fun. It does seem to lose track and go heavy handed on the Soviet social commentary, but that doesn't spoil a great viewing experience. AMRU 4.

"The last mass trials were a great success. There are going to be fewer but better Russians."

To Be or Not to Be (1942)

Husband and wife stage actors Joseph and Maria Tura (Jack Benny and Carole Lombard) are in Warsaw when a young pilot (Robert Stack) falls in love with Maria. She tells him to visit her dressing room when her husband starts his soliloquy. You know the one. Very famous.

Anyhow, when the Nazi's invade, Lt. Sobinski flies to England to help with the war effort there. Professor Siletsky, working for military intelligence, lets slip that he will be going undercover to Warsaw, Sobinski asks him to deliver the message "To Be or Not to Be" to Maria. When it becomes clear that Siletsky has never heard of the great Maria Tura, our young Lieutenant becomes convinced he is a double agent. He flies to Warsaw ahead of him to warn the underground. The theatre company uses their theatrical skills to thwart the Nazis.

It was fairly brave of Hollywood to release a movie, early in US involvement (filmed before, actually), that showed the plight of civilians caught up in the crossfire. Heroic Americans Doing Everything Right was de rigueur when they strayed from fluffball musicals. Still, they weren't brave enough to use the word Jew. They implied the Hebrew heritage, but never said it.

This is a comedy, folks. In fact, my 11 year old declared it the funniest of dad's crappy old movies, high praise indeed. It's an interesting blend of grave seriousness and screwball comedy, and done so well that they augment each other rather than detract. Jack Benny, whom I've never seen before, was hilarious. I remember back in the day people trying to explain who Jack was by impersonating him. "Oh, he acted gay", I'd say. Seriously, look at a Benny impersonation and not think that! Anyhow, he was great and the chemistry with Poor Carole was pitch perfect. She would die before the movie was released.

And of course, Lionel Atwill pops up unexpectedly yet again! I didn't notice his name in the credits, but instead recognized him dressed as a Nazi. It was a small role. The movie encouraged me to see the Mel Brooks remake, which wasn't bad. But, sorry Mel, it doesn't hold a candle to the original. AMRU 4. By the way, Brooks isn't afraid to use the word Jew ...

"Maria Tura: It's becoming ridiculous the way you grab attention. Whenever I start to tell a story, you finish it. If I go on a diet, you lose the weight. If I have a cold, you cough. And if we should ever have a baby, I'm not so sure I'd be the mother.

Josef Tura: I'm satisfied to be the father."