Movies from the Heart—Trouble in Paradise

There are just so many ways to write a romantic film, a film with a love story—but it’s not always easy. Early films were transitioning from being silents to having dialogue. Oftentimes that meant films were derived from plays because people actually talked in plays. This was the case with Trouble in Paradise [1932] by Samson Raphaelson, adaptation by Grover Jones, based on the play by Aladar Laszlo.

Take a look at the trailer for the film. [NOTE: there is no sound in the first few seconds of the trailer, but it’s the best one available to give you a sense of the film's set-up.]

Made in 1932, this is a “pre-code” film, which means that it was made before the Hays Code went into effect in 1935. The Hays Code prohibited tons of stuff, from nudity to the suggestion of immorality to relations between people of different races to how you could portray the American flag, and on and on. The Hays Code attempted to enforce its idea of morality. But Trouble in Paradise was made before the code went into effect, and thus could portray a real relationship.

In the trailer you see the set-up for the plot. A male jewel thief and a female pickpocket meet when each is plying their trade upon the other. They seem to instantly fall for one another, don’t they? So their plan is to team up and cheat a cosmetics heiress out of a chunk of her fortune. The only problem is the jewel thief—who’s pledged his love to the pickpocket—falls in love with the heiress. Or is he just conning her? And what’s to become of our pickpocket, whom we’ve grown to like?

The classic triangle love story. And it’s well done. One of the reasons it works so well is that we’re invested in the jewel thief/pickpocket romance and then it seems like the jewel thief really DOES fall for the heiress. And we like her too. So who are we supposed to root for?

This film is a terrific example of a good triangle love story. Because it’s not obvious who’s going to end up with who—just when you think two people are made for each other, a third comes along and throws a spanner into the works. We really wonder who’s going to end up with who.

That is the key. If you’re writing a triangle love story it simply can’t be obvious who’s going to end up together. We need suspense, we need to keep wondering who it’s going to turn out to be. And that’s the job for you, the writer, to keep us guessing. One minute we think we have it figured out and a few minutes later it seems like we were wrong—keep us guessing.

Next week, 1933’s Christopher Strong.

Copyright © Diane Lake

17Sep23

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