Kay Francis as Mme Colet

After a couple of viewings of Kay Francis’ performance as Mme Colet, I’m starting to see more clearly some of the problems I have with this character and performance. First of all, I think one of the issues is something I’ve mentioned before which is that I’m used to seeing Francis in roles in which she plays a spiteful wife/fiancée. I’m not used to seeing her in comedy, actually I don’t think I’ve ever seen her in a comedy. So with this preconception of Francis is that I go in watching Trouble in Paradise and so immediately I find problems. I don’t want to like her character because I assume she’s a villainess and that turns out to be completely wrong. Although, while Mme Colet isn’t a bad girl, she’s not too bright either. She is, as it turns out, too good of a girl.

Being a good girl is another problem I find. In the end, forasmuch as I do think Francis did a good job as Mme Colet, it’s not good enough. It’s not flighty enough for the good girl Mme Colet is. At moments I do see that air-headedness; her generosity is great and it’s bound to get her heart broken in the process. She is so carefree that she sets herself up to fall. But I think Francis’ acting turns too serious at times than what it’s called for. Pacing, as I’ve mentioned in the past, is a problem for me and it’s almost always in scenes that involve her. And in the end, I wasn’t sure that she was a good girl. When Gaston asks her what would she say if someone had stolen from her, she gets dead pan serious with those cool eyes of hers and says she wouldn’t say anything, she’d act immediately. And it’s a bit scary. But then she smiles and breaks that mood away. But, I don’t know if it’s my preconceived notions on her characters that kind of make me not believe it. Or maybe it’s just that the script strays off a bit at that moment.

As I was listening to the commentary the other day I realized how I misunderstood Mme Colet. If Gaston is torn between two desirable ladies then where did I miss the point that Mme Colet was also desirable? When Gaston says Mme Colet’s “whole sex appeal is in that safe.” I took the character for his word. But no, he falls for her. When he’s getting ready to leave, he’s torn about it. He’s preparing to leave her flowers, charged to Mme Colet of course. He knows how this will hurt her and I saw him as being a gentlemen alone, not that he actually had genuine feelings for her.

And so, Mme Colet is generous. How did I miss this? She doesn’t lower salaries during a recession. She’s willing to give away 20,000 Francs to whoever finds her lost purse. She raises Lily’s salary, even though it is so that she could get some alone time with Gaston. She’s also very trusting, which sets her up for her fall, and in my opinion makes it easy to not have as much sympathy for her. She trusts Gaston immediately, as charming as he is. They’ve only known each other two weeks and three days near the end of the charade, and yet he’s taken over her life pretty much and she’s completely fallen for him. On top of being trusting and generous, she’s beautiful and rich and single. So why wouldn’t Gaston fall for her? Of course he does. But my problem here is that Francis didn’t sell it as well as she could have. Perhaps I need more grandiose acts of generosity to prove a point.

Even though, I do think she was cast well in the sense that she usually does play characters with affluent backgrounds, and she pulls it off beautifully. And her wardrobe? To die for. I forget how many costume changes she has throughout the movie, but I loved almost every single one of her outfits. And I say almost because the golfing outfit wasn’t for me, although I kind of liked the hat. I digress. I sometimes wonder if there had been someone else cast in the role, if it would have been any different. At the same time, as I have a better understanding of the character and the film, Francis doesn’t bother me as much. In fact in the most recent viewing, having her lisp being pointed out, I caught on to every single one of those instances that I hadn’t at first viewing. And that, kind of made me chuckle.