Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938 Ernst Lubitsch & prod)

Or 'Wilder, by Lubitsch' in my best perfume ad voice. With Brackett, it's quite a combination. (The source is a play by Alfred Savoir - a play, you notice. You wouldn't know.) Amongst many cherishable lines is "If it wasn't for those pants I'd never have bought a bathtub."

Here they're using the 'pantalons' to tell the story, and that is quite ingenious:

Gary Cooper is absolutely wonderful in this, suffering all sorts of shifts of mood, Colbert as reliable as ever. Plus you get Edward Everett Horton (whose appearances at the door with 'Nothing' are hilarious), David Niven (most amusing when typing letter), Elizabeth Patterson, Herman Bing (the private eye), Warren Hymer (boxer) and Franklin Pangborn.

Shot by Leo Tover, music by Frederick Hollander, for Paramount.

Several classic Lubitsch touches also make you want to watch this one again and again.