Gaston Monescu

Gaston Monescu
"I want to see that moon in the champagne."
Appearances
First Appearance	Trouble in Paradise (1932)
Biographical information
Age	Unknown
AKA	Monsieur LaValle Gaston LaValle Baron
Physical description
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Voice actors
English	Herbert Marshall
Alignment and character traits
Alignment	Neutral

Gaston Monescu is the main protagonist of the 1932 romantic comedy Trouble In Paradise. He's an international gentlemen thief who meets up with a lady pickpocket, and falls in love with her as they steal expensive European jewelry from upper-class elite of European society.

He was portrayed by Herbert Marshall.

Why He Rocks

1. Herbert Marshall does a marvelous and charming portrayal of the affable thief that's not only charming when necessary, it can also be pretty humorous as well. Plus Marshall had a wooden leg and had to use a double for the stair sequences, and yet you never even notice.
2. As shown by the opening scene where poses as a doctor and steals Filiba's pocketbook, he's an excellent swindler and schemer. So much so, that he and Lily where able to commit various crimes and robberies all over Europe for over a year, without the police being able to hold them back, quickly becoming infamous. On top of that, he's also a master of sweet talking his victims down and can pickpocket nearly anyone without them noticing.
3. He's also vastly talented at deception as a couple of Parisians had gotten suspicious of him or try reporting him to the police, and yet he's always able to throw them off.
4. Despite being a world-known thief, he's still fairly loving, respectful and even a decent person to be around. Aside from his friendship with Madame Colet, he also got along on decent terms with some of the other Parisians.
5. His various romantic moments with both of the female leads -- Lily Vautier and Madame Mariette Colet --are absolutely touching and sweet:
   1. With Lily, the two of them make an amazing jewel-thieving team, and they also deeply love each other and respect each other's con artist skills.
   2. With Madame Colet, he's usually there under his fake identity, "LaValle". Initially, he mainly went to her place in order to get the money reward, and/or to steal a large about of her money from her safe, but then after becoming her secretary, he began to develop genuine romantic feelings for her, to the point where he began question whether he should steal from her.
6. He gets a lot of memorable or hilarious quotes, such as the following:
   • "I want to see that moon in the champagne"
   • "And, as for you, waiter. ... I don't want to see you at all"
   • "I love you. I loved you the minute I saw you. I'm made about you, my little shoplifter... my sweet pickpocket... my darling."
7. Being an European international thief, he's fluent in multiple different languages, including Russian, German and French.