Main Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, Beulah Bondi, Elizabeth Patterson, Willard Robertson
Release Year: 1940
Country: US
Run Time: 94 minutes
Plot
A romantic comedy drama directed by former art director Mitchell Leisen and based on a skillful Preston Sturges screenplay. Barbara Stanwyck stars as Lee Leander, a New York City shoplifter who is arrested just before Christmas after trying to filch an expensive piece of jewelry. Her trial delayed until after the holiday, Lee comes to the attention of an assistant district attorney, John Sargent (Fred MacMurray). Although he will be expected to prosecute Lee in a few days, John takes pity on the prisoner, who is from his home state of Indiana. He arranges for her to be released for the holidays and escorts her home, but her mother (Georgia Caine) is not interested in a reunion. So John takes Lee to his own festivities, where Lee is bowled over by the love and affection of the Sargent family, particularly John's mother (Beulah Bondi), who is so unlike her own. Lee and John fall in love, but their return to the Big Apple and Lee's trial loom large over their romance. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
Review
One of the finest -- and least known -- Christmas movies, Remember the Night is also arguably director Mitchell Leisen's best film. It benefits immensely from a sterling Preston Sturges screenplay that manages to mine all the emotion and sentiment from its "different worlds" story without every falling into bathos. Needless to say, the screenplay is also chock-full of the incisive wit, ear for a nifty turn of phrase, and insightful character studies that are a trademark of Sturges' later classic comedies. He is one of the few writers of the period who could have skated as close to the edge of soapy melodrama as the twin homecoming sequences without falling over. The film's heartwarming tugs are genuine, achieved with a bare minimum of manipulation. Leisen deserves credit for serving the material so adeptly. If the first courtroom scene is a bit awkward, it's the only place in the film where the director falters. He is helped, of course, by the irreplaceable Barbara Stanwyck. As usual, the actress is curiously radiant, a tough girl whose softness is totally believable. Fred MacMurray is a perfect foil for her, strong but tender, a man whose niceness is never cloying and whose toughness is tempered with mercy. The rest of the cast gives excellent support, especially Beulah Bondi, Elizabeth Patterson, and Sterling Holloway. An excellent film, Night deserves a place in the holiday pantheon beside such better-known titles as Miracle on 34th Street and The Bells of St. Mary's. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Lee Leander (Barbara Stanwyck) is arrested during the Christmas holidays for trying to shoplift a bracelet from a New York jewelry shop. Assistant District Attorney John Sargeant (Fred MacMurray) is assigned to prosecute her. The trial begins just before Christmas, but rather than face a jury filled with the holiday spirit, he has the trial postponed. However, he generously posts her bail so she does not have to spend Christmas in jail.
Discovering that she is a fellow Hoosier from Indiana, he offers to drop her off on his way to visit his mother (Beulah Bondi), cousin Willie (Sterling Holloway), and aunt Emma (Elizabeth Patterson). During the road trip, they get lost in Pennsylvania and end up crashing through a fence and spending the night in a field. The next morning, they are arrested by a farmer and taken to an unfriendly justice of the peace. Lee starts a fire in his wastebasket as a distraction and the pair flee.
When Lee's mother (Georgia Caine) gives her a cold reception, John decides to take Lee home with him. She is warmly received, even though John tells his mother about Lee's past.
During the holiday, John and Lee fall in love. His mother has a private talk with her before she leaves, telling her how hard John had to work all his life to reach his present position; Lee agrees to give him up so as not to jeopardize his career. On the way back to New York via Canada (to bypass Pennsylvania), John offers Lee a chance to escape, but she turns down the opportunity.
Back in New York, Lee is put on trial, but she pleads guilty when she realizes that John could get into trouble for attempting to throw her case. As she is led away, John proposes to her, and she tells him that if he still feels the same way when she gets out, she will marry him.
This film was the only one Stanwyck made in 1940. Originally she was to make a romantic film with Joel McCrea following the completion of Remember the Night, but she came down with a serious eye infection and had to withdraw from the project.
The film includes an episode with Sterling Holloway singing, accompanied by Barbara Stanwyck at the piano. The song is "A Perfect Day" by Carrie Jacobs-Bond.[3]
Production
Preston Sturges had suggested "Great Love" as a title for this film. Director Mitchell Leisen, a rare director to come out of costume design and art direction, is reported to have shortened Sturges' script considerably, both before and during shooting,[1][4] something which generally annoyed Sturges, and one of the main reasons he was set on directing his own scripts – which he did beginning with his next project, The Great McGinty. Still, of all the films that Sturges wrote before be began directing, Leisen directed the only two films, this one and Easy Living, which Sturges bought personal 16mm copies of for his film library.[5]
Leisen's alterations to the script changed the focus of the film from MacMurray's character to Stanwyck's. Sturges summarized the film by saying "Love reformed her and corrupted him." The movie, he said, "had quite a lot of schmaltz, a good dose of schmerz and just enough schmutz to make it box office."[5]
During shooting, Sturges hung around the set and got to know Barbara Stanwyck. One day he told her that he was going to write a screwball comedy for her, which he did just a year later, The Lady Eve.[5]
Remember the Night was in production from July 27 to 8 September 8, 1939. It was completed eight days ahead of schedule and $50,000 under budget, which Leisen attributed to Stanwyck's professionalism.[5]
Reception
The film was released on January 19, 1940 and was well received. The New York Times review said:
It is a memorable film, in title and in quality, blessed with an honest script, good direction and sound performances...a drama stated in the simplest human terms of comedy and sentiment, tenderness and generosity... warm, pleasant and unusually entertaining.[5]
Adaptations
On 5 May1955, Lux Video Theatre presented a television adaptation of Remember the Night, with Dennis O'Keefe and Jan Sterling. It was directed by Richard Goode and Buzz Kulik from an adaptation by S.H. Barnett.[6]
