Remember the Night (1940)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Perfectly adorable

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

REMEMBER THE NIGHT is one of my favorite Christmas movies, and maybe one of my favorite movies of any genre. The characters, quirky and sympathetic, endowed by writer Preston Sturges with his own unique brand of offbeat wit and wiliness, ring true from the opening sequence to the wrenching last scene.Barbara Stanwyck is at the peak of her beauty, but here she plays a hardboiled shoplifter, cynical and icy. Her foil is the savvy D.A., played by Fred MacMurray at his most beguiling best. We learn early on that, although working the tough New York streets, they are both from Indiana, giving them the corn-fed, all-American heartland background, and making them somehow, in spite of being on the opposite sides of the law, perfectly right for each other.A road trip to Indiana (with "Back Home in Indiana" woven into the sound track) brings them to Barbara's home, where Fred intends to drop her off for a Christmas visit. What ensues is one of the most effectively chilling scenes I've ever seen in a movie--a convincing picture of a mother with a hard heart and the total devastation of her daughter as a result. Stanwyck melts before our eyes. The brief performance of Georgia Caine, an actress unknown to me before this film, is one of the subtlest yet most powerful I've ever seen.The bleak atmosphere is soon contrasted with the genuine warmth and tenderness--and Christmas spirit--of the home Fred grew up in. Beulah Bondi, Elizabeth Patterson, and Sterling Holloway create a totally convincing family, and Barbara's reaction to them, reflected in the sparkle in her eyes that seems to come from nowhere, is a hallmark of great film acting. I'm a sucker for families singing around the piano, and this scene is one of the most touching in any holiday movie. Sterling Holloway suddenly volunteers that he can "sing 'The End of a Perfect Day'" and Bondi retorts, "So can everybody," but soon he is singing it with full conviction and Stanwyck is accompanying him at the piano.This is a complex little movie, full of lights and shadows, and ending on a slightly unsatisfying dark note. But you leave it pondering exactly what will happen next, and you can't help but think it will all work out well somehow. You have met some complete human beings, of another time and place, and they have stolen your heart.

It's the Christmas season in NYC. Lee Leander (Barbara Stanwyck) is a well dressed thief who gets caught trying to pawn stolen jewelry. Her attorney is a wild performer. Prosecutor John Sargent (Fred MacMurray) is assigned the case. He's concerned that Christmas is a bad time to get a conviction. He gets a continuance for the case. John takes pity on the girl and gets her bailed out. Unbeknownst to John, Fat Mike misunderstands and bring her to him. She refuses to leave and they start up a friendship. He drives her back to her mother. They get lost and go on a crazy road trip. After being rejected by her own mother, she joins him in a family Christmas in Indiana.Stanwyck is sharp, lovely and enticing. MacMurray is an endearing stand-up guy. Together they have great chemistry. They're fun together. The Preston Sturges dialog is snappy and quick. The sentimental rom-com is touching, romantic, and funny.

Remember the Night is a very sweet, warm-hearted film well performed by Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray. Barbara Stanwyck's character literally comes from the other side of the tracks, running away from a troubled home life as a teenager, she is caught shoplifting before the Christmas holidays. Fred MacMurray plays a district attorney who hasn't lost a case, is set to prosecute her, however he gets a continuance until after the New Year. Feeling guilty because of the Christmas holidays he bails out the beautiful thief, and ends up taking her to his mother's farm for the holidays. Belulah Bondi plays MacMurray's mother who understands the girl has had a troubled past and shows her kindness and compassion. Soon MacMurray falls in love with her after realizing the lack of love she has had, and he sees the positive change that the stable home atmosphere has given her. This film has a delightful mix of witty dialogue along with good directing that helps to keep Stanwyck's character personable and the story from miring down in self pity. Elizabeth Patterson lovingly plays MacMurray's Aunt along with comical Sterling Holloway as farm hand Willie. Although the ending is bittersweet, is not detrimental to the story with it's touching characters and amusing situations, it remains a satisfying and pleasurably entertaining film. Highy recommended for those who appreciate films from the past with good solid performances.

I have a soft spot for late '30's and '40's films. 65 to 80 years of nights (remembered and unremembered) have passed since these films were made - 72 years and counting for this one. The actresses and actors - some born just after the Civil War, others so impossibly young then that it's hard to believe they would be over 100 now - and the America itself shown in this cinematic B&W snapshot all continue to fascinate.A film like "Remember the Night" will thus grab me at the get go with a marvelously attractive Barbara Stanwyck to set the hook and a great ensemble cast to keep my interest when the story itself is less than compelling. I won't recap the plot - you can get that many times elsewhere in these reviews. What I will do is promise you that if you will give this movie even half your attention you will be rewarded. I can also promise you that if you view this with anyone under the age of 20 you will have to explain the middle American reality that underpins the entire movie and gives it its power and its poignancy. It's not just a good Christmas movie (though it is that), it is a good movie set around Christmas time.Also, a big thank you to THIS-TV for showing this classic as I would never have seen it otherwise. I encourage any of you reading this who lives in a larger TV market and doesn't have cable (20% of households still don't) to check an internet source (I use TV Guide.com) in your area and see if THIS-TV or Antenna-TV are available on some broadcast sub-channel in your market. The digital conversion 2 years ago has had one benefit - these sub-channels (THIS-TV is 2.2 in Denver, AntennaTV is 31.2) which are now providing all households with a TV with a digital tuner to see a lot of classic movies which we haven't been able to see anywhere for many, many years. In the case of a movie like "Remember the Night" which only recently became available on DVD (in October 2010) this may be your most economical way to see it. These new sub-channel networks are especially good at showing movies from the '30's through the '50's which seem to have dropped off the cable TV map as well. (Note to cable TV subscribers: buy a cheap antenna and use your set's digital tuner. You can see these stations too!) Check them out and enjoy this movie and others like it.