Remember the Night

Remember the Night
Theatrical poster
Directed by	Mitchell Leisen
Produced by	Mitchell Leisen Albert Lewis
Written by	Preston Sturges
Starring	Barbara Stanwyck Fred MacMurray
Music by	Frederick Hollander
Cinematography	Ted Tetzlaff
Editing by	Doane Harrison
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	January 19, 1940
Running time	91 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Remember the Night is a 1940 American romantic comedy/drama Christmas film directed by Mitchell Leisen, and starring Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray. The film was written by Preston Sturges—his last as a writer before he became a writer-director with The Great McGinty.

Plot

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. He generously posts her bail so she does not have to spend Christmas in jail.

Discovering that Lee is a fellow Hoosier (a native of 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.

Cast

• Barbara Stanwyck as Lee Leander
• Fred MacMurray as John Sargent
• Beulah Bondi as Mrs. Sargent
• Elizabeth Patterson as Aunt Emma
• Willard Robertson as Francis X. O'Leary
• Sterling Holloway as "Chilly" Willie Simms
• Charles Waldron as Judge (New York)
• Paul Guilfoyle as District Attorney, John's boss
• Charles Arnt as Tom
• John Wray as Hank
• Thomas W. Ross as Mr. Emory
• Fred 'Snowflake' Toones as Rufus, John's servant
• Tom Kennedy as "Fat" Mike, the bail bondsman
• Georgia Caine as Lee's Mother
• Virginia Brissac as Mrs. Emory

Notes

Remember the Night was the first film in which MacMurray and Stanwyck appeared together. They later co-starred in Double Indemnity (1944), The Moonlighter (1953) and There's Always Tomorrow (1956). Stanwyck 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.

Production

Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck in a trailer for Remember the Night

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, 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.

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 [sentiment], a good dose of schmerz [pain, grief] and just enough schmutz [dirt] to make it box office."

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.

Remember the Night was in production from July 27 to 8 September 1939. It was completed eight days ahead of schedule and $50,000 under budget, which Leisen attributed to Stanwyck's professionalism.

Reception

The theatrical release was well received. The New York Times reviewer Frank S. Nugent wrote:

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.

Home media

Universal Studios released the film on VHS on September 12, 1995 and on DVD on October 18, 2010.

Adaptations

On 5 May 1955, 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.

See also

Dialogue from the film

External links

• Remember the Night at the Internet Movie Database
• Remember the Night at the TCM Movie Database
• Remember the Night at AllRovi
• Thoughts on Remember the Night
• Lux Radio Theater version with original cast
• Remember the Night: An Offbeat Christmas Movie Choice (TCM Movie Morlocks)