Remember the Night (1940)

Director:

Mitchell Leisen

Writer:

Preston Sturges (original screenplay)

Release Date:

19 January 1940 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

BARBARA and FRED in 1940's first great love affair ...!

Plot:

Just before Christmas, Lee Leander is caught shoplifting. It is her third offense. She is prosecuted by John Sargent...

Plot Keywords:

Trial | Christmas | Shoplifting | Canada | Moral Reformation

Cast

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

Runtime:

94 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #5592) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | USA:TV-G (TV rating) | Finland:S

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

One of over 700 Paramount Productions, filmed between 1929 and 1949, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution, and have been owned and controlled by Universal ever since.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: The street sign on the corner of the shop where Stanwyck tries to pawn the stolen bracelet reads "3rd Avenue" and "West 54th Street" in NYC. With 3rd Avenue being east of Fifth Avenue, which divides east from west Manhattan, the street sign should read "East 54th Street."

Quotes:

Lee Leander: I suppose you do this with all the lady prisoners?
John Sargent: Oh my, yes. My life is just one long round of whoopee.
Lee Leander: Well, you're in a good spot for it.
John Sargent: Wonderful! I merely have to raise my finger and my slightest whim is satisfied. Now if you'll...
Lee Leander: And I suppose if anybody says no, you just put them right back in the cooler.
John Sargent: That's right. Look when court reconvenes, I'm going to try my best to put you in jail for a good long time. That's my business, but you haven't been convicted yet, so I don't see why you shouldn't enjoy Christmas like the rest of us. That's why I had Mike get you out.
Lee Leander: And bring me up here!
John Sargent: I did not ask him to bring you up here!
Lee Leander: Then why did that gorilla bring me up here?
John Sargent: Because he's got a mind like a... sewer!
[...]

Movie Connections:

References Svengali (1931)

Soundtrack:

A Perfect Day

Dewey Wouldn't Approve

Watching Remember The Night I remembered something else that audiences might have forgotten in 1940 in seeing this film on screen. The District Attorney of New York County was one Thomas E. Dewey who was definitely not one for mixing business with pleasure. If one of his Assistant District Attorneys went bail for a prisoner he was prosecuting and took her home for Christmas and across a few state lines to boot, that man would not have had a job and Dewey wouldn't have cared about reasons of love.

But with a script by Preston Sturges and direction by Mitchell Leisen you could forget about reality and concentrate on Christmas romance. Leisen assembled a great cast of character players in this very charming comedy/drama. And you can't miss with leads like Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck in the first of four films they did together.

MacMurray's the ADA who's prosecuting Stanwyck for shoplifting and this ain't her first offense. But a combination of her beauty and charm and one flannelmouth defense attorney has him feeling sorry for her and then going her bail and taking her home because, after all it's Christmas.

They have an eventful drive to Indiana where they both coincidentally hail from and MacMurray himself winds up a fugitive from a speed trap in a hilarious sequence. And the two see the kind of homes each came from, something that prosecutors and criminals don't often see from each other's point of view.

Beulah Bondi and Elizabeth Patterson play MacMurray's mother and aunt and are quite the contrast to Georgia Caine who is Stanwyck's cold hearted mom. Spencer Charters does a good job as the speed trap judge in Pennsylvania.

My favorite however is Stanwyck's attorney Willard Robertson who is really carried away with himself as her lawyer. He's giving her a defense on the shoplifting charge that Clarence Darrow gave Leopold&Loeb. Man does love to hear himself talk. But his talk keeps the trial over the holidays allowing cupid to work.

Stanwyck and Sturges became friends and he confided in her that he would be directing as well as writing soon and next year he might just have a project perfect for her. The project turned out to be The Lady Eve according to a recent biography of Stanwyck.

Remember The Night is a charming film by some charm masters. But I suspect that Thomas E. Dewey probably hated it.