''Remember the Night'' is a 1940 American

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typic ...

trial film Trial films is a subgenre of the legal/courtroom drama that encompasses films that are centered on a civil or criminal trial, typically a trial by jury.Rafter, Nicole. 2001. "American Criminal Trial Films: An Overview of Their Development, 1930� ...

starring

Barbara Stanwyck Barbara Stanwyck (; born Ruby Catherine Stevens; July 16, 1907 – January 20, 1990) was an American actress, model and dancer. A stage, film, and television star, during her 60-year professional career she was known for her strong, realistic sc ...

and

Fred MacMurray Frederick Martin MacMurray (August 30, 1908 – November 5, 1991) was an American actor. He appeared in more than one hundred films and a successful television series, in a career that spanned nearly a half-century. His career as a major film le ...

and directed by

Mitchell Leisen James Mitchell Leisen (October 6, 1898 – October 28, 1972) was an American director, art director, and costume designer. Film career He entered the film industry in the 1920s, beginning in the art and costume departments. He directed his f ...

. The film was written by

Preston Sturges Preston Sturges (; born Edmund Preston Biden; August 29, 1898 – August 6, 1959) was an American playwright, screenwriter, and film director. In 1941, he won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for the film '' The Great McGinty'' (1940), h ...

and was the last of his scripts shot by another director, as Sturges began his own directorial career the same year with ''

The Great McGinty ''The Great McGinty'' is a 1940 political satire comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges, starring Brian Donlevy and Akim Tamiroff and featuring William Demarest and (in her final screen appearance) Muriel Angelus. It was Sturges's fir ...

''.TC
Notes
/ref>

Plot

Lee Leander is arrested for stealing a bracelet from a

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

jewelry store. The assistant

district attorney In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or state attorney is the chief prosecutor and/or chief law enforcement officer representing a U.S. state in a ...

, John "Jack" Sargeant, is assigned to prosecute her. The trial begins just before Christmas, but to avoid facing a jury filled with the holiday spirit, Jack has the trial postponed on a technicality. When he hears Lee complaining to her lawyer about spending Christmas in jail, Jack feels guilty and asks bondsman Fat Mike to post bail. Fat Mike assumes that Jack intends to seduce Lee, and after he posts bail for her, he delivers her to Jack's apartment. Discovering that Lee is a fellow

Hoosier Hoosier is the official demonym for the people of the U.S. state of Indiana. The origin of the term remains a matter of debate, but "Hoosier" was in general use by the 1840s, having been popularized by Richmond resident John Finley's 1833 poem " ...

(native of

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th ...

), and that she has nowhere to spend Christmas, Jack offers to drop her off at her mother's house on his way to visit his own family. On the drive, Jack gets lost in Pennsylvania and the couple spends the night parked in a field. The next morning, they are arrested by the landowner for trespassing and destruction of property, and taken to an unfriendly

justice of the peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or '' puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the s ...

. Lee starts a fire in his wastebasket as a distraction, and the pair flees. Lee's mother, a malevolent, embittered woman, has remarried, and does not want a relationship with her daughter, whom she considers a lost cause. Jack takes Lee home to spend Christmas with his family. She is warmly received by Jack's cousin Willie, aunt Emma, and his mother, even after Jack reveals Lee's past. On

New Year's Eve In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Eve, also known as Old Year's Day or Saint Sylvester's Day in many countries, is the evening or the entire day of the last day of the year, on 31 December. The last day of the year is commonly referred to ...

, Jack kisses Lee at a barn dance, and later that night, his mother visits Lee's bedroom for a talk. She reveals that the family was poor during Jack's childhood, and that he worked hard to put himself through college and law school. She asks Lee to give Jack up, rather than jeopardize his career, and Lee agrees. On the way back to New York via

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

(to bypass Pennsylvania), Jack tells Lee that he loves her, and tries to persuade her to jump

bail Bail is a set of pre-trial restrictions that are imposed on a suspect to ensure that they will not hamper the judicial process. Bail is the conditional release of a defendant with the promise to appear in court when required. In some countrie ...

, but she refuses. Back in New York, Jack tries to lose Lee's case by using harsh and aggressive questioning to force the jury to sympathize with her. Jack's boss has been alerted about the affair, and secretly listens outside the courtroom. Realizing that Jack may damage his career, Lee changes her plea to guilty. As she is led away, Jack wants to marry Lee on the spot. She refuses, saying that if he still feels the same way after she has completed her prison term and he has had time to consider his decision, they can marry. She asks that he only stand beside her and hold her hand during her sentencing, and he promises to do so.

Cast

as Lee Leander *

as John Sargent *

Beulah Bondi Beulah Bondi (born Beulah Bondy; May 3, 1889 – January 11, 1981)According to the State of California. ''California Death Index, 1940–1997''. Center for Health Statistics, California Department of Health Services, Sacramento, California. At ...

as Mrs. Sargent * Elizabeth Patterson as Aunt Emma *

Willard Robertson Willard Robertson (January 1, 1886 – April 5, 1948) was an American actor and writer. He appeared in more than 140 films between 1924 and 1948. He was born in Runnels, Texas, and died in Hollywood, California. Biography Robertson first ...

as Francis X. O'Leary *

Sterling Holloway Sterling Price Holloway Jr. (January 4, 1905 – November 22, 1992) was an American actor and voice actor who appeared in over 100 films and 40 television shows. He did voice acting for The Walt Disney Company, playing Mr. Stork in '' Dumbo'', A ...

as "Chilly" Willie Simms *

Charles Waldron Charles Waldron (December 24, 1874 – March 4, 1946) was an American stage and film actor, sometimes credited as Charles Waldron Sr., Chas. Waldron Sr., Charles D. Waldron or Mr. Waldron. Early life He was born and grew up in Waterford, New Y ...

as Judge (New York) *

Paul Guilfoyle Paul Vincent Guilfoyle () (born April 28, 1949) is an American television and film actor. He was a regular cast member of the CBS crime drama ''CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'', on which he played Captain Jim Brass from 2000 to 2014. He retu ...

as District Attorney, John's boss *

Charles Arnt Charles E. Arnt (August 20, 1906 – August 6, 1990) was an American film actor from 1933 to 1962. Arnt appeared as a character actor in more than 200 films. Arnt was born in Michigan City, Indiana, the son of a banker. He graduated from ...

as Tom * Fred 'Snowflake' Toones as Rufus, John's servant *

Tom Kennedy Thomas or Tom Kennedy may refer to: Politics * Thomas Kennedy (Scottish judge) (1673–1754), joint Solicitor General for Scotland 1709–14, Lord Advocate 1714, Member of Parliament for Ayr Burghs 1720–21 *Thomas Kennedy, 9th Earl of Cassilis ...

as "Fat" Mike, the

bail bondsman Bail is a set of pre-trial restrictions that are imposed on a suspect to ensure that they will not hamper the judicial process. Bail is the conditional release of a defendant with the promise to appear in court when required. In some countries, ...

Georgia Caine Georgiana Caine (October 30, 1876 – April 4, 1964) was an American actress who performed both on Broadway and in more than 80 films in her 51-year career. Early career Born in San Francisco, California in 1876, the daughter of two Shak ...

as Lee's Mother * John Wray as Farmer Hank * Thomas W. Ross as Mr. Emory, small town judge *

Virginia Brissac Virginia Brissac (June 11, 1883 – July 26, 1979) was a popular American stage actress who headlined theatre companies from Vancouver to San Diego during the heyday of West Coast Stock in the early 1900s. An ingénue and leading lady known for ...

as Mrs. Emory *

Spencer Charters Spencer Charters (March 25, 1875 – January 25, 1943) was an American film actor. He appeared in more than 220 films between 1920 and 1943, mostly in small supporting roles. Biography Charters was born in Duncannon, Pennsylvania. Until ...

as Judge at Rummage Sale *

Martha Mears Martha Mears (July 18, 1910 – December 13, 1986) was a radio and film contralto singer, active from the 1930s to 1950s. Early years Mears was born in Mexico, Missouri. Her mother died when Mears was 4 years old, and she went to live with ...

as Nightclub Singer (uncredited)

Development and production

Preston Sturges suggested ''Great Love'' as a title for the film. The script, which blends a number of genres, proved difficult to write, and Sturges joked that it caused him "... to commit hara-kiri several times." As with all of Sturges' scripts, ''Remember the Night'' included a number of elements from his own life, including the falling-in-love-on-a-journey motif, inspired by his experience with Eleanor Post Hutton on the road to Palm Beach many years before, and the character of Jack's tough but loving Midwestern mother, based on the mother of his third wife Louise Sargent, from whom the lead character's name derived. Director

shortened Sturges' script considerably, both before and during shooting. This annoyed Sturges, and was one of the main reasons fueling his determination to direct his own scripts thereafter, which he did beginning with his next project, ''

''. However, of all the films that Sturges wrote before he began directing, Leisen directed the only two films (''Remember the Night'' and '' Easy Living'') that Sturges bought for his personal film library. This film also contains a number of references to ''Easy Living''; for instance, in the supper club where MacMurray takes Stanwyck for dinner, the song " Easy Living" plays, and when Stanwyck gives a false name to a justice of the peace, she uses "Mary Smith", the name of

Jean Arthur Jean Arthur (born Gladys Georgianna Greene; October 17, 1900 – June 19, 1991) was an American Broadway and film actress whose career began in silent films in the early 1920s and lasted until the early 1950s. Arthur had feature roles in three F ...

's character in ''Easy Living''. Leisen's script alterations shifted the film's focus from MacMurray's character to that of Stanwyck. They also changed the character of Jack in line with MacMurray's strengths; in Sturges' original screenplay, the lawyer was a dashing, articulate and slightly theatrical character, but Leisen felt that MacMurray did not possess the verbal abilities needed for the heroic speeches assigned to his character. Instead, Leisen cut much of the dialogue and focused on MacMurray's quiet strength.Arnold, Jerem
"Remember the Night" (TCM article)
/ref> Sturges summarized the film by saying, "Love reformed her and corrupted him." The film, he said, "... had quite a lot of schmaltz entiment a good dose of schmerz ain, griefand just enough schmutz irtto make it box office." During shooting, Sturges was present on set and came to know Barbara Stanwyck. One day, he told her that he was going to write a

screwball comedy Screwball comedy is a subgenre of the romantic comedy genre that became popular during the Great Depression, beginning in the early 1930s and thriving until the early 1940s, that satirizes the traditional love story. It has secondary characteristi ...

for her, which came just a year later, ''

The Lady Eve ''The Lady Eve'' is a 1941 American screwball comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges and starring Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda.fallen women "Fallen woman" is an archaic term which was used to describe a woman who has "lost her innocence", and fallen from the grace of God. In 19th-century Britain especially, the meaning came to be closely associated with the loss or surrender of a ...

and femmes fatales. ''Remember the Night'' was in production from July 27 to September 8, 1939. It was completed eight days ahead of schedule and $50,000 under budget, which Leisen attributed to Stanwyck's professionalism, saying "She never blew one line through the whole picture. She set that kind of pace and everybody worked harder, trying to outdo her." ''Remember the Night'' was the first film pairing of MacMurray and Stanwyck; they later co-starred in ''

Double Indemnity ''Double Indemnity'' is a 1944 American crime film noir directed by Billy Wilder, co-written by Wilder and Raymond Chandler, and produced by Buddy DeSylva and Joseph Sistrom. The screenplay was based on James M. Cain's 1943 novel of the same ...

'' (1944), ''

The Moonlighter ''The Moonlighter'' is a 1953 American 3D Western film directed by Roy Rowland and starring Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray. Distributed by Warner Bros., it premiered alongside the 1953 Looney Tunes 3-D Bugs Bunny cartoon, '' Lumber Jack- ...

'' (1953) and '' There's Always Tomorrow'' (1956). Stanwyck was to make a romantic film with

Joel McCrea Joel Albert McCrea (November 5, 1905 – October 20, 1990) was an American actor whose career spanned a wide variety of genres over almost five decades, including comedy, drama, romance, thrillers, adventures, and Westerns, for which he bec ...

following the completion of ''Remember the Night'', but she came down with a serious eye infection and had to withdraw from the project. Willard Robertson plays Francis X. O'Leary, Lee's flamboyant lawyer who is said to be a former actor. Robertson was actually a former lawyer in Texas who had turned to acting.

Reception

The theatrical release was well-received. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' reviewer

Frank S. Nugent Frank Stanley Nugent (May 27, 1908 – December 29, 1965) was an American screenwriter, journalist, and film reviewer, who wrote 21 film scripts, 11 for director John Ford. He wrote almost a thousand reviews for ''The New York Times'' before lea ...

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.

''Remember the Night'' has a rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, based on reviews.

Home media

Universal Studios released

NTSC The first American standard for analog television broadcast was developed by National Television System Committee (NTSC)National Television System Committee (1951–1953), Report and Reports of Panel No. 11, 11-A, 12–19, with Some supplement ...

editions of the film on VHS on September 12, 1995, and on DVD on October 18, 2010. A Region A

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

edition was made available on November 13, 2018. Odeon Entertainment released a Region 2 DVD on November 3, 2014.

Adaptations

The film was twice adapted as a one-hour radio play on ''

Lux Radio Theatre ''Lux Radio Theatre'', sometimes spelled ''Lux Radio Theater'', a classic radio anthology series, was broadcast on the NBC Blue Network (1934–35) (owned by the National Broadcasting Company, later predecessor of American Broadcasting Company ...

''; on March 25, 1940, with McMurray and Stanwyck reprising their roles, and on December 22, 1941, with McMurray now paired with

. ''

Lux Video Theatre ''Lux Video Theatre'' is an American television anthology series that was produced from 1950 until 1957. The series presented both comedy and drama in original teleplays, as well as abridged adaptations of films and plays. Overview The ''Lux Vid ...

'' presented a television adaptation of the film on May 5, 1955, starring

Dennis O'Keefe Dennis O'Keefe (born Edward Vanes Flanagan, Jr., March 29, 1908 – August 31, 1968) was an American actor and writer. Early years Born in Fort Madison, Iowa, O'Keefe was the son of Edward Flanagan and Charlotte Flanagan, Irish vaudevill ...

and Jan Sterling. It was directed by

Richard Goode Richard Goode (born June 1, 1943) is an American classical pianist who is especially known for his interpretations of Mozart and Beethoven. Early life Goode was born in the East Bronx, New York. He studied piano with Elvira Szigeti, Claude Fra ...

and Buzz Kulik from an adaptation by S.H. Barnett. The story outline was used unofficially in an episode of Stanwyck's television series ''

The Big Valley ''The Big Valley'' is an American Western drama television series that originally aired from September 15, 1965, to May 19, 1969 on ABC. The series is set on the fictional Barkley Ranch in Stockton, California, from 1884 to 1888. The one-hour ...

'' (" in Heaven", Season 1, Episode 15). '' Lifetime'' presented a

television movie A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...

in 1997 titled ''

On the 2nd Day of Christmas ''On the 2nd Day of Christmas'' is a 1997 Lifetime television movie starring Mary Stuart Masterson and Mark Ruffalo, directed by James Frawley. Plot Small-time thieves 29-year-old Trish (Mary Stuart Masterson) and her 6-year-old niece Patsy (Laur ...

'' starring

Mary Stuart Masterson Mary Stuart Masterson (born June 28, 1966) is an American actress and director. She has starred in the films '' At Close Range'' (1986), '' Some Kind of Wonderful'' (1987), '' Chances Are'' (1989), ''Fried Green Tomatoes'' (1991) and '' Benny & ...

and

Mark Ruffalo Mark Alan Ruffalo (; born November 22, 1967) is an American actor and producer best known for playing Bruce Banner / Hulk since 2012 in the superhero franchise of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and in the television series '' She-Hulk: Attorne ...

, directed by James Frawley. The story is similar to that of ''Remember the Night''.

References

External links

* * * * *
''Lux Radio Theater'' version with original cast
{{DEFAULTSORT:Remember The Night 1940 films 1940s Christmas comedy-drama films 1940s romantic comedy-drama films American black-and-white films American Christmas comedy-drama films American road movies American romantic comedy-drama films Films directed by Mitchell Leisen Films scored by Friedrich Hollaender Films set in Indiana Films set in New York City Films set in Pennsylvania Films set around New Year Paramount Pictures films Films with screenplays by Preston Sturges 1940 comedy films 1940 drama films 1940s English-language films 1940s American films