It may appear I am excessively harsh to most movies I write about, but I really try to find something positive to say about each. Then there’s movies I fall in love with, and I really can’t seem to shut up about those. Such is the case with 1939’s Remember the Night.
I liked Barbara Stanwyck in this as a repeat offender shoplifter. I even liked the hat she wears for the longest time, until a cow eats it. I liked Willard Robertson as her attorney, who passionately presents an insane defense in court. I liked Fred MacMurray as the prosecuting attorney who can’t bear the thought of her spending Christmas behind bars. I liked Tom Kennedy, as Fat Mike, the bails bondsman. I liked Fred Toones as MacMurray’s right-hand man who goes above the call of the duty when managing his boss’s apartment and life. I liked MacMurray’s family back home in Indiana, including Beulah Bondi, Elizabeth Patterson and Sterling Holloway, though the last of those may have laid on the “aw shucks” shtick just a little too thickly. Then again, that guy was the voice of Winnie the Pooh, so what do I know.
The film begins with Stanwyck stealing a large, jeweled bracelet. Robertson’s defense for her in court posits his client was helpless to keep from absconding with it because she had been hypnotized. This results in some great reaction shots around the room, most notably the incredulous Stanwyck. MacMurray later asks her why they didn’t try for the kleptomania angle, to which she replies, ““To be a kleptomaniac, you can’t try to fence anything afterwards, lest you lose your amateur status.” Almost all of the dialog has that spark to it.
Despite being patently ridiculous, it is obvious these arguments are going to sway the jury. But MacMurray has a powerful trump card to play: the court psychologist is already away for the holidays, so he argues the trial be put on hold until his return at the start of the next year. This means the Stanwyck will be spending Christmas in jail, which should be the title of a Tom Waits song, if it isn’t already.
MacMurray can’t bear to do this, so he asks Fat Mike to post bail for her. Little does he realize, the bail bondman will deposit her at MacMurray’s apartment, where he is bewildered as to what to do with her. He tries to make nice but, as Stanwyck observes, “One of these days, one of you boys is going to start this scene different, and one of us girls is going to drop dead from surprise.”
But Toones already senses a potential romance between MacMurray and Stanwyck and so brings them each a scotch and soda. I like how this guy knows what his boss wants even before the man himself knows it.
This was the first of four movies starring our leads, and we see here how quickly they developed a rapport. The Preston Sturges script is fantastic, and it is amazing to hear such unrealistic banter roll out so naturally from the mouths of our stars. Even some characters on the margins get snappy lines: “Conviction of a first-time offender at Christmas-time is tougher than tiger meat.” I don’t care to know how MacMurray’s assistant at work knows that.
When MacMurray and Stanwyck discover they are fellow Hoosiers, the plot turns into a road trip, as they go to see their respective mothers for the holidays. I especially like the bit where the car is crashed through a farmer’s fence in Pennsylvania. Stanwyck had distracted MacMurray by yelling what seems to be an impossibility: “LOOK OUT! THERE’S AN ELEPHANT!”, which turns out to be a disused harvester shrouded in cloth. This is all a setup for them to be arrested for trespassing the next morning, a turn of events which has a great payoff. Their escape involves some impromptu arson, so they get out of the state fast.
The next stop for these low-key fugitives is her mother’s house. The movie wisely eschews music for the entirety of this scene where we meet a cold, bitter woman. Her assessment of her daughter is “good riddance to bad rubbish.” I love this sharp exchange between MacMurray and Stanwyck’s mother: “It’s been very interesting meeting you Mrs…” “The name does not concern you.” “It certainly does not.”
An entirely different type of family greets the couple at his mother’s house. I best remember Bondi as a bitterly Puritanical missionary in Rain, so it was a relief to see her play such a warm character here. Stanwyck gets a taste of how life might have been different for her if raised by better people. There’s a hint it might not even be too late for her to change her life now.
I don’t want to say more about this picture, because I don’t want to spoil the wealth of pleasant little surprises in it. So many moments in this are like small presents waiting to be unwrapped. And then it puts a big bow around the entire package when it completely sticks the landing. The ending may not leave all viewers happy, but it is the right ending, the true ending, and the one the audience deserves.
For a film set entirely around the winter holidays, Remember the Night felt less like a Christmas film than every other such picture I can think of, and I mean that as a compliment. I would consider it to be a Christmas movie as little as I would Die Hard or Brazil. It is exceptionally smart and funny, and can be watched at any time of year. It is also genuinely heart-warming and poignant and so, despite starring Stanwyck and MacMurray, it isn’t Double Indemnity at the North Pole.
Dir: Mitchell Liesen
Starring Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray
Watched on blu-ray