Customer Reviews

Remember the Night [VHS]

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Five stars for the movie, a well-done, not too sentimental story of pickpocket Stanwyck finding love with sympathetic D.A. MacMurray during the Christmas season. Her homecoming scene with her loveless mother is a scene you will not forget.

The DVD is the result of a partnership between Turner Classic Movies and Universal Studios Home Video. It's an actual DVD (not a DVD-R) and the quality is terrific. You can buy it brand new at either the TCM website or at the Movies Unlimited site for $20 or less. Those selling it here at Amazon are charging a ridiculous amount so don't be cheated.

UPDATE: Amazon has started selling the movie on-demand on DVD-R discs. My review is for the item I purchased from TCM, which was an actual pressed disc, not a DVD-R.

Barbara Stanwyck never looked more feminine or gave a more luminous performance than in this touching holiday classic directed by Mitchell Leisen. A fine screenplay from the great Preston Sturges and an excellent supporting cast bolster this sentimental film into a holiday staple you'll watch every Christmas.

Fred MacMurray is Assistant District Attorney John Sargent, charged with prosecuting pretty shoplifter Lee Leander right before the holiday weekend. He uses her defense attorney to wangle a postponement so he can go home to his mom's farm just outside Wabash, Indiana for Christmas. Feeling guilty when Lee reacts badly to being locked up during the holidays, he has an old pal post bail for her.

He brings her to John's place, however, and once the suspicious Lee realizes John had no ulterior motives, Lee confesses she has no place to really go for the holidays. Startled to find her childhood home is just a few miles from Wabash, John decides he can drop her off and pick her up on his way back to New York for the trial.

Stanwyck and MacMurray were a great team, and there are some very fun moments as they keep getting lost on the backroads in Indiana, even getting arrested for trespassing at one point! But there is nothing funny about the reaction of Stanwyck's mother when she goes home after all those years, only to find bitterness and rejection. John decides to take her home for the holidays and they slowly begin to fall in love.

John's family is warm and welcoming, only his mother (Beulah Bondi) aware of Lee's situation. Elizabeth Patterson is wonderful as John's aunt, taking an immediate shine to Lee and helping her get in John's heart. It is the family Lee never had, the one thing that might have made the difference in her life. It is warm and moving when John's mother and aunt make sure Lee is represented as well when they open presents on Christmas morning.

Sterling Holloway is marvelous as their farmhand Willie, who along with the rest of John's family gives Lee all the love she never had. The season passes all to quickly and after the New Year's dance it is clear John loves Lee and she loves him. Stanwyck, often unfairly described as less than beautiful by critics, has never been so much so in the tender bedroom scene with John's mother, who knows he may just love her enough to ruin his career when they return.

John confesses his love for Lee at Niagra Falls and though she knows she shouldn't, she loves him also. She won't run, however, and when John starts to question her about the theft during her trial, she slowly realizes what he is doing for her. She makes a gesture of love also, and in a memorable ending their future is decided.

This is a warm and wonderful film, sentimental and moving. There are fine performances from everyone and a truly memorable one from Barbara Stanwyck. A film you don't want to miss. You will always remember the night.

I loved this movie. That's a hard statement for a black man to make about any movie in which Snowflake has a role. Regrettably, Hollywood had few roles for blacks in the 30s and 40s and the roles it had were generally comic relief and blacks played characters typically happy, subservient and dumb. Snowflake is Fred McMurray's butler and made a few early scenes in the movie very dated. ("He's not too bright, but he makes a great sandwich"). Nevertheless, the movie has a great script and gradually builds where the viewer roots for the improbable pairing to work out. I'm surprised that I've never seen this movie on cable around Christmas because it is truly a Holiday classic.

While I'm glad this movie has finally been released on DVD (well actually it's a DVD-R), it does not include the features (Robert Osborne Introduction, Original Trailer, Publicity Stills, Scene Stills, Movie Posters, Behind the Scenes photos, Biographies) that another reviewer here has stated.

Know this before you purchase it! The missing features and the fact it is a DVD-R and not a DVD figures into my lower (1 star) review.

I'm a bit outraged that Amazon is even selling this cheaper knock-off of "Remember the Night". It is a very mis-leading product offering by Amazon in that it has the same exact DVD cover artwork as the Turner Classic Movies (TCM) - Movies Unlimited website offering - including the TCM logo! I'm surprised that TCM and Universal (these 2 companies jointly released "Remember the Night" as a DVD with the Bonus Features) would allow this lesser version to be sold by Amazon. I may in fact try and return it to Amazon.

As of this date the Movies Unlimited website version of this movie is selling for only $4 more so I would recommend you purchase it there if you care at all about having a disc that will last longer than a DVD-R (there's some question as to the longevity and durability of DVD-R's) and includes the already mentioned Bonus Features.

"Remember The Night" is a Christmas regular in my home but really it's story could be viewed anytime of the year combining as it does equal portions of humour, family sentiment, goodwill to all men and great acting performances all nicely laced up with an important message about looking for the basic good in all people we encounter in our lives.

Produced in 1940 by Paramount Studios it was the first of two Christmas themed films that Barbara Stanwyck made in the 1940's (the other being the immortal "Christmas In Connecticut" in 1945), that have become holiday season regulars over the decades and live on in people's affections. I know the Christmas season would not be complete without these two wonderful classics as part of our Christmas viewing. Directed by the gifted Mitchell Leisen, a director who is not remembered half as much as he deserves to be, and boasting a superb screenplay by the legendary Preston Sturges, "Remember The Night" tells the spirited story of Lee Leander a street wise, fast talking shop lifter who is up on a charge for stealing from a jewelry store as the Christmas season approaches. The case is held over till the New year and rather than spend it in jail she finds herself being "rostered on" with the prosecuting attorney (Fred MacMurray )charged with convicting her till court resumes. What she gets is an unexpected invitation to spend the holidays with his family upstate where Lee gets her first real taste of a warm family life where people are nice to each other with no ulterior motives. Lee easily warms to the way of living she finds at MacMurray's farm and finds herself falling in love for the first time.

Out of such a vintage theme comes a wonderful film filled with the holiday spirit. Barbara Stanwyck, by this time a seasoned performer was never better than when she played bad girls from the wrong side of the tracks. Her Lee Leander character is at once cynical and sharp and alert to the best deal for herself and it's a credit to Stanwyck's wonderful sense of characterisation and understanding of what the part needs that she is able to turn her convited shoplifter into a warm and sympathetic character. Rarely has Barbara Stanwyck delivered a finer performance than here. She always teamed well with frequent co-star Fred MacMurray and the two would reteam in 4 years time for a most different film in the classic "Double Indemnity". Her scenes also with the gifted character actress Beulah Bondi who plays MacMurray's mother in the farm scenes are also noteworthy and are filled with beautiful exchanges between the two women. Stanwyck really reveals what a wonderfully sensitive actress she could be here and working against a famed sentimental scene stealer like Bondi was no small task. The cast is rounded out by Elizabeth Patterson playing Fred's aunt in loving style and the always interesting gravel voiced Sterling Holloway as the farm hand who has become part of the family. A particulary powerful scene is where Stanwyck confronts her own mother(Georgia Caine in a cold as ice performance) and attempts a reconciliation on the journey up to MacMurray's farm and is told to leave and never come back. Her reception is a stark contrast to the warmth and caring spirit she encounters on the farm. That scene alone is guaranteed to bring a tear to your eye, so painful it is to watch even after repeated screenings.

As an uplifting and indeed sentimental treat for the holiday season "Remember The Night" is unsurpassed. It will alternately have you laughing in scenes such as when Stanwyck describes herself by profession as a "bubble dancer" when she and MacMurray are arrested for sleeping in a farmer's paddock, to scenes that will wrench your heart as in the before mentioned scene Lee has with her mother. In short ideal holiday fare back from the days when Hollywood really knew how to create a wholesome story filled with love and feeling for others. Highly recommended.

Stanwyck is very appealing here as Lee Leander, the shoplifting gal who goes to stay with DA MacMurray and his family during the Christmas holidays. You'd have to be a grump not to like this sentimental blend of pathos, drama and zaniness which borders on Capra-corn yet never goes over the edge. Realistic are the scenes where Stanwyck experiences a warm, close-knit family (something she had never known) and the scene where she confronts her cold mother (Georgia Caine) is truly moving. Both Elizabeth Patterson and Beulah Bondi give superb performances which are honest and not heavy-laden. This "holiday-type" is great viewing for any time of the year! A superior Leisen directorial effort coupled with a terrific Sturges script make this nifty little 1940 flick a keeper!

I love watching this film during the Christmas Season. Its a treat along with Stanwyck's other Christmas movies, (Christmas in Connecticut and Meet John Doe). This ranks with the best work Stanwyck ever did. She made her share of bad films (Escape to Burma case in point). But this is a movie to sit with the Christmas tree lights on Christmas Eve, enjoying hot cocoa and a nice fireplace. This film will put you in the Christmas Spirit. An added treat in this movie is Sterling Holloway singing "When You Come to the End of a Perfect Day"...simply beautiful....heartwarming and touching....just like the movie. The ending is unforgettable. Forget the cynics who review this one negatively.........trust me, I'm a big Stanwyck fan....and if YOU are....this movie ranks in the top ten of all her movies......ONe thing bothers me though...the title....it never made sense to me.....I guess I'll just have to watch the movie again to see if I can establish a connection! Enjoy!!!

I am going to confess that I am a big fan of both Barbara Stanwyck and Mitchell Leisen. So, the odds were heavily stacked in favor of this film well before I ever saw it for the first time.

Absolutely no one in the history of film played a bad girl better than Barbara Stanwyck. "Tough as nails" could have been invented to describe most of her characters. Unlike other Hollywood actresses, who were highly capable "bad girls", she was equally adept at comedy or drama, so that she could be funny bad in THE LADY EVE or BALL OF FIRE or scary bad in DOUBLE INDEMNITY or CLASH BY NIGHT or NO MAN OF HER OWN. In many of her comedic "bad girl" roles, she has been forced to assume that role by the harshness of the world as she has experienced it growing up. Typically, she just hasn't gotten her share of the breaks (as Beulah Bondi puts it to Fred MacMurray in this film, she probably just didn't get enough love growing up). Many of her roles are of women getting a break for the first time. And once a better way of life is presented to her, she invariably seizes it. Lee Leander, her character in REMEMBER THE NIGHT, is quintessential Stanwyck. An inveterate thief and con artist, she is so touched by the kindnesses shown to her by prosecuting attorney Fred MacMurray, that you hope and believe that in the course of the film she has changed for good whether she and Fred end up together or not. Like in so many of her films, she is the streetwise, wise gal, who finally and genuinely wises up. Any movie with Barbara Stanwyck at her best really needs no other reason to be seen, and this is Barbara Stanwyck at her best. Luckily there are other really great things in the film.

I think Mitchell Leisen gets a bum rap as a director. The book on him is that he was a moderately gifted director who rode the coattails of gifted screenwriters to success in the late thirties and early forties. Certainly, he had some phenomenal scripts to work with. Preston Sturges wrote the screenplays for both REMEMBER THE NIGHT and the great classic EASY LIVING, while Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett wrote the scripts for HOLD BACK THE DAWN, ARISE MY LOVE, and, what is probably Leisen's best film, MIDNIGHT. This seems unfair to me. Wilder and Brackett also wrote NINOTCHKA for Ernst Lubitch, and absolutely no one would accuse Lubitsch of riding anyone else's coattails (indeed, the claim would more probably be that he made their screenplay look better than it would have otherwise). Also, while Leisen's best films were indeed from screenplays by either Sturges or Wilder and Brackett, he nevertheless managed to make several other excellent films, including HANDS ACROSS THE TABLE, DEATH TAKES A HOLIDAY, and the film noir classic NO MAN OF HER OWN (another killer Barbara Stanwyck film, based on the novel I MARRIED A DEAD MAN).

Fred MacMurray is as fine as always. It would really be wonderful if more people thought of him as a charming leading man of a string of first rate thirties and forties comedies and dramas (HANDS ACROSS THE TABLE, DOUBLE INDEMNITY, TAKE A LETTER, DARLING, and this film), who later transformed into a versatile character actor (THE CAINE MUTINY, THE APARTMENT) than as the star of MY THREE SONS and some kooky Disney films.

The supporting cast is great. Beulah Bondi is great as Fred's mother and Elizabeth Patterson, who is one of those character actors who seems to be in every other film made in the thirties and forties, is the Aunt we all wish we had. Sterling Holloway, the actor who did the voice for Winnie the Pooh, is great as the farm hand (it is fun to ask someone to close their eyes when Holloway begins talking, and identify the voice--almost everyone I have tried this with was eventually able to identify him as the voice of Winnie).

I want to agree with the reviewer who lamented the presence of Fred "Snowflake" Toones in this flick. At his best, Toones only managed to portray dimwitted, depressingly subservient porters, red caps, bartenders, shoe shine boys, and house servants. He appeared in hundreds of films in the thirties and forties, rarely getting any billing, and never playing a character embued with any dignity. You can contrast him with Rex Ingram, who despite being a black actor at precisely the same time, never portrayed a character lacking in dignity and pride (his best know roles are perhaps the genie in the 1940 version of THE THIEF OF BAGDAD, God in GREEN PASTURES, the black soldier in Humphrey Bogart's SAHARA, and Jim in the Mickey Rooney version of HUCK FINN). On the other hand, Toones made a couple of hundred films and Ingram around twenty-five, so obviously, there was money to be made in being an idiotic servant. My 14 year old daughter watched this movie with me, and became intensely angry during the scenes in which "Snowflake" appeared. She found it painful to think that anyone ever found him at all funny. That he was playing an all-too-familiar stereotype is brought home by a line in the movie, when bondsman "Big Mike" (whose name Toones reports, predictably, as "Big Ike"), shuts Toones up by quipping, "Save it for your radio show." Unfortunately, he put in an appearance in most of Preston Sturges's films, so I encounter him a bit more often than I would like.

I was a tad perplexed by the title. Remember what night? There are several nights in this film, but none that really seem to stand out more than another. I could have understood REMEMBER THE NIGHTS. "The Night" intimates that there was a crucial event in Lee's transformation or in the progression of their love, but in fact the entire thing was a gradual transformation that took place over the whole week of the trip. I suspect that Preston Sturges original had a different title for the screenply, but for some reason the studio changed it. Just a hunch, but I would be willing to place a bet on it.

If you are a fan of romantic comedies, old Hollywood flicks, Barbara Stanwyck, Preston Sturges, or just good films in general, please do yourself a favor and see this movie.

I was planning on ordering this DVD - Remember the Night -- last fall when it appeared on Amazon's pre-order list, but shortly after it appeared, it was flagged as unavailable. This is one of my favorite Christmas movies and until this release had only been available on VHS tape at a greatly inflated price because, of course, it is out of print.

Notification of its unavailability was disappointing, but in December Turner classic movie channel was showing --Remember the Night -- and the host, Robert Osborne, mentioned the movie was just released on DVD by them as part of their Vault Collection. Great news! I immediately checked their web site and ordered it for a very reasonable price.

This is a crystal clear print of the 1940 Preston Sturges black and white screwball comedy/romance/drama -- the film is too complex to wear just one label. Sturges' screenplay gives us a holiday film with heart, smarts and no convenient "Hollywood" ending. This is the last screenplay Sturges wrote where he didn't also direct the movie. Michael Leisen (Death Takes a Holiday) directed, and Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck supply solid performances as a DA and a shoplifter thrown together during Christmas. This is a classic film with snappy dialogue, irony, genuine character development and a level of unpredictability created by the very talented writer.

In addition to the movie, the DVD contains an introduction by Robert Osborne along with a group of Special Features that include the Original Trailer, Publicity Stills, Scene Stills, Behind the Scenes photos, Movie Posters, Biographies of the writer and director, along with Trivia. This film is a gem, a treasure, and easily the best inexpensive Christmas gift I bought for myself in 2009.

Update 11/27/2010: Amazon is now selling a DVD-R on-demand copy of the film which, according to a gentleman who left a comment on my review, does not have the features I noted. My review is for the DVD, not the DVD-R on-demand copy. I have no firsthand knowledge of what is or isn't included with that product.

Remember The Night is one of the best of those forgotten Christmas classics that really should be on DVD. (Others are Good Sam and Mr. Soft Touch.) Barbara Stanwyck (Ball of Fire) plays a shoplifter picked up a few days before Christmas, and Fred MacMurray (My Three Sons) is the prosecutor. He pulls a little courtroom trick to get the case held over until after the holidays, then feels guilty because she'll be locked up in the meantime. So he bails her out and one thing leading to another, they drive across country to visit their respective families for Christmas. Stanwyck's mother turns out to be cold and unwelcoming, so he takes the girl home to his own family, which includes Beulah Bondi (So Dear To My Heart) and Sterling Holloway (Winnie The Pooh). Of course they fall in love on the way.
The final courtroom scene is brilliantly clever and poignant, with no cop-out ending.