An ambiguous title hides a must see Christmas classic
I first saw this last year and it instantly became a perennial must see.
Remember the Night (1940)
🦛🦛🦛🦛 out of 🦛🦛🦛🦛
How did I miss this movie for so many years? This movie with the least forgettable title is apparently a Christmas classic! There are a lot of "classics" and few "Christmas" movies that I have not seen but I don't often find one I have never heard of. Making it worse is the pedigree; staring Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray and written by Preston Sturges. Seriously how did I miss this movie? You may have sensed that I enjoyed it. It would be more appropriate to say that I adored it. It is exactly the kind of golden age of cinema film they don't make anymore and that they didn't make this well very often even in that “golden age”. MacMurry plays "Jack" a prosecutor who is prosecuting Stanwycks character "Lee" for shoplifting. But after forcing a continuance Jack takes pity and bails Lee out of jail, because its Christmas. Equally absurd but deftly written scenarios follow that lead the two to spend Christmas with MacMurray's family and guess what happens then? What sets this apart from all the smaltzy hallmark movies so many of us binge at Christmas is how smart and subversive this film is, both a Sturges specialty. Take the genuinely heartbreaking scene between Lee and her mother. Or strategic placement of "Niagara Falls" a place synonymous with honeymoons in that era. My teenage boys missed it but I doubt many a 40's era movie goer did. And the ending? Who saw that coming. It's romantic and noble and all the things it needed to be in a movie made in 1940 but the way it does it is bold. Along the way we get to watch Stanwyck and MacMurray fall in love which is sweet and kind of a trip if you remember them best from their most famous pairing in the far from romantic Double Indemnity where love is far from what is happening. We also get treated to a variety of sweet and silly characters and situations courtesy of Stuges who was a master at both. Credit is also due ? who thing with a smooth and subtle hand. I was previously unfamiliar with ? but turns out he is a mostly forgotten but highly regarded talent. Don't let another Christmas pass you by without adding this movie to your watchlist. It makes a nice double bill with that other Stanwyck Christmas classic A Christmas in Connecticut an equally sweet but less clever Christmas gem.
Where to Watch
Tragically not streaming anywhere. But good news: it will be on TCM this week, Friday Dec 23, 5pm PST