Remember the Night

Infobox Film
name = Remember the Night


image_size = 200px
caption = theatrical poster
producer = Mitchell Leisen
Albert Lewis
director = Mitchell Leisen
writer = Preston Sturges
starring = Barbara Stanwyck
Fred MacMurray
music = Frederick Hollander
cinematography = Ted Tetzlaff
editing = Doane Harrison
distributor = Paramount Pictures
released = 9 January fy|1940
runtime = 91 minutes
country = FilmUS
language = English
budget =
gross =
imdb_id = 0032981 |

"Remember the Night" (fy|1940) is a romantic comedy/drama Christmas film written by Preston Sturges and directed by Mitchell Leisen. It stars Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray and features Beulah Bondi and Sterling Holloway.

This was Preston Sturges' last film as a writer before he became a writer-director with "The Great McGinty".TCM [http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=87956&category=Notes Notes] ]

Plot

Lee Leander (Barbara Stanwyck) is a shoplifter who is arrested during the Christmas holidays for trying to steal from a jewelry shop. Assistant District Attorney John Sargeant (Fred MacMurray) is assigned to prosecute her. Her trial date is right after Christmas, and rather than have her spend the holidays in jail and interrupt his vacation, he has the trial postponed.

Discovering that she is a fellow Hoosier from Indiana, he offers to drop her off at her parents' house on his way to visit his mother (Beulah Bondi), cousin Willie (Sterling Holloway), and aunt (Elizabeth Patterson). When her mother (Georgia Caine) rejects her for her past crimes, John brings Lee to his family's house, where she is warmly received.

During the course of the holiday season, John and Lee fall in love, much to the shock of his mother, as John has confided Lee's criminal past to her. On the way back to New York via Canada (an earlier escapade with the law in Pennsylvania forced the couple to return by a different route), John offers Lee a chance to escape, but she turns down the opportunity, due to promises she has made to his mother. Back in New York, Lee is put on trial, but she pleads guilty when she realizes that John could get into trouble for attempting to throw her case. As she is lead away, John proposes to her, and she tells him that if he still feels the same way when she gets out, she will marry him.

Cast

Cast notes:
*"Remember the Night" was the first film that Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck appeared together in. They later co-starred in "Double Indemnity" (fy|1944), "The Moonlighter" (fy|1953) and "There's Always Tomorrow" (fy|1956). [imdb title|0032981]
*This film was the only one "Stanwyck" made in fy|1940. Originally she was to make a romantic film with Joel McCrea following the completion of "Remember the Night", but she came down with a serious eye infection and had to withdraw from the project.

Production

Preston Sturges had suggested "Great Love" as a title for this film. Director Mitchell Leisen, a rare director to come out of costume design and art direction, is reported to have shortened Sturges' script considerably, both before and during shooting, [imdb name|0500552|Mitchell Leisen] something which generally annoyed Sturges, and one of the main reasons he was set on directing his own scripts – which he did beginning with his next project, "The Great McGinty". Still, of all the films that Sturges wrote before be began directing, Leisen directed the only two films, this one and "Easy Living", which Sturges bought personal 16mm copies of for his film library.

Leisen's alterations to the script changed the focus of the film from the A.D.A. (MacMurray) to Barbara Stanwyck's character. Sturges summarized the film by saying "Love reformed her and corrupted him." The movie, he said, "had quite a lot of schmaltz, a good dose of schmerz and just enough schmutz to make it box office."Arnold, Jeremy [http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=87956&category=Articles "Remember the Night" (TCM article)] ]

During shooting, Sturges hung around the set and got to know Barbara Stanwyck. One day he told her that he was going to write a screwball comedy for her, which he did just a year later, in "The Lady Eve".

"Remember the Night" was in production from 27 July to 8 September fy|1939 [IMDB [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032981/business Business data] ] . It was completed 8 days ahead of schedule and $50,000 under budget, which Leisen attributed to Stanwyck's professionalism. The film was released on 19 January fy|1940, [IMDB [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032981/releaseinfo Release dates] ] and was well received. The review in the "New York Times" said:

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.

Adaptations

On 5 May ytv|1955, "Lux Video Theatre" presented a television adaptation of "Remember the Night", with Dennis O'Keefe and Jan Sterling. It was directed by Richard Goode and Buzz Kulik from an adaptation by S.H. Barnett. [imdb title|0637814|Lux Video Theatre: Remember the Night]

ee also

Dialogue from the film

Notes

External links

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* [http://filmjournal.net/clydefro/2006/12/24/remember-the-night/ Thoughts on "Remember the Night"]