Remember the Night
| Remember the Night | |
|---|---|
Theatrical poster
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| Directed by | Mitchell Leisen |
| Produced by |
Mitchell Leisen Albert Lewis |
| Written by | Preston Sturges |
| Starring |
Barbara Stanwyck Fred MacMurray |
| Music by | Frederick Hollander |
| Cinematography | Ted Tetzlaff |
| Edited by | Doane Harrison |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
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Release date
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January 19, 1940 |
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Running time
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91 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Remember the Night is a 1940 American romantic comedy, Christmas film, and trial film directed by Mitchell Leisen, and starring Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray. The film was written by the great comic screenwriter Preston Sturges, and it was the last of his scripts shot by another director, as Sturges began his own directorial career the same year with The Great McGinty.
In the run up to Christmas, Lee Leander is arrested for stealing a bracelet from a New York City jewelry store. The Assistant District Attorney, John "Jack" Sargeant, is assigned to prosecute her. The trial begins just before Christmas, and rather than face 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 wants to force Lee into an affair, and after freeing her he delivers Lee to Jack's flat. Discovering that Lee is a fellow Hoosier, (a native of Indiana), 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. Lee starts a fire in his wastebasket as a distraction, and the pair flees. Lee's mother has remarried, and does not want anything to do with her daughter, whom she considers a lost cause.
Jack decides to take Lee home to spend Christmas with his family. She is warmly received by his cousin Willie, aunt Emma, and his mother, even after Jack reveals Lee's past. On New Year's Eve, Jack kisses Lee at a barn dance, and later that night his mother goes to 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. She asks Lee to give Jack up, rather than jeopardize his career, and Lee agrees.
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Wikipedia