Four years before they would make noir history teaming up to commit a sordid murder-for-profit in Billy Wilder’s “Double Indemnity,” in the first of their four cinematic pairings, Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck would find true love courtesy of genius screenwriter Preston Sturges in “Remember the Night,” a Christmas-themed romance by way of road comedy with just a dash of social statement.
Set in New York during the busy shopping season, Lee Leander (Stanwyck) might be the best dressed shoplifter you’ll ever meet when she’s busted by the cops and tossed in jail. A three-time loser, Lee is facing some real prison time and it’s the job of prosecutor John Sargent (MacMurray) to see to it she serves it. But in a crazy contrivance only a writer as brilliant as Sturges could sell, Sargent is convinced to let Lee out of jail and then offers to drop her off at her family home in Indiana for the Christmas holidays.
Besides being famous for putting his protagonists in oddball romantic circumstances, Sturges was also uniquely gifted when it came to changing the tone of his films in such a sly way you barely notice. Not soon after the story hits the road, what was light and airy turns pretty dark during an unforgettable scene where John watches Lee attempt to come home to her cold-hearted mother (Georgia Caine) who’s not at all interested in a reunion.
With no real choice and out of pity, John agrees to takes Lee to his own childhood home, and the contrast — courtesy of a warm cast of characters anchored by his understanding mother (the great Beulah Bondi) — could not be sharper. As her faith in the human species is restored, Lee and John fall in love but the reality of the trial they must both face always looms…
Clever, understated, emotionally satisfying, realistic but still uplifting, “Remember the Night” is the rare secular Christmas film from this classic studio era, but due to the faith Sturges holds for the ability in each of us to reform others with our own humanity, none of the emotional or seasonal impact is lost. Or as Sturges himself said:
“Love reformed her and corrupted him.” And the movie “had quite a lot of schmaltz, a good dose of schmerz and just enough schmutz to make it box office.”
If you can’t bring yourself to appreciate this hard-to-find gem for any other reason, keep in mind that this is the first time Sturges and Stanwyck worked together, and had they not he might not have slipped her the script for his next project — one he was set to direct.
Can you imagine a world where Barbara Stanwyck doesn’t star in “The Lady Eve?”
I don’t even want to try….
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