This is one of my favorite Christmas movies. The scene where she returns to visit her parents is so dark. If she hadn't met his family, I could see her turning into Phyllis Dietrichson! Stanwyck and MacMurray have such chemistry...and Double Indemnity was only four years away.
Really one of my favorite movies (tbh, I have a lot of them…), and glad TCM is showing it Sunday bc it’s my December selection with the old friend who watches a movie once a month with me, which I get to choose.
I find it hard to clarify what makes Remember the Night so special. In addition to all you reference, there’s the screenplay. Leisen shifted the focus away from Sturges’ script, which Sturges was totally cool with…I kid. Sturges’ version was focused on the prosecutor, and Leisen shifted Stanwyck to the center, and he was right. MacMurray was a terrific actor who would maybe even surprise himself with how good he was a few years later in Double Indemnity, but Stanwyck brings all she’s got—all that—to a character who gets to cover a lot of moods and tones, and she never looked more beautiful. Watching her just sitting with MacMurray’s family in the farmhouse living room, not chewing scenery but quietly experiencing a happy family together for the holidays, something she probably didn’t believe could even be real, is a thing of beauty. She wins our interest as a lively woman who doesn’t lie about her bad acts and is transparent about the worldview that justifies them, but we fall in love with her as all that disintegrates when she is exposed to the tenderness of people who she probably thought couldn’t really exist outside of Hollywood hokum.
Sturges said it’s the story of how love redeems her and corrupts him.
So glad Leisen is getting more attention. He directed several of my favorite movies including Midnight and Hold Back the Dawn. He deserves as much regard as a woman’s director as Cukor does, imo. Nobody shot Stanwyck or de Havilland as lovingly as Leisen.
You had me at Preston Sturges. Watched it last night on a new-to-me free -- but commercial-heavy -- streaming service, FAWESOME. Delicious! Stanwyck and MacMurray never more appealing.(I was taken aback though and uncomfortable with the casually racist stereotypical black servant character, Rufus. I know it's 1940, still...)
This has become a must-watch every year. I just got the Blu-Ray too.
This is one of my favorite Christmas movies. The scene where she returns to visit her parents is so dark. If she hadn't met his family, I could see her turning into Phyllis Dietrichson! Stanwyck and MacMurray have such chemistry...and Double Indemnity was only four years away.
I saw this on the Criterion Channel last year. I no longer have cable, so I can't see it again, but I very much want to endorse your recommendation.
It's on SUNDAY the 4th. Not Saturday. Just set the dvr to record. Thanks for the tip, Ty!
Really one of my favorite movies (tbh, I have a lot of them…), and glad TCM is showing it Sunday bc it’s my December selection with the old friend who watches a movie once a month with me, which I get to choose.
I find it hard to clarify what makes Remember the Night so special. In addition to all you reference, there’s the screenplay. Leisen shifted the focus away from Sturges’ script, which Sturges was totally cool with…I kid. Sturges’ version was focused on the prosecutor, and Leisen shifted Stanwyck to the center, and he was right. MacMurray was a terrific actor who would maybe even surprise himself with how good he was a few years later in Double Indemnity, but Stanwyck brings all she’s got—all that—to a character who gets to cover a lot of moods and tones, and she never looked more beautiful. Watching her just sitting with MacMurray’s family in the farmhouse living room, not chewing scenery but quietly experiencing a happy family together for the holidays, something she probably didn’t believe could even be real, is a thing of beauty. She wins our interest as a lively woman who doesn’t lie about her bad acts and is transparent about the worldview that justifies them, but we fall in love with her as all that disintegrates when she is exposed to the tenderness of people who she probably thought couldn’t really exist outside of Hollywood hokum.
Sturges said it’s the story of how love redeems her and corrupts him.
So glad Leisen is getting more attention. He directed several of my favorite movies including Midnight and Hold Back the Dawn. He deserves as much regard as a woman’s director as Cukor does, imo. Nobody shot Stanwyck or de Havilland as lovingly as Leisen.
Thanks for the heads up I saw for the first time last year and now I can’t imagine Christmas without it.
You had me at Preston Sturges. Watched it last night on a new-to-me free -- but commercial-heavy -- streaming service, FAWESOME. Delicious! Stanwyck and MacMurray never more appealing.(I was taken aback though and uncomfortable with the casually racist stereotypical black servant character, Rufus. I know it's 1940, still...)