Remember the Night (1940) starred Barbara Stanwyck as Lee Leander, a thief arrested for stealing a bracelet from a jewellery store in New York City. In charge of her case is assistant district attorney Jack Sargent (Fred MacMurray), who has the trial postponed as it started right before Christmas. Unfortunately for Lee, this means that she might well spend Christmas in jail. This fills Jack with guilt, and as a result he has her bailed out and offers to take her home to spend Christmas with her mother on his way to visit his own family. As it turns out, Lee's mother is a bitter, unloving woman, and as a result Lee spends the holidays with Jack's family. As might be expected, in the process the two of them find themselves falling in love against their better judgement.
Like many of his films, Preston Sturges drew inspiration from his own life for Remember the Night (1940). The idea of Lee and Jack falling in love while on a road trip to Indiana came from a road trip Preston Sturges took with Elanor Post Hutton to Palm Beach, Florida. The two would later marry. Jack's mother was based upon his third wife Louise Sargent's mother, who was a farm wife who lived near Fort Dodge, Iowa. It was from Louise Sargent's mother that Jack and his family received the surname "Sargent." Preston Sturges worked hard on Remember the Night (1940), and it was not a particularly easy script to write. According to his wife at the time, Louise Sargent, he only would only stop working it was clear his secretary Gillette could no longer continue. Curiously, while Remember the Night (1940) is one of Barbara Stanwyck's better known films, Preston Sturges wrote the movie with Carole Lombard in mind for the role of Lee.
The film was not always going to be called Remember the Night (1940). Preston Sturges wanted to call the film, Beyond These Tears, from a traditional Scottish poem, a title that Paramount rejected. A working title was The Amazing Marriage, even though marriage does not appear in film. Another title suggested by Preston Sturges was Great Love.
The director on Remember the Night (1940) was Mitchell Leisen, who had earlier directed Preston Sturges's movie Easy Living (1937). Much to Mr. Sturges's chagrin, Mr. Leisen cut a good deal of his script. Much of the reason that Mitchell Leisen made changes to Preston Sturges's script was to play to his stars' strengths. In Preston Sturges's original script, the character of Jack (Fred MacMurray) was a somewhat showy lawyer who made epic speeches, something at odds with the quiet dignity of many of Fred MacMurray's characters. In cutting many of Jack's lines, Mitchell Leisen was better able to play to Fred MacMurray's strengths as an actor. As Mitchell Leisen reworked Preston Sturges's script, he shifted the focus of the film from Jack to Lee. Remember the Night (1940) does include some in-jokes referencing the earlier Preston Sturges script Mitchell Leisen had directed, Easy Living (1937). The song "Easy Living," which Ralph Rainger and Leo Robin had written for the movie Easy Living (1937), plays at the supper club to which Jack takes Lee. When Lee gives a false name at one point in the movie, it is "Mary Smith," the name of the lead character of Easy Living (1937) played by Jean Harlow.
Remember the Night (1940) proved to be a pivotal film for Barbara Stanwyck. It was the first film that she made with Fred MacMurray. The two of two of them would make three more films together, including the classic noir Double Indemnity (1940), The Moonlighter (1953), and There's Always Tomorrow (1956). Preston Sturges frequented the set and as a result he spent time talking with Miss Stanwyck. One day he told her that he would write a screwball comedy for her. It was the following year that Barbara Stanwyck starred in Preston Sturges's film The Lady Eve (1941).
Mitchell Leisen was impressed by Barbara Stanwyck's professionalism. In the biography Mitchell Leisen, Hollywood Director by David Chierichetti, he is quoted as saying, "Barbara Stanwyck was the greatest . She never blew one line through the whole picture . She set that kind of pace and everybody worked harder , trying to outdo her." Mr. Leisen also related how Barbara Stanwyck had a bad back, but insisted on remaining on the set during a long scene despite the fact that the corset she was required to wear caused her a good deal of pain. Ultimately, Remember the Night (1940) was completed $50,000 under budget and eight days ahead of schedule, the credit for which Mitchell Leisen gave to Barbara Stanwyck and her professionalism.
Beulah Bondi, who plays Jack's mother, actually was an Indiana native, much like her character.Remember the Night(1940) was one of only two films she made that was set in her home state. The other was the Disney movie So Dear to My Heart (1948), which was set in rural Indiana.
Strangely enough, even though most of the plot of Remember the Night (1940) unfolds from Christmas Eve to New Year's Day, the film went into limited release on January 1, 1940, and went into wide release on January 19, 1940. New York Times critic Frank S. Nugent praised the film, writing, "After dallying too long with the leftovers of 1939, the screen has awakened finally to a new year and new entertainment responsibilities. Remember the Night, presented at the Paramount yesterday, is the real curtain-raiser for 1940, the first word of reassurance Hollywood has offered since '39 went into the past." The Hollywood Reporter also gave Remember the Night a good review, writing, "All that Remember the Night needs to make it one of the best pictures to come from Paramount in many a day is a slight tightening up of one or two sags by eliminating some superfluous footage. Aside from this, it has everything, a heart-warming story based on a distinctly unique premise, sparkling comedy which always has a latent heart tug, superlative performances, an excellent script, top notch production and direction." Remember the Night (1940) was not a box office smash, although it proved to do moderately well.
Remember the Night (1940) would twice be adapted to other media. On March 15, 1940, Lux Radio Theatre aired an hour-long adaptation with Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray reprising their roles as Lee and Jack. The show did another adaptation of the movie on December 22, 1941, this time with Jean Arthur as Lee and Fred MacMurray as Jack. On May 5, 1955, Lux Video Theatre did a television adaptation of the movie, with Jan Sterling as Lee and Don DeFore as Jack.
As mentioned earlier, Remember the Night (1940) would prove to be a historic movie. In addition to being the first of four movies that Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray made together and leading Preston Sturges to write The Lady Eve (1940), it was also the last movie Preston Sturges wrote that he would not also direct. Frustrated by the cuts that Mitchell Leisen had made to his script and earlier instances in which his screenplays had been changed, Preston Sturges decided that henceforth he would direct his own scripts. It was then that Preston Sturges made his directorial debut with The Great McGinty (1940).
In the Fifties, Remember the Night (1940) began airing on television. While it would often be shown during the Christmas station on local stations in the Fifties, Sixties, and Seventies, it was sometimes shown at such odd times as June and even August. It would be one of the Christmas classics that AMC would air every December when AMC was still American Movie Classics. It has also aired on such cable channels as Oxygen and The Disney Channel. Remember the Night (1940) has aired each year on TCM, introducing it to whole new generations of fans.
Through repeated showings on TCM over the years, Remember the Night (1940) has developed a following, to the point that it can quite rightfully be considered a beloved holiday classic. Over eighty-five afters its original release, Remember the Night (1940) is still picking up new fans.
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