Remember the Night (1940)

Directed by Mitchell Leisen. Starring Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Beulah Bondi, Elizabeth Patterson, Sterling Holloway, Willard Robertson, Georgia Caine, Paul Guilfoyle, Charles Waldron, Fred ‘Snowflake’ Toones, Tom Kennedy, Charles Arnt, John Wray.

Assistant DA MacMurray posts bond for shoplifter Stanwyck so she won’t have to spend Christmas in jail, and love blooms between them after he agrees to drop her off at her mother’s house on his drive out to visit his own family. An uncommonly transformative romance because of its honesty and refusal to give in to a cop-out at the end; sneaky and subtle about its sentiment, the picture even starts as a semi-cynical comedy (just listen to Stanwyck’s outlandish lawyer), with an implausibly engineered premise and the expected formula “road movie” complications, before wading into deeper, darker waters in order to find its notes of sadness, regret, yearning, and hope. A Christmas-themed film more interested in spreading goodwill to the world than any of the traditional religious or secular totems; it’s as cozy as a roaring fire but unafraid to jolt the emotions, as in the “reunion” scene between Stanwyck and ma Caine. Written by Preston Sturges, the last time someone else would direct one of his scripts.

77/100