Remember the Night
Composite Score: 81.4
Starring: Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, Beulah Bondi, Elizabeth Patterson, and Sterling Holloway
Director: Mitchell Leisen
Writer: Preston Sturges
Genres: Comedy, Drama, Romance, Holiday
MPAA Rating: Passed
Box Office: $167,800 worldwide
Why should you Watch This Film?
Remember the Night is a fun holiday romance with some interesting takes on the tropes of traditional rom-coms. It features solid performances from Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray as its romantic leads. Its story is somewhat problematic but also incredibly original in its content. The holiday theming keeps the film light and helps make an otherwise okay film something worth watching during that season of the year.
Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?
The film has a wildly problematic portrayal of black servitude. Fred MacMurray’s John Sargent has an African American servant, Rufus played by Fred Toones, who appears as a very rough caricature of a black servant in early 1900s America. He is portrayed as dumb, cowardly, stammering, and majorly subservient to Sargent, whom he refers to as “Massa Sargent”, not a great look. The only positive quality attributed to Rufus is his cooking ability. Obviously, the film was made in a time when such portrayals were commonplace, but such norms do not excuse the problematic aspect and should not allow it to be glossed over when determining whether such a film should be celebrated.
The film’s treatment of its female lead, Lee Leander played by Barbara Stanwyck, also contains some inconsistencies. On the one hand, she is a small-time thief and fencer whose independence is something to be celebrated despite its illegal source. On the other hand, she is a single woman in her late 20s (a “spinster” to the women of her day) whose 26-inch waist is seven inches too big and needs to dress up her appearance to be able to catch herself a man. These two takes on femininity in 1940s America paint a contradictory picture that is difficult to decipher. Independence and self-determination are both positives that should be celebrated, especially for a 1940s film, but problematic beauty standards and the requirement that women look a certain way for men are certainly not celebratory.
So wait, why should you Watch This Film?
The film’s story is its most redeeming factor. It takes the enemies-to-lovers trope common in romantic comedies and crafts something more unique. Lee is a woman on trial for theft who is about to have to spend Christmas in jail as a result of the prosecution’s intervention in an otherwise decided case – argued well by the lead prosecutor John Sargent. The postponement of the case’s conclusion and Lee’s subsequent imprisonment leads John to feel bad and post her bail himself. The bail posting results in Lee spending the Christmas holidays with John, a result he did not intend because he is Christmas-ing with his family in Indiana. John’s remorseful actions lead to romance blossoming between the pair, creating a questionable but unique love story. By the end of the film, Lee sacrifices herself to jail to save John’s legal career, creating more problematic gender norms but also a refreshing twist on romances, as the two leads are definitely not together, separated by whatever sentence Lee must serve for her crimes.
The comedic moments of this holiday romantic comedy are also major highlights for Remember the Night. The pair meet the trial judge at a dinner club immediately after John posts Lee’s bail, creating an awkward moment between John and the judge that plays as relatively comedic. While in Pennsylvania, John and Lee fall foul of the local justice of the peace and are forced to escape thanks to some deception on the part of the lawyer and arson on the part of Lee, again an ironic situation that brings some comic relief to the romance story.
Decent comedy and an original story help the holiday romance of Remember the Night elevate itself above some other romantic comedies; however, the problematic issues that arise from its 1940s-era politics and social commentary are difficult to ignore. Originality is very important in determining film greatness, and its problems are at least not blackface (see Christmas classic Holiday Inn), so as a holiday romance, Remember the Night can be worth watching with a grain of salt.
