Remember the Night

In our house we start pulling out the Christmas movies right after Thanksgiving.  We usually begin with Elf for a good laugh early in the Christmas season.  As December moves along there are the modern favorites such as A Christmas Story and The Santa Claus as well as timeless classics like Miracle on 34^th Street, and The Shop Around the Corner.  And it just wouldn’t be Christmas without the family gathering around to watch It’s A Wonderful Life starring Jimmy Stewart and Christmas in Connecticut starring Barbara Stanwyck.   

But there is another charming Barbara Stanwyck Christmas movie that you may not be as familiar with.  It’s Remember the Night from 1940.  With a witty and thoughtful script by Preston Strurges (Unfaithfully Yours, The Lady Eve and The Palm Beach Story) Stanwyck glides through this touching movie with Fred MacMurray (of My Three Sons fame), and veteran actress Beulah Bondi who plays Fred’s mother (and also played Jimmy’s mother in It’s A Wonderful Life.) 

Lee Leander (Stanwyck) is a “classy” shoplifter who is put on trial by the Assistant District Attorney John Sargent (MacMurray).  But due to the impending Christmas holidays and a funny twist of events Lee ends up in John’s custody and making the trip with him to his mother’s home in rural Indiana.  Lee experiences her first real Christmas and the love she never had.  Lee and John fall in love, but the trial still looms over them.

Remember the Night has all the makings of a Christmas classic, and is one movie I would NOT miss during the holidays!  My favorite scene features farm hand Willie (played by Sterling Holloway who is best known for providing the voice for Winnie the Pooh) singing the Carrie Jacobs-Bond classic At the End of a Perfect Day.  It is a classic movie moment tucked inside thoroughly enjoyable Christmas gift.