REMEMBER THE NIGHT

US, 1940, 94 minutes, Black and white.
Barbara Stanwyck, Fred Mac Murray, Beulah Bondi, Elizabeth Patterson, Sterling Holloway.
Directed by Mitchell Leisen.

Remember the Night is a charming Christmas story. Barbara Stanwyck plays a shoplifter from a poor background who is arrested by Fred Mac Murray. It’s Christmas and he takes her home to his family, especially to his mother (Beulah Bondi) and his aunt (Elizabeth Patterson). The Christmas spirit has an effect on them all and the couple fall in love – with difficulties about the forthcoming trial.

The film was written by Preston Sturges, the classic writer-director of such films as Hail the Conquering Hero and The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek. It was directed by Mitchell Leisen, veteran director of this kind of film in the 1930s and 1940s. Barbara Stanwyck and Fred Mac Murray exert their charm in this film – and were later to appear in the classic Double Indemnity with Stanwyck as the femme fatale corrupting the insurance agent Fred Mac Murray.

1. The appeal of this kind of comedy, romance, sentimental drama?

2. The film and the styles of the forties, black and white photography, music, the stars?

3. The atmosphere of reality and unreality, fantasy enjoyment? Escapism or necessary fantasy?

4. Audience response to the plot? Was it too contrived? Did contrivance matter? audience participation in developments and the pleasure when these were fulfilled? Audience hopes for the discovery of the truth?

5. How important was the atmosphere of Christmas and its tone?

6. The importance of the shoplifting: its presentation as a fact, the explanation in Lea and her regard? The arguments against shoplifting?

7. How well did the film present themes of honesty and truth, the role of the law, morality? Human beings trying to live within this framework? Rigidity of interpretation of the law, human allowances?

8. The first impressions of Lea and her stealing the bracelet, her being caught? her style in the court case? Her being imprisoned for Christmas? How did audience response change when they understood her life? Their response to her sharing Christmas with John? The importance of the journey and its sense of going somewhere, going home? Sharing experiences with John? Even their being arrested and telling lies? The encounter with her mother and its bitterness? The contrast with John's family and the happiness? The warning that John's mother gave about giving him up? Her return to the court case and her final decisions? How well developed was her character? How credible?

9. How attractive a hero was John? His skill at his job, his smart repartee, his postponing the end of the case till after Christmas? His helping Lea and his conscience problems? Going on the journey with her and discovering the truth about her? Falling in love with her? Saving her from the embarrassment of her mother? Sharing the joys of his own family? The experience in Niagara, his wanting to lose the case? His reaction to her decision?

10. The importance of the initial court scene and the satire on the verbiage that goes on in such cases? Smart manoeuvres versus people's feelings?

11. The importance of the incident when the two were lost, their arrest, their escape? The irony of the lawyer being arrested and not telling the truth?

12. Why was the encounter between Lea and her mother so moving, so hurtful for Lea?

13. The contrast with John's family, the attractive characters, mother, aunt, brother? The importance of the family spirit, dinners, barn dances? The conversations about family? The New Year celebrations, the mother's demand for sacrifice on the part of Lea?

14. The awareness of love at Niagara and its consequences?

15. The contrivance of the final case? John's bullying, Lea's decision to plead guilty?

16. How satisfactory was the ending, its inconclusive nature, the dilemma for them both?