Mother Night

I've been trying to watch Remember the Night (1940) for a couple of years, but this is the first Christmas it has been available. Last year, we watched I'll Be Seeing You under the impression that it was this movie. After all, they are both about women released from prison to go home to their small home towns.

Remember stars Barbara Stanwyck as a classy woman a little down on her luck. She steals a bracelet from a 5th Ave jewelry store and tries to hock it on 3rd. She is promptly arrested. Her trial is prosecuted by hot-shot Fred MacMurray. Since it is just before Christmas, he knows the jury will be sympathetic, so he gets the trial held over to bring in expert testimony. He realizes that this means Stanwyck will be in jail over the holidays, so he gets her bailed out, then goes home to get ready to drive home to Ma's farm in Indiana.

The bondsman thinks he is bailing her out for non-humanitarian reasons, and delivers her to MacMurray's apartment, where his man, Fred 'Snowflake' Toones, seems to have the same idea. MacMurray feels sorry for her (but not exactly responsible), and offers her a nice dinner. So they go out, have some dinner, dance a little and talk. When he discovers that she is a Hoosier, too, he offers to drop her off to see her mom.

They have an eventful trip, and wind up running off the road in Pennsylvania and sleeping in a farmer's field. In the morning, the farmer gets nasty and runs them into the sheriff for trespassing and breaking his fence. MacMurray trues to joke his way out, but Stanwyck is more practical. She lights the wastebasket on fire and they run out. Now they are fugitives.

In a chilling scene, Stanwyck's mom, Georgia Caine, calls her evil and won't have her in her house. MacMurray defends her and invites her to his Ma's. Ma, Beulah Bondi, her spinster sister, Elizabeth Patterson, and MacMurray's somewhat dim cousin, Sterling Holloway (!) all greet her warmly and include her in the festivities. But MacMurray has to be honest with his mother and tells her about Stanwyck's past.

By the end of the holiday, they are clearly getting closer. But before they can come clean about their feelings, Ma has to have a talk with Stanwyck. She says she can see how they look at each other, but she also knows neither she nor Stanwyck would ever want to hurt MacMurray, with her past and his job... It's a stunning scene, with Bondi holding Stanwyck tenderly, speaking sweetly and telling her to gets lost almost as brutally as her own mother did. Maybe more, because Stanwyck feels it is true.

They drive home to New York through Canada (to avoid Pennsylvania, where they are fugitives. In Niagra Falls, MacMurray tries to convince her to jump bail and stay in Canada. When she refuses, he asks her to marry him right there. She turns this down as well, but since they are already in Niagra Falls, maybe they can have a honeymoon. Racy stuff. 

In the end, MacMurray tries to throw the trial by being too hard on her, to make the jury more sympathetic. But she cracks and changes her plea to guilty. So she will serve her time, and if MacMurray is still waiting, he can marry her when she gets out.

Directed by Michael Leisen, this was written by Preston Sturges, and it has a bit of that flavor. MacMurray is a standup guy, not mean or selfish, but he's kind of oblivious - at first, Stanwyck is just another statistic. Then, at dinner, he treats her like a social acquaintance, forgetting that he is going to try to imprison her after the holidays. Stanwyck is a bit of free spirit, a bit of a realist. She doesn't feel guilt the same way as other people, says she is just wired different. I don't know if this is true. 

I loved this, but Ms. Spenser couldn't get over the 1 or 2 scenes where Snowflake's character (who is black) is portrayed as a clown. It wasn't great, but on the other hand, he is pretty good at clowning. Sterling Holloway, of course, is best - and he gets to deliver a beautiful rendition of the song, "At the End of a Perfect Day."