Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray teamed up many occasions on the silver display, most notably in Billy Wilder’s noir masterpiece, Double Indemnity (1944). They might go on to star in three extra footage, however their first look collectively as the primary stars was in Mitchell Leisen’s Keep in mind the Night time (1940). Its mix of comedy and drama was attribute of American films on the time, and including the season of Christmas and New Yr’s to the movie rendered it relatable, albeit in an uncommon method.
Fred MacMurray performs John “Jack” Sargent, an assistant district lawyer assigned to a case of bijou theft. Barbara Stanwyck is the thief, Lee Leander, whose costly tastes and low ethical requirements landed her in jail.
The unlucky and most inconvenient factor concerning the trial is that it begins proper earlier than Christmas. Everybody has different issues on their minds, and although Lee’s protection lawyer claims that his consumer was harmless and underneath the affect of “hypnotism” (a bunch of psychological mumbo-jumbo that the jury is meant to fall for), Jack manages to have the trial postponed till after the vacations.
This creates a dilemma. Jack is an effective man and thinks that even perhaps thieves should spend Christmas someplace apart from a jail cell. He arranges for Lee’s bail however she is distributed to Jack’s condo. The difficulty is that Jack is making ready to go away the insanity of New York and go on a visit to Indiana to spend the vacations along with his mom, Aunt Emma, and cousin Willie.
After it’s revealed that Lee too is a “Hoosier,” who’s fairly positive her mom nonetheless lives there, Jack affords to drive Lee because it’s on his method. Lee is shocked by this gesture, and it’s clear that she has not acquired such consideration earlier than. This will convey some change in her thieving disposition, however she’s no idiot.
Jack is curious why Lee has a have to steal. “Within the presence of lovely issues,” he says, “did you might have the sudden irresistible urge to take them in your palms and hurry away with them?” He desires to assume that Lee is only a kleptomaniac, however she disabuses him of that notion. “I don’t assume you ever might perceive,” Lee says to Jack, “as a result of your thoughts is totally different. Proper or incorrect is similar for everyone, you see, however the rights and the wrongs aren’t the identical.”
Jack and Lee couldn’t be extra totally different from one another, but one thing is drawing them collectively. Deep down, Lee is desperately making an attempt to vary her corrupted soul, and for causes which can be unexplainable, Jack is drawn into what is clearly the seek for the great in all of us.
It might appear logical to suppose that Lee has not often felt liked. When she and Jack attain her mom’s home, the mom is chilly and depressing. She rejected her daughter up to now, she repeats that act as soon as once more upon seeing Lee. There isn’t a reconciliation or a cheerful Christmas story right here—it’s only a harsh actuality of rejection and lack of affection. Lee stands nonetheless on the porch after she’s been ushered out of the home. Her mom walks to the glass door, and a little bit mild of hope seems solely to be shortly blown like an inexpensive match. The curtain is pulled and the corridor lights are turned off. Lee doesn’t belong there, and by no means will.
Against this, Lee receives a totally totally different therapy at Jack’s dwelling. There isn’t a familial battle or distress—solely gratitude and love. Lee is welcomed, even if Jack reveals Lee’s true id to his mom. Because the household is celebrating Christmas and New Yr’s Eve, Jack and Lee start to fall in love. Jack’s mom is a Christian, charitable lady, however the considered her son being romantically concerned with a thief is unacceptable. She asks Lee to let Jack go, which Lee dutifully accepts.
Though the movie’s script was written by Preston Sturges, who is understood for his fast-paced zingers, there’s a sense of darkness that pervades the movie. As in a lot of Stanwyck’s different performances, she is fast, and her personal persona and immense appearing capacity lend themselves to each comedy and drama. As Mitchell Leisen commented, “She by no means blew one line by way of the entire image. She set that form of tempo and all people labored more durable, making an attempt to outdo her.”
Preston Sturges might have joked when he stated that the movie has “numerous schmaltz, a very good dose of schmerz, and simply sufficient schmutz” to render it a movie that may very well be profitable on the field workplace.
Identical to in most of her roles, right here too Stanwyck reveals many various ranges of personhood. Certainly, she is making an attempt to govern Jack as a result of that’s merely her modus operandi. Her so-called independence wouldn’t dictate something apart from pure manipulation as a result of she is just not occupied with another form of life than the one she is already residing. Besides, after all, that a part of her is aware of that she is residing in a hellish jail made solely by herself.
It wouldn’t be incorrect to imagine that some elements of Stanwyck’s personal persona and independence seeped into her roles. As Dan Callahan notes in his e-book Barbara Stanwyck: The Miracle Lady, “If she was afraid of phrases, then her collaboration with [Preston] Sturges turns into much more suggestive. He led her out of her established consolation zones and into the form of sensible, craving speak that might convey her to each new ranges of understanding and new ranges of desolation, all mingled collectively in her voice and her eyes.”
These “desolations” aren’t merely a attribute of Stanwyck’s movies but in addition of many different movies of the Nineteen Forties. The fact of alienation and nervousness comes much more into prominence throughout and after World Warfare II. Foolish and lighthearted themes are all the time full of uncertainty over the longer term and the inescapable incontrovertible fact that we should all generally see ourselves within the mirror. Maybe that is the explanation why somebody like Stanwyck could be excellent for a job like this—a lady who’s directly clear and direct, but partially wears a metaphysical masks, not directly and indefinitely hidden from the remainder of us. Vulnerability emerges solely sometimes.
Preston Sturges might have joked when he stated that the movie has “numerous schmaltz, a very good dose of schmerz, and simply sufficient schmutz” to render it a movie that may very well be profitable on the field workplace. It sounds nearly dismissive of the movie, however although Sturges is saying one thing true, there may be nonetheless one thing darkish, deep, and discomforting about Keep in mind the Night time. A person should refuse narcissism and settle for the accountability for his or her actions, even perhaps their destiny. It’s a unusual mix of American pressure throughout the confines of individualism, group, and private future. (We see an analogous sample in 1944’s vacation movie I’ll Be Seeing You with Joseph Cotton and Ginger Rogers.)
Stanwyck’s and MacMurray’s mishaps alongside the journey to Indiana are definitely a trigger for a lot of laughs, however the distinction between proper and incorrect isn’t an event for mirth. What is going to occur ultimately? Will this vacation fairytale finish in marriage? Most comedies do, however that is an uncommon comedy exactly as a result of love and morality are on the heart of it. Lee Leander should settle for the accountability for her earlier actions, and the trial should proceed.
Each Lee and Jack will do something to keep up the love they’ve for one another. On one hand, Jack seems to have been corrupted—he’s prepared to govern and switch the trial round which is able to exonerate Lee. The legislation to which he was so dedicated to has been moved into the background. But, Lee too is modified. One thing has woke up in her, a shred of goodness that dictates she should do the fitting factor and proverbially face the music. As a way to acquire Jack’s love, Lee is prepared to lose all of it. For the primary time, Lee has taken off the masks of a thief, and her vulnerability has illuminated each love and religion.
