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Remember the Night is a theatrical Christmas film starring Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray, released by Paramount Pictures on January 19, 1940.

Synopsis

In the run up to Christmas, Lee Leander is arrested for stealing a diamond bracelet from a New York City jewelry store. The Assistant District Attorney, Jack Sargeant, is assigned to prosecute her. The trial begins just before Christmas, and rather than face a jury filled with the holiday spirit, Jack has it postponed on a technicality.

When Jack hears Lee complaining to her lawyer about spending Christmas in jail, he feels guilty and asks bondsman Fat Mike to post bail. He assumes that Jack wants to force Lee into an affair, and after freeing her he delivers her to Jack's flat. Discovering that she is a fellow Hoosier (native of Indiana), and that she has nowhere to spend Christmas, Jack offers to drop her off at her mother's house on his way to visit his own family.

On the drive, Jack gets lost in Pennsylvania and he and Lee spend the night parked in a field. The next morning, they are arrested by the landowner for trespassing and destruction of property, and taken to an unfriendly justice of the peace. Lee starts a fire in his wastebasket as a distraction, and she and Jack flees. Her mother, a malevolent embittered woman, has remarried, and does not want anything to do with her, whom she considers a lost cause.

Jack decides to take Lee home to spend Christmas with his family. She is warmly received by his cousin, Willie, Aunt Emma, and his mother, even after he reveals Lee's past. On New Year's Eve, he kisses Lee at a barn dance, and later that night his mother goes to Lee's bedroom for a talk. She reveals that the family was poor during his childhood, and that he worked hard to put himself through college. She asks Lee to give him up, rather than jeopardize his career, and she agrees.

On the way back to New York City via Canada (to bypass Pennsylvania), Jack tells Lee that he loves her, and tries to persuade her to jump bail, but she refuses. Back in New York City, he tries to lose her case by harsh and aggressive questioning, to get the jury to sympathize with her. His boss has been alerted to the affair, and secretly listens outside the courtroom. Realizing that Jack may damage his career, Lee changes her plea to guilty. As she is led away, he wants to marry her on the spot. She refuses, saying that if he still feels the same way when she has served her sentence, and he has had time to consider his decision, they can marry.

Cast

Actor/actress Character(s)
Barbara Stanwyck Lee Leander
Fred MacMurray Jack Sargent
Beulah Bondi Mrs. Sargent
Elizabeth Patterson Aunt Emma
Willard Robertson Francis O'Leary
Sterling Holloway Willie
Charles Waldron Judge in New York City
Paul Guilfoyle District Attorney
Charlie Arnt Tom
John Wray Hank
Thomas Ross Mr. Emory
Snowflake Rufus
Tom Kennedy Fat Mike
Georgia Caine Lee's Mother
Virginia Brissac Mrs. Emory
Spencer Charters Judge at Rummage Sale
Uncredited actors
Jean Acker
Avril Cameron
Frank Conklin
Harry Depp
Julia Faye
Galan Galt
Beth Hartman
Milton Kibbee
Pat O'Malley
Walter Soderling
Bernard Suss
Julius Tannen
Jury Members
Ambrose Barker Customs Official
John Beck Lee's Stepfather
Brooks Benedict Courtroom Spectator
Chester Clute Jewelry Salesman
Roy Crane
Ruth Warren
Unknown
Edmund Elton Minister
James Flavin Court Attendant
George Guhl Court Guard
Fuzzy Knight Bandleader at Barn Dance
Lillian Lawrence Townswoman at Rummage Sale
Kate Lawson Jail Matron
Martha Mears Nightclub Singer
George Melford Brian (Bailiff)
Florence Wix Judge's Wife

External links

This page uses Creative Commons Licensed
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Paramount
Movies
Remember the NightChristmas in JulyHoliday InnGoing My WayStalag 17White ChristmasWe're No AngelsTrading PlacesYoung Sherlock HolmesA Very Brady ChristmasWe're No Angels (1989) • The Kid Who Loved ChristmasAll I Want for ChristmasIn Search of Santa [International] • Office Christmas Party [N.A.] • Daddy's Home 2
Television episodes
Happy Days and related shows "Guess Who's Coming to Christmas" • "Richie Branches Out" • "Christmas Time" • "White Christmas" • "All I Want for Christmas" • "Oh Hear The Angels' Voices" • "O Come All Ye Bums" • "Christmas Show"
Cheers and Frasier "The Spy Who Came In for a Cold One" • "A House Is Not a Home" • "Christmas Cheers" • "Love Me, Love My Car" • "Miracle on Third or Fourth Street" • "Frasier Grinch" • "Perspectives on Christmas" • "Merry Christmas, Mrs. Moskowitz" • "The Fight Before Christmas" • "Mary Christmas" • "We Two Kings" • "High Holidays" • "Reindeer Games
Other shows "The Voice of Christmas" • "A Full House for Christmas" • "Get Me Through the Holidays" • "A Christmas Story" • "A Keaton Christmas Carol" • "Miracle in Columbus" • "A Christmas Story" • "A Terminal Christmas" • "The Customer's Usually Right" • "Happy Holidays" • "Insanity Claus" • "Twas the Heist Before Christmas" • "All About Christmas Eve" • "Christmas" • "Have Yourself a Married Little Christmas" • "Here Comes Santa Claus" • "A Class Act Christmas" • "X-Mas" • "Everybody Hates Christmas" • "Christmas!" • "Everybody Hates Kris" • "Santa Baby • "Everybody Loves Whom?" • "It's a Miserable Life" • "Mojo No Mo" • "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Venice?"
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