Christmastime chemistry

Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray were paired in four features during their career--the first instance being "Remember the Night," a lesser-known holiday movie from 1940 that CineVerse plucked from the Island of Misfit Toys last evening to unwrap. Read on for highlights of our group discussion.

HOW DOES THIS FILM DEFY YOUR EXPECTATIONS? WHAT IS DIFFERENT ABOUT IT THAN YOU ANTICIPATED, PERHAPS?

·       It doesn’t fall into any one category; it shifts from a comedy, to a noir, to a heartwarming romance, to a bit of a melodramatic tragedy/drama

·       It likewise employs several shifts in tonality that you may not see coming, from funny, to dark, to sweet, to sad. This requires a deft skill as a screenwriter and director, as it’s easy to lose the audience if the tonal shifts don’t work

·       The film actually gets pretty dark, especially for a holiday feature, by depicting Lee’s mother and her rejection of her daughter at, of all times, Christmas; suddenly, we feel sympathy for Lee and perhaps better understand how she turned out the way she did; this is a rare insertion of brooding psychology into a film of this era

·       There is a hard-to-put-your-finger on synergy between Stanwyck and MacMurray, particularly a sexually charged tension and formula that requires Stanwyck to be the dominant one to MacMurray’s more submissive male character; these qualities would get them paired together in 3 subsequent films: Double Indemnity, The Moonlighter, and There’s Always Tomorrow

·       The Christmas-time setting is somewhat incidental, in that it’s really not about Christmas or its true meaning; yet, the setting is also significant in that it serves as a necessary plot device: how can the assistant district attorney possibly be so heartless as to not bail out the shoplifter on Christmas nor take her home for the holidays?

·       Christ’s nativity story is subtly hinted at and echoed in John and Lee and how they end up arriving at his family farm: there’s “no room at the inn” for her at her mother’s house, and now she must journey to a rural setting; there’s even a silly set piece with cows

WHAT DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE ENDING, ISN’T NECESSARILY A HAPPY ONE, BUT YET IS ARGUABLY FITTING UNDER THE CIRCUMSTANCES?

·       In a lesser film with a more hollow story and helmed by less gifted filmmakers, a straightforward happy ending could have been tacked on where Lee is acquitted and she and John live happily ever after from that moment on; this could have been a satisfying conclusion for some, but the way this story and its characters were crafted, wouldn’t have worked

·       Instead, the film requires maturity and patience from the viewer:

o   Romance movies of this time period often preach that love requires sacrifice, but usually on the woman’s part

o   But, as one reviewer put it, “rather than expecting only the woman to sacrifice, it understands both parties must sacrifice and change for their love to work.” John is willing to sacrifice his career for Lee’s love, and Lee is willing to sacrifice her chance at acquittal for living up to the high standards that John deserves and that John’s mother has instilled in her son

o   Thus, the correct ending based on the sacrifices and character evolutions required, calls for honesty to prevail, which means that Lee has to take her medicine voluntarily and rejecting an easy-way-out solution by John

·       Hence, this is a rare Christmas-time film where the characters, as well as the viewers, don’t get immediate gratification and a neatly-tied-up-in-a-bow happy ending; instead, it’s a film about strong heartland family values, redemption, sacrifice, and psychological influences on a person’s character

·       Also, interestingly, the women in John’s life save him from himself—which further underscore the subtle passivity within MacMurray’s characters opposite Stanwyck in their 4 films together

THIS FILM DOES HAVE SOME PROBLEMATIC ELEMENTS THAT, ARGUABLY, HAVE NOT STOOD THE TEST OF TIME VERY WELL. CAN YOU NAME A FEW EXAMPLES?

·       There are implausibilities in this story: First, it’s a leap of faith to think that John would bail out Lee, the very woman he’s prosecuting; second, how credible is it that he would agree to drive her home to her mother’s for the holidays? Third, we’re asked to believe that he would then take her home to his family for Christmas after Lee’s mother rejects her

·       John’s need for an African American manservant and the hostile way he treats this servant, who is depicted as a bumbling, ignorant, buffoonish caricature, creates a cringe-worthy situation

OTHER FILMS BY DIRECTOR MITCHELL LEISEN:

·       Easy Living

·       Midnight

·       Hold Back the Dawn

·       Golden Earrings

OTHER FILMS BY DIRECTOR/SCREENWRITER PRESTON STURGES

·       The Lady Eve

·       Miracle of Morgan’s Creek

·       Sullivan’s Travels

·       The Great McGinty