Remember the Night

Remember the Night (1940) is a Christmas romance with a comic streak you can watch online on iFILM. Days before the holiday, assistant DA John Sargent picks up the case of Lee Leander, caught shoplifting for the third time.

Convicting a young woman right before Christmas sits badly with John, so he gets the trial postponed. Then, half by accident, he ends up driving her to his mother's farmhouse in Indiana. That warm, unlocked, pie-scented home is everything Lee's own childhood was not. Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray play two people who fall for each other faster than the courtroom they'll soon face would ever allow.

The screenplay comes from Preston Sturges, and you can hear him in the dialogue — breezy on the surface, sharper underneath. Director Mitchell Leisen keeps the laughs and the ache in balance, never tipping into farce or syrup. A quiet, charming pick for anyone who loves old Hollywood that doesn't shout. Stream Remember the Night (1940) online on iFILM.