MovieChat Forums > Remember the Night (1940) Discussion > Aunt Emma's wedding dress.

Aunt Emma's wedding dress.

posted 18 years ago by Mkeydude
12 replies | jump to latest

When Aunt Emma is getting Stanwyck dressed in costume for the New Year's Eve dance, we soon discover she is opening a wedding dress that was packed away years ago. Inside one of the boxes is a bundle of letters tied in a ribbon. When Aunt Emma carefully picks up the letters, she gets a far away expression on her face letting the audience know that she had once planned to be married. She cheerfully dismisses Stanwyck's question about the dress by replying, "Oh, I fiddled with the idea one summer but it was over by fall." I really felt sorry for the old maid.

Such a simple scene but it really packs a whallop for me as do so many other scenes, making this movie a real treat.

[–] noveltylibrary 18 years ago

Agreed that was a sad moment. I finally saw this movie tonight on TCM...I really liked it. I absolutely adore Stanwyck and MacMurray as a couple...they are magic onscreen. I will have to find their other movies (besides DI which I've seen and love).

[–] 18 years ago

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[–] scout-47 18 years ago

Yes, a sad and touching scene.

[–] 18 years ago

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[–] dvbar1 16 years ago

The paper said Roosevelt(Ted) not running for third term so it must be around 1908 about 30 years before the movie takes place.

[–] laxlon 16 years ago

It was a wonderful scene in a movie full of wonderful scenes. Elizabeth Patterson was wonderful and I just looked her up in IMDB. She was born in the 1870s and died in 1966. Her last listed appearance is on a TV episode of The Barbara Stanwyck Show" in 1961. I think it's kind of sweet the 2 of them got together again.

[–] jreedha 15 years ago

I know how you-all feel - it's a wistful scene. But her actual line (I'm paraphrasing, but closely) was "Oh, I fiddled around with the idea one summer - but I was alright again by fall." That line lets you know that it was her choice completely. She decided she didn't want marriage, however appealing the notion or how much society pressured her. That's the amazing, subtle beauty of that scene - illuminating the heart of a secondary player that way. That one sentence that informs us of an entire lifetime, is one of those precious movie moments that makes this movie precious.

Elizabeth Patterson went on to play Mrs. Trumbull in the I Love Lucy series. When I watched it has a child I thought she must have been 100 at least.

[–] joes119-1 15 years ago

I disagree. We handle bitter disappointments exactly that way, by pretending otherwise. That she kept the letters is the basis of that opinion.

Personally, relationships that I'm glad ended in the trash are joined there by their reminders. It's enough that I know I might have been a damn fool once but no one else need ever know so out go the letters.

[–] ad1965 15 years ago

I agree. She dismisses the memory offhandedly, but the fact that she kept the letters -- and the dress -- and her reaction at opening the bundle, reveal the truth.

[–] liscarkat (19418) 6 years ago

"That line lets you know that it was her choice completely. She decided she didn't want marriage, however appealing the notion or how much society pressured her."

Nonsense. That is a specious early 21st century point of view being imposed on a 1940 movie character who is referring to an event that took place thirty or more years earlier. She was obviously fully immersed in the romance of her long-ago engagement, as indicated by the letters she had saved and her wistful look and tone. Marriage wasn't imposed on her by society, and she didn't decide against it. The loss of that relationship was the tragedy of her life.

[–] karmala2 10 years ago

They were so beautifully tied and bundled away, I hated the fact that she disturbed them after 30 or 40 years. If I were the Barbara Stanwyck character, I would have insisted she not open them.

P.S. I got the impression that she was jilted, or that maybe he died somehow, and that is why she dismissed it, yet kept the letters.

I told you a million times not to talk to me when I'm doing my lashes!

[–] sksolomonb 9 years ago

I agree with your idea that the fiance' died somehow -- from natural causes, in a war, or in an accident. However, I disagree with another poster who said, "The letters go out," because I kept love letters from the Vietnam era for historical value.