Why did Sturges hate this film? - Remember the Night (1940) Discussion

[–] wmorrow59 15 years ago

Based on the various biographies of Sturges I don't believe he hated the film, but he was not happy it was given to Mitchell Leisen to direct. They'd clashed on Easy Living back in '37. Sturges felt that Leisen (who was a former costume designer) was more concerned with the look of the clothes and the sets than he was about the chemistry between the actors and the feel of the scenes. The executives who ran Paramount had been promising Sturges for years that they would allow him to direct his own scripts, and by 1940 he was champing at the bit, so that must have been frustrating.

Leisen did make some minor cuts in Sturges' script, and I'm sure he wasn't happy about it, but beyond that it's hard to say what Sturges would have done differently. The tempo might have been a little faster, and I gather he didn't think much of Fred MacMurray, so he might have cast someone else (like Joel McCrea?) in the male lead. Personally I think MacMurray is perfect for this role, but Sturges apparently didn't feel that way.

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[–] jackgriffin1-1 15 years ago

Thanks. Robert Osborne on TCM said he hated it. I'm glad McCrea wasn't in it. Speaking of which, I thought Henry Fonda was miscast in The Lady Eve. He just wasn't a screwball actor. Imagine Cary Grant in that role.

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[–] Danusha_Goska 15 years ago

Chemistry! Joel Maccrae was so sexless, even opposite Veronica Lake, and Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck have chemistry to burn!

FAN SURVEY! http://www.codypublishing.com/goska/filmsurvey.html

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[–] wlandolfi-1 15 years ago

I never heard that Preston Sturges "hated" this movie. Perhaps he did or did not. Also, I did not what he thought of Fred MacMurray's acting. However, I did read that Fred MacMurray had an intense dislike for Preston Sturges and that this was the only movie that the two of them ever worked on together.

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[–] Rheli 11 years ago

For me this movie was like tepid Sturges material. Or, I can see it trying to come out, but it just doesn't arrive. I can see Sturges disliking it; probably he had designed quite a few little bits to leaven things which the director omitted. I also have never been a MacMurray fan. He seems so bland and conventional, more second lead or TV material.

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[–] joes119-1 15 years ago

In Palm Beach Story he had the hunters aboard the train shoot up the club car with live loads. If he had to do Remember The Night over he'd probably have had the two armed yokels throw some lead around the sheriffs office.

What a sense of humor! Not.

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[–] freudified_n_funkified 13 years ago

What a sense of humor! Not.

Did you seriously do a "not" joke to denigrate the humor of Preston Sturges?

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[–] joes119-1 13 years ago

Yes, and I gave an example of what I considered to be an unfunny, except to yokels, shoot-up of a club car.

See his IMDB page for his own opinion: "A pratfall is better than anything." He appeals to a sense of humor that's really a phase out of which most of us grow.

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[–] freudified_n_funkified 13 years ago

You inadvertently made your own point - the humor did grow from that. I just don't see how you can take to task the entire comic sensibility of one of the screen's greatest practitioners of the genre for one scene you didn't find funny and a quote that's very much indicative of the times the man was operating in.

Sturges was always able to balance broad jokes with more sophisiticated, subtle comedy - but physical humor went part in parcel with the zany, character-based comedies of manners and farce that constituted screwball. You can't say he appeals to a certain phase when his humor, throughout his body of work, is so distinctly varied in it's range. And to do the "not" bit is tantamount to, like, insulting Billy Wilder's work with an "I know you are but what am I?"

And since when is the Quail and Gun Club going ape *beep* not funny?

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[–] nutsberryfarm 11 years ago

Season's Greetings!

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[–] donofthedial 14 years ago

PS would have made it too loud and too raucous.

Leisen did a great job.

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[–] gbennett5 13 years ago

Joes119 is a MORON. Sturges is, perhaps, our greatest comic screenwriter.
As for Cary Grant, he was nice to look at, possessed great comic timing,
is a screen legend, but he couln't ACT to save his life. Every Cary
Grant film is that - Cary Grant.

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[–] joes119-1 10 years ago

There's only one 'must see' film today from a Sturges script and it's this one. If he'd had anything more to do with it, it'd be forgotten as well.

The rest of his repertoire gets only the de rigueur genuflections of those folks wanting to change the subject to someone who cared about his audience.

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[–] mecormany 10 years ago

I'm not going to go as far as gbennett since I don't know you and you may be a very intelligent person otherwise, but when it comes to Preston Sturges, you have a major blind spot. One of the all-time great humor writers and directors. I love this movie but it's not one of his best works.

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[–] laxlon 13 years ago

I wish somebody had cut that opening courtroom scene down. I timed it and that windbag lawyer talked for 6 minutes of screen time, way too long.

Still one of my favorite films.

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[–] gbennett5 11 years ago

I agree - the film is near-perfect in its execution, but that early scene
with the lawyer is so looooooonnnnnnnng. It's enough to make a first-time
viewer change the channel or take out the DVD. It's generally funny, but
should've been much shorter.

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[–] Faust 11 years ago

Rewatching the film for the umpteenth time (and hopefully not the last), I was impressed by that lawyer for the first time - he's so enjoyably hammy that I don't mind the movie stopping for a few minutes to indulge him. It's even better when you learn that the actor, Willard Robertson, was a former lawyer who gave up the law for acting. It would seem he knows whereof he orates.

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[–] nutsberryfarm 10 years ago

great scene.

🎄Season's Greetings!🎁🎅🎄

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