Remember the Night (1940) – Rewatch

Fred MacMurray is is a New York assistant District Attorney who takes small-time crook Barbara Stanwyck to their joint home state of Indiana instead of letting her sit in jail over the holidays. In all of their films, I love the chemistry between Stanwyck and MacMurray. They are particularly strong here where she is the tough-as-nails ‘bad’ girl who has rarely been shown kindness and he’s the honest-to-a-fault good guy. MacMurray’s family farm setting, where family isn’t just a nuclear unit but includes his widowed mother, a matronly aunt, and a simple-minded cousin, makes me nostalgic for my own family Christmases where everyone who needed a place to go was welcome for the holiday.