I remember feeling the same warmth from another gem released the same year, The Shop Around the Corner, directed by Ernest Lubitsch and starring Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullavan. It is one of the most charming examples of the sleek, sexy wit that critics like to call the "Lubitsch Touch".
Though both movies focus on a romancing couple, rich supporting casts surround them. There is both a feeling of family and a yearning for the sort of unconditional love family can offer running through them. The holiday settings make the character's desires for sympathetic company even more intense.
Remember the Night begins in a jewelry shop, where a woman (Stanwyck) steals a diamond bracelet. She is caught, and it is not the first time. She goes to court, where the long-winded defense ends up postponing her trial until after Christmas.
A bailiff with a dirty mind delivers Stanwyck to assistant DA MacMurray's apartment. At first he wants to get rid of her, but when he discovers they're both Hoosiers, he offers to take her home to Indiana for the holidays. When Stanwyck receives a cold greeting from her mother, MacMurray invites her to spend the holidays with his family.
In MacMurray's childhood home, Stanwyck is warmly welcomed. There MacMurray's mother, aunt and brother (played by Beulah Bondi, Elizabeth Patterson and Sterling Holloway respectively) live together. She watches their warm interaction longingly and is grateful to vicariously enjoy their happiness. When the family presents her with some impromptu gifts, she is nearly overcome.
When Bondi learns of the trouble that Stanwyck has gotten herself into, she becomes concerned about her blooming romance with MacMurray. When she confronts Stanwyck with her fears, she is gentle, and clearly only trying to preserve her son's happiness. Stanwyck realizes that she has only been a temporary part of this family, and she withdraws, rather than harming these people she admires. Of course, Stanwyck and MacMurray are bound to be together by end, but there is plenty of suspense as to how they form their own family.
The Shop Around the Corner also takes place around the Christmas season. The most of the action takes place in a small notions store in Budapest. There Margaret Sullavan and Jimmy Stewart play constantly feuding coworkers who are also unknowingly pen pals in a lonely hearts club.
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