Re “Remember the Night” (1939):

“Love blooms between a sympathetic attorney and the comely shoplifter he has taken home for the Christmas holiday” (imdb.com).

And so it does, in a script by Preston Sturges directed by Mitchell Leisen. Lee Leander (Barbara Stanwyck), the shoplifter, is a crook eventually ready to be reformed. Prosecutor John Sergent (Fred MacMurray) is good at his job but no blackguard. After paying Lee’s bail, he takes her to his hometown for Christmas and lodging; and like his mother and his aunt, he recognizes the shoplifter’s humanity (not hard to do). The hometown is in Indiana. The film is unsentimental about Middle America, just as it is about New York City; but it’s terrifically humane.

Some agreeable histrionic work goes on here, especially from Willard Robertson—vivid as Lee’s defense attorney. Except for its condescending attitude toward John’s black servant, “Night” is a quite nice tragic comedy, or rather pathos-comedy. There is no real tragedy here, and a few laughs can be had.