MovieChat Forums > Remember the Night (1940) Discussion > SPOILERS! Code enforced ending? or horri...

SPOILERS! Code enforced ending? or horrible fumble in the final seconds?


WOW! I was enjoying this film all the way until the last few minutes.. then something happened. Stanwyck's character plead guilty! right when MacMurray is about to throw the case and help her get off with no time so that they can get married and be together Stanwyck tells the judge "uhhh derrr I wanna plead GUILTY" ok so I added the derrr part but why would she do this? It changes this ALMOST great romance movie into one of those Warner "Crime does not pay" shorts. I mean either make a crime does not pay piece or a romantic comedy. Its like Hitchcock said about building tension and releasing tension and the "one mistake" he made in the 30s when he had a bus blow up, Hitch said "show two people talking and tell the audience there is a bomb under the seat and it will go off in so many minutes, then you have them talk baseball... and the audience is saying don't talk baseball there's a bomb under the seat get out get out.... but one important thing, the bomb must never go off.." I may not be word for word on the quote but it is extremely close and the point being do not make a romantic comedy and then instead of having the two leads end up together as we all know they will and are expecting them to, you have the girl go to jail to prove her love for MacMurray's career??WTH!

So my question is to other movie nuts and cineasts , was it the director or studio/producers choice to do that (AWFUL!) ending? or was it because of code enforcement?

Anyway Remember The Night was a fun watch until the last 3 or 4 minutes, sad that such a good romantic comedy was ended that way (imo).






Here are just a few of my favorites from my collection:

-Citizen Kane - Orson Welles (1941)
-Casablanca - Michael Curtiz(1943)
-The Third Man - Carol Reed (1949)
-Seven Samurai - Akira Kurosawa(1954)
-Touch of Evil - Orson Welles (1958)
-Rules of The Game - Jean Renoir (1939)
-Vertigo - Alfred Hitchcock (1958)
-Double Indemnity - Billy Wilder (1944)
-The Naked City - Jules Dassin
-400 Blows - Francois Truffaut (1959)
-The Grand Illusion - Jean Renoir (1937)
-8 1/2 - Federico Fellini (1963)
-The Seventh Seal - Ingmar Bergman (1957)
-Kiss Me Deadly - Robert Aldrich (1955)
-The Magnificent Ambersons - Orson Welles (1942)
-The Red Shoes - Powell & Pressburger (1948)
-Gaslight - George Cukor (1944)
-The Naked Kiss - Samuel Fuller (1964)
-Experiment In Terror - Blake Edwards (1962)
-The Black Narcissus - Powell & Pressburger (1946)
-Charade - Stanley Donen (1963)
-The Maltese Falcon - John Houston (1941)
-Now Voyager - Irving Rapper (1942)
-Sunset Blvd. - Billy Wilder (1950)
-The Big Sleep - Howard Hawks (1946)
-All About Eve - Joe Mankiewicz (1950)
-North By Northwest - Alfred Hitchcock (1959)
-The Trial - Orson Welles (1962)
-Laura - Otto Preminger (1944)
-The Lost Weekend - Billy Wilder (1945)
-The Lady Eve - Preston Sturges (1941)
-Night of The Hunter - Charles Laughton (1955)
-The Searchers - John Ford (1956)
-On The Waterfront - Elia Kazan (1954)
-Battleship Potemkin - Sergei Eisenstein (1925)
-The General - Buster Keaton (1927)
-Breathless - Jean-Luc Godard (1959)
-The Big Heat - Fritz Lang (1953)
-Sweet Smell Of Success - Alexander Mackendrick (1957)
-L'Atalante - Jean Vigo (1934)
-Metropolis - Fritz Lang (1927)
-Out Of The Past - Jacques Tourneur (1947)
-Mr. Arkadin - Orson Welles (1955)
-Rear Window - Alfred Hitchcock (1954)
-The Killers - Robert Siodmak (1946)
-The Lady From Shanghai - Orson Welles (1947)
-Ace In The Hole - Billy Wilder (1951)
-Brute Force - Jules Dassin


one of the films I mention from my collection is The Lady Eve, (Thanks Criterion for such great dvds!I have 216 of their dvd and blu rays so far and I highly recommend them. cant wait for Anatomy of a Murder and David Lean directs Noell Coward in March!). Anyway The Lady Eve is a perfect example of how the couple go back and forth but in the end of a good romantic comedy Stanwyck does not go to jail! Well again I would like to know how other classic movie fans feel about the ending of Remember The Night. Happy Holidays!

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I don't know if there was ever a different ending in play, but judging from the rest of the film I would say it was always designed to end that way.

For me, the beauty of Sturges' script is that the fanciful elements of the plot are peppered here and there with darkness and, for lack of a better word, realism (compartive realism, like the scene where they drop by Stanwyck's mother's home, for instance) and I think it's a great feel-bad ending. Not a moralizing ending, but one that I think is true to the characters. I think there's such a divide between Stanwyck and MacMurray's characters that she doesn't think can ever really be bridged, so she lets him off the hook in more ways than one at the end - a little bit of sacrifice mixed with self-sabotage.

I'm watching the movie again tonight so I'll look at it with that angle in mind and possibly get back to the topic, but I always found the ending a great, staggering slight of hand. Them not ending up together makes everything that came before that much more potent. How many romantic comedies ended with everything working out perfectly? Almost all of them. Not even Billy Wilder had the cajones to have the romance fall apart in the final minutes of his lighter films. The fact that Sturges (for I can only presume it was him) was able to have that ending play is astounding. If anything, I would assume that the studio, Leisen and the possibly the actors might have pulled for it to go in a more traditional direction. For me it's what elevates the film, rather than what deflates it. It's not the ending we want, but that would've been too easy, I think.

Your list has so many great, downbeat movies with complex resolutions - I think Remember the Night fits into it perfectly.

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Well I think the reason I was let down with the ending (enjoyed the entire film except for last few minutes) is because the film comes across as a romantic comedy in which the viewer just knows or expects the MacMurray character and Stanwyck's character to end up together in the end. So its like it masquerades itself as one thing and then switches to something else entirely.. I think it may have worked better if they had made this switch earlier on in the film.

However I did enjoy reading your post and I do see what you are saying.. I love movies like Now Voyager that have as you say downbeat endings, but one expects in Now Voyager for Bette D. and Paul H. to not be able to be together in the end although it is what we want. Same with Casablanca is I guess the best example of a movie where the audience thinks the couple may end up together or that maybe they should, and then they do not end up together because there is a Much better cause of working towards peace. So maybe it works for me in Casablanca and Now Voyager because they have a "greater good cause" that keeps the couple from being together that far outshines one going to jail. Now don't take me wrong I have many old school and christian values of doing the right thing, the golden rule etc etc. but having Stanwyck confess and having her end up a martyr going off to jail are two different things. All this being said I believe Remember The Night will remain in my collection and now that I know the films true identity I feel I will appreciate it in a new way on future viewing.


Thanks for your response. Hope you have a Merry Christmas!

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Well I think the reason I was let down with the ending (enjoyed the entire film except for last few minutes) is because the film comes across as a romantic comedy in which the viewer just knows or expects the MacMurray character and Stanwyck's character to end up together in the end. So its like it masquerades itself as one thing and then switches to something else entirely..


They DO end up together (if you're an optimist, at least!) He says he'll wait for her... Their happiness is just deferred. I actually think it's MORE romantic, this way; they're both willing to sacrifice for one another.






"Your mother puts license plates in your underwear? How do you sit?!"

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i guess she 'can handle the truth!'


Season's Greetings!

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"Not a moralizing ending, but one that I think is true to the characters."

Is is true to character? I'm not convinced. It seemed to me that the Stanwyck character evolved just a little too much in the course of two weeks. At the start she's quite comfortable with her venal way of life, and at the end her behavior is exquisitely scrupulous. Of course, we do learn through various scenes that she's really a good girl. It's almost underlined how the force of upbringing is what shapes the difference between MacMurray's and Stanwyck's lives. Maybe part of my problem is also that it's hard for me to accept that MacMurray's prosecutorial behavior in the final court scene is so off-base that it's potentially career-damaging.

Anyway, it's a curious ending to a wonderful movie, so I'm pleased to find a discussion of it here.

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I thought the ending was perfect. For one thing, I always viewed the movie as a romantic drama with some comedy thrown in, not a romantic comedy. Anyway, I think the whole theme/action of the movie pointed to that ending -- that she not ruin Mac Murray's career, and that if he were to risk his career to marry her, he should be given time alone to consider all the ramifications.

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I too must agree that the unexpected ending added to the overall quality of the film. It wasn't as warm and fuzzy as many would expect but it alluded to her underlying darkness that still was present and couldn't be erased after just a few days in a warm family's embrace.

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You're right, it was realistic for her to sabotage her own happy ending, so to speak.



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It does seem like a code enforced ending. For me the film ended in the car before they got to the courthouse, because that's when Lee seemed sure she wasn't interested in having John throw the case or anything. Up until then, as you said it was an enjoyable film and it made sense. There's no real resolution when we see The End on the screen. Considering Lee was nearly legally acquitted anyway before Christmas, they should've been allowed to follow through on that at the end.



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Considering Lee was nearly legally acquitted anyway before Christmas, they should've been allowed to follow through on that at the end.

There is no way that would have flown under the Production Code at the time. Crime HAD to be punished. Depicting courtroom maneuvering succeeding in getting an acquittal for someone who is unambiguously guilty within the movie (from the audience point of view) was *not* something that the Code would have allowed as an ending (maybe as an intermediate plot point when everybody will be caught in the end; including the one "bad apple" cop / DA / judge who threw the first trial, since the courts couldn't be shown to fail under any normal circumstance).

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If only there hadn't been that goddamn code! I'd have ended it with the judge giving her a suspended sentence and then marrying them.

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The way I look at it is that Lee didn't want to "sully" Jack by accepting his deliberate attempt to provoke the jury into hating him to get her acquitted. His love for her, the example shown by his family over the holidays, made her want to be a better person. After Jack's mom tells her how hard he worked to make it, how they had nothing after his father died, it makes her realize that the life of crime she resorted to is shabby and she is unworthy of him. He has always been upstanding and honest. The chance to plead guilty, to go to jail, to redeem herself, is what will make her "square," as she says, and if he still wants her after she has paid her dues, well, the door is open for that.

I don't see it as a tacked-on ending to conform to Code regulations. If we had seen nothing of Jack's mom's explanation, the look on Lee's face after, the hardening of her expression as she gets up to go to the mirror to flippantly (and ferociously) brush her hair, while acting all tough, I may have believed the ending was a Code pandering to the chestnut that people cannot benefit from crime. From what we saw, though, I think the ending reflected perfectly Lee's change of character. And also, I like to think Jack went to the judge and explained things before the sentencing, so that she didn't spend three years in the clink.

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I agree completely, Lady Jane. The Bondi/Stanwyck scene set it up perfectly and the dues cost to join a loving family was a bargain at half the minimum.

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It was probably the only ending that would have been allowed by the code- but I think it is a hopeful ending. I prefer hopeful to forced happy endings as they are more realistic.

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I remember somewhere Sturges, the author, said, "Love redeemed her, and corrupted him." Yes - the ending conforms to the code, but that is almost beside the point.






Nihil sanctum estne?"

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Strange -- the ending was set up by his mom talking to her and even earlier when his mom noted he stole money once & went out of his way to repay it once he realized -- thanks to her love -- it was wrong. Her accepting her guilt, after falling in love, was set up long before.

My only beef with the film was the over the top moronic black servant "comic relief." I realize the racist norms of the era, but I have seen other films from then, and that was just a little over the top even by many films those days.

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Putting aside the thought that the Code dictates the ending, and maybe it did or was always in Sturges' mind as he wrote, I do t think the film could've ended any other way because of what iccurred at John's mother's house.

John's mother's discussion with Lee about how hard John had to work to get where he was gets to Lee, and she sees what would occur if John was allowed to "throw" the case (as was predicted by the judge, who saw John and Lee together t the restaurant after the first courtroom scene) - his reputation would be forever damaged. I also believe that Lee gleaned from her conversation with his mother, and from her discussion with John about her gbetting off scot free, a way for her to "earn" the good things that could be hers if she and John were married. In fact, she sees that's the ONLY way for it to really mean anything, and/or for those involved to see that John really meant something to her. It was self-sacrifice. And she also knows that John is so blinded by live that he couldn't see what he was about to do to his career, or that it was to show his willingness to sacrifice for Lee as well. By Lee knows the only way is for her to pay for we crime, to be "square", and at the same time, for John To be sure he wanted To marry her, by giving him time for infatuation to subside, and for John to see whether or not he really loves her or not.

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Yes, we can imagine that the writer was restrained by the times, but the ending was not "tacked on" or "forced" in the way I took the opening post to suggest. It followed naturally from the overall story.

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the ending was not "tacked on" or "forced" ....It followed naturally from the overall story.
Yep, I would agree with you, jmatrix. In addition, that final passionate clinch between Stanwyck & MacMurray really does telegraph an (eventual) old-fashioned Hollywood ending, prolonged just long enough to satisfy the censors, as well as audience members who like to suffer & sob a bit (along with the characters) for their love !

Finally, yes, I also agree, the character Snowflake was played much too foolishly for my taste -- here, and in "The Palm Beach Story" (with the bartender on the train), I think that Sturges went too far by portraying African Americans as ignorant, foolish, or defenseless, even if he may have been trying to mock Hollywood's conventional portrayals of them.

"The Talk of the Town" (1942), "Sahara" (1943) and "Christmas in Connecticut" (1945) all had much more positive portrayals of African-Americans in American society, or else of Africans interacting with Americans (as in "Sahara").

J'ai l'œil AMÉRICAIN !

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Oh, I don't know. I like to look at the film romantically and believe despite whatever jail time lies ahead, he'll wait for her. Though a lawyer marrying a criminal might not exactly ingratiate him to the law enforcement community. I think the film, though, does right by Stanwyck by having her address her wrongs and we see her evaluate her past and accept her failings like an adult. Through meeting MacMurray her life changed forever...and for the good.

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Of course the ending was required by the code. But Sturges was a brilliant writer at the top of his game and he knew the restrictions going in. He found IMHO a very romantic way to end the film. Both are willing to sacrifice for the other. I think, too, that Lee knew that the only way she could be worthy of him (in her own eyes) was to accept responsibility for what she did. There is no doubt in my mind that he'll be visiting her every chance he gets and he'll be waiting for her outside the jail when she is released.

A straight shooter like Sargent really has no other option. She gave up her freedom out of love for him. I think he would feel honor bound to be there for her. Whether the match works out in the long run who can say?

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The ending gave us CHARACTER GROWTH. It was perfect. Maybe ahead of its time for not doing a comical ending.

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