A Night to Remember

Sprightly comedy-mystery that holds up thanks mainly to Brian Aherne's expert fumbling with petty annoyances. All in all, he cooks roasts about as well as he opens doors, that is, not without considerable practice. He's supposed to be a mystery writer, but as a real-life sleuth, he's about as effective as an American Clouseau. I think I detect some subtle spoofing of the many amateur detectives of the period (Ellery Queen, The Saint, Boston Blackie, et. al.). And it doesn't hurt that Charlie Chan (Sydney Toler) turns up as a police inspector. Watch Jeff (Aherne) get decked in a fight, get about every clue wrong, get weak at the sight of a corpse, and generally behave like the anti-Sherlock. Good thing he's back- stopped by gorgeously competent wife Nancy (Loretta Young). As the charmingly inept Jeff, Britisher Aherne is simply superb, and, I would think, at the apex of his American career.

Also, it appears the concept may have started off as a stage play since the action is mainly confined to Jeff & Nancy's dingy apartment. However that may be, the supporting cast is a collection of lively and familiar faces, especially Hollywood's favorite dumb cop, rubber-faced Donald McBride (Bolling), along with the grandly smitten furniture mover James Burke. The fractured events all move at a sure-handed pace thanks to veteran comedy director Richard Wallace. My one complaint is that better use is not made of the best dragon-lady of the period, Gale Sondergaard (Mrs. Devoe), who's often sinister enough to scare the stitches off Frankenstein's neck. Here however she plays it fairly boring and straight. Anyway, it's a nifty little comedy with a good mix of laughs and chills, and I expect war-weary audiences of the day (1942) found it great escapist entertainment that holds up well, even today. (Also—be sure to catch the amusingly apt very last frame.)

I just saw this film for the tenth time. I enjoy Brian Ahern as the scatter brain murder mystery book writer who, with is wife, Loretta Young, move into a basement apartment of an apartment building where the tenants all live there because they are being blackmailed. The whole cast has solid character actors you've seen in so many other films. It is nice to see Lee Patrick as a café owner with out her high pitched voice that she later became known for. A dead man is found in their back yard, that they had seen while eating dinner the night before and the two start their own investigation as to who the man was and why is everyone being blackmailed. The story continues to move so easy through its 91 minutes that I was sorry to see it end.

I had never heard of this film until it popped up on Turner Classic Movies. So, I settled down one evening to view it and almost turned it off after the first 20 minutes. The plot...adequately described in other reviews here...is...well...sort of dumb with a number of inconsistencies. From my perspective, what makes this film worth watching, and what kept me watching are the performances and witty dialog. A somewhat wacky screwball comedy (of sorts) is not what I'm used to with Loretta Young, and I rather enjoyed her in this role. And, I'm not that familiar with Brian Aherne, but -- once you accept the absurdity of many plot aspects -- his performance is engaging. Much of the dialog between them can be described as "snappy", and perhaps a poor man's Nick and Nora. The dialog between Aherne and the cops -- who aren't as befuddled as Aherne suspects -- is often clever, too. You'll recognize a couple of the supporting actors, particularly Sidney Toler and Gale Sondergaard (rather restrained here and not half so evil as her roles often were), but I always enjoy watching Donald MacBridge -- the master of the "slow burn". Is this a great movie? No. But, given the limitations of the script, it's quite entertaining.

Wise-cracking cab-drivers who say "Thank you" for a 75-cents fare and gum-chewing waitresses bringing customers the $1.25 specials in a stable-themed Greenwich Village restaurant are clues that tell you that you're in the movieland of the '40s.

"A Night to Remember" is a screwball comedy/murder mystery made for a tired audience looking for not much more than a 90-minute break from war news. They got their quarter's worth. The leads are young and beguiling; the plot is nicely knotty; the dialogue is fast and furious; the humor is basic and wholesome; the styles, quaint though they may be to our jaundiced eyes, are up-to-the-minute (more fedoras than at a hat-makers convention; and most of the men sport identical little moustaches, making them at times indistinguishable); and the pratfalls are frequent and farcical.

But there's something more going on here.

The sun never seems to shine on narrow and twisting Gay Street in Gotham's Greenwich Village, at least at No. 13 - a dark and brooding walkup brownstone where every apartment apparently comes with hot and cold running terror and a corpse next door.

At least that what Brian Aherne and Loretta Young, as an attractive young couple just looking for a nice place to live, are about to find out in "A Night to Remember."...which offers up a scream about every three minutes. In this rowdy comedy mystery, the body count gets higher while the laughs keep adding up. Aherne and Young, as an addled and rattled husband and wife, can't even turn around in their apartment without something or somebody sinister dropping in.

Brian Aherne, a mystery novelist without a clue, and a stunning Loretta Young, who gets frightened very easily and shrieks rather nicely, have to pick their way through very menacing goings-on before they can settle in. But they find very quickly that they can't trust anybody in their new home, where your neighbor might well be as disturbing as a creaking floorboard at midnight or as quiet as somebody (or something) breathing heavily outside your door. What's worse is that a grumpy police inspector, played here by Sidney Toler (don't expect any quaint sayings), trusts neither Aherne nor Young.

As the young couple quickly discover, there are a great many secrets in this strange house, and the unnerving characters (played by a virtual graveyard shift of talented performers, including Jeff Donnell, Lee Patrick, Blanche Yurka and Gale Sondergaard) who show up at odd places and odd times aren't the sort of folks who share.

"A Night to Remember" may be forgettable, but it definitely is watchable and enjoyable. Director Richard Wallace keeps the suspense dialed on high. And veteran cinematographer Joseph Walker has a way of making a banister or a backyard or even a bathtub look like something from "House Baleful." (Forget about film noir. This is film dire!)

Bonus: Look for Brian Aherne's hilarious misadventures in a treacherous kitchen, where even an ordinary oven can turn into The Fiery Fiend From Hell. As you'll find out with delight, stalwart but suave Brian Aherne (some called him "the poor man's Errol Flynn") actually had a surprising gift for slapstick! And Loretta's later reputation for a sweet elegance is foreshadowed here. (No calm serenity here, though. That would come later.) Already a 25-year veteran of the movies, with more than EIGHTY films under her belt, the 30-year-old beauty easily matches Aherne for double takes and popped eyes and flapping hands and frozen stares and stammered warnings. And she's definitely a far better screamer.

From the Title, I expected to see yet another Titanic movie and was pleasurably surprised by this charmer. I love a good mystery story and a witty comedy mystery is always an extra pleasure. This is a delightful little Mystery/Comedy in the same genre as Topper Returns and The Ex-Mrs. Bradford: Both knock-offs of The Thin Man series.

Ms. Young and Mr. Aherne play a young married couple that move into a Greenwich Apartment to soak up atmosphere so he can write a Mystery novel. They find themselves involved in a real murder mystery which Briane Aherne sets out to solve himself so that he can write about it and thereby write a good murder mystery; as he explains to his wife, all his stories up to now have been "corny". It's not the mystery being clever that makes this such a good movie, but then The Thin Man movies are not known for their Mystery stories either; it is the byplay between the husband and wife that makes the movie so very enjoyable. It is the same with this movie, the Mystery is clever enough to keep you watching and the stars of the movie have charm and charisma aplenty to make this movie a real keeper.