Une nuit inoubliable

I have really enjoyed watching this fun murder mystery with Loretta Young and Brian Ahern. Not high drama or suspense but more a of comedy murder mystery. From Hollywoods golden era and they just don't make them like this anymore. Loretta Young was always very watchable and this role is no exception. Brian Ahern had a comedic flair that comes through in this flick. The two of them are wonderful together and the husband and wife banter is delightful. The rest of the cast includes some of Hollywoods best character actors in solid support of the stars. It is just great fun to watch and these kind of films are, in my opinion, what made the Golden Era of motion pictures so great. Hope you all enjoy.

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.

This is not to be confused with the 1958 film, the definitive film version of the 1912 Titanic disaster, of the same name. The two couldn't be more different in pretty much every way. Getting that quickly out of the way, there were a couple of reasons for wanting to see 1942's 'A Night to Remember'. Being somebody that loves it when films mix comedy and mystery, many classic examples of this, and somebody that finds Loretta Young more than watchable.

Something she absolutely is here, more than that even. There are films that do do quite a bit better at mixing comedy and mystery, to me 'A Night to Remember' doesn't execute either perfectly and is far from perfect as an overall film. 'A Night to Remember' is still worth watching, as it is a mostly entertaining, well photographed and intriguing film that has a good cast on paper that all deliver in their own way (even if all have done better).

A lot is done right in 'A Night to Remember'. It may not be a "lavish" film but there is nothing cheap-looking about the production values either. The photography is done with a good deal of style and there is a moodiness to the lighting. The music has atmosphere and didn't seem too light to me. The direction is not exactly exceptional or distinguished, but it's far from slack, it opens up the action enough and keeps things moving nicely.

Furthermore there are a fair share of very amusing parts, not of the witty kind but in an endearingly silly and not peurile sort of way. The dialogue raises a smile, is tight and is intriguing. There is a solid mystery that goes at a generally decent clip and is not obvious or simplistic thanks to some neat turns. It keeps one guessing and has some tension that balances solidly enough with the humour generally. Young has a lot of fun in her role and is a lot of fun herself, with a natural charm, determination and good comic timing. Brian Aherne has the more difficult role, and brings grit and charisma without taking it too seriously. They may not be William Powell and Myrna Loy in terms of chemistry, but they do make for a good pairing. The supporting cast are all good too, Gale Sondergaard deserved a lot more screen-time but she does wonders with what she has.

However, a few of the gags did fall flat as a result of being over-exposed to the point of tedium, being lacking in variety and being quite cheesy (like with the turtle). The ending did strike me as rather rushed and lacking in excitement.

Not all the pacing is quite there, with some of the material feeling over-stretched.

Overall, fun and worthwhile if not great. 7/10