A Night to Remember (1942)

Please don't spend money on this.

How sad is this?

Good concept, poorly executed.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

If we may get a couple misconceptions about A Night To Remember out of the way --1) In spite of what a gaggle of monkey-read-monkey-write critics have said, A Night To Remember bears little resemblance to The Thin Man series. The couple in this picture are not rich like Nick and Nora Charles, but of modest means at best. They are renting a seedy basement flat in Greenwich Viliage, not plush Park Avenue digs like the Charleses. They are not alcoholics like Nick and Nora. They do not have a dog. Nick was boozy, but not bumbling like the amateur sleuth here. He was an ex-cop, and a tough and very competent one, not a wimpy mystery writer playing detective.2) Those who ordered a DVD of this picture thinking it was going to be the 1958 British docudrama about the Titanic disaster of the same title perhaps need a reading comprehension course as much as a writing course before embarking on the perilous path of spinning movie reviews. No doubt it would likewise be helpful if such persons would limit their consumption of alcoholic beverages while ordering DVD's.A Night To Remember is a sparkling screwball comedy/mystery with the requisite goofy hero and goofy heroine, played with brilliant incompetence by Brian Aherne and Loretta Young. The goofy cops are led by a de-Orientalized Sidney Toler sporting the same Chan dead-pan, a ridiculously wide Fedora, and a wise-cracking, trigger-happy Donald McBride as number one assistant. The supporting cast rounds up the usual suspects of nicely sinister supporting players, including Gale Sondergaard, Cy Kendall, and Blanche Yurka. Expertly directed by Richard Wallace with perfect pacing and timing, beautifully filmed by Joseph Walker, cleverly scored by Werner R. Heymann, and wonderfully acted by the entire cast. Aherne and Ms. Young both had a fine touch for comedy in spite of what the wags have said. Be aware that the effete left-wing literati and their film class graduate toadies who dominate movie reviews on this site and elsewhere have it out for Loretta Young because of her good Catholic girl conservatism. They will unfairly denigrate her performances and her pictures at every chance.Witty, breezy, glossy, hilarious, engaging, entertaining, and perfectly charming, a delight from beginning to end, A Night To Remember represents Old Hollywood Comedy in peak form.

In this quaint, serviceable comedy, a mystery writer and his wife move into a basement apartment at 13 Gay Street in Greenwich Village. The whole house has a sinister air and the other tenants seem hostile and frightened. The discovery of a murdered body outside the couple's back door doesn't help the atmosphere.What this film really is is a knock-off of the popular 'Thin Man' series starring William Powell and Myrna Loy. 'A Night to Remember' tries to reproduce the witty banter and screwball crime solving done so wonderfully in those films, and it is only somewhat successful.Young and Aherne have good chemistry, and the supporting actors are all game, but most of the humor is forced, and the mystery, taking a backseat to the comic antics, is only somewhat intriguing and borders on implausible. The cinematography is pretty good, making the dark shadows of the apartment sinister, but the entire production reeks from budget constraints and looks cheap.If you've seen the brilliant first three 'Thin Man' films, don't bother with this one. You've already seen the best and you'll be disappointed here. However, if you haven't seen them yet, check this out, and then rent 'The Thin Man' movies and you'll appreciate them so much more.

Pithy, breezy knock-off of "The Thin Man", here with mystery writer Brian Aherne solving the murder of man near his Greenwich Village rental with help from fluttery, eternally-game spouse Loretta Young. The pieces of this comically convoluted set-up are almost impossible to put together on one's own, and the Columbia back-lot provides a samey visual look throughout the picture which feels cheap. Aherne, with his upper-class diction and chipper chit-chat, works hard at his double-takes and pratfalls; Young works even harder at playing the feminine sidekick. Neither star is embarrassing, and in fact are superior to the material. Gale Sondegaard stands out in an otherwise weak supporting cast. A product of its time, and probably dated already in '43. ** from ****

This wasn't as good as advertised, at least in my opinion. It was still fairly entertaining.This movie was a "Thin Man" wannabe with a husband-and-wife team (Brian Aherene and Loretta Young, romancing, making smart remarks and solving a murder mystery.Some of the remarks might have been funny or clever 65 years ago but they appear dated and not as good today. And, all the "darlings" mouthed during the film got annoying. It sounds so affected nowadays.It wasn't a big-name cast but it was an interesting one with the always-mysterious Gale Sondegaard and Sidney Toler of Charlie Chan fame. Others were Jeff Donnell, William Wright, Donald McBride, Lee Patrick, Don Costello and Richard Gaines.It might have been "A Night To Remember" but it wasn't a movie to remember.