"Remember the Night"

Well, it’s only the Fifth Day of Christmas and we savored the last of the boiled custard this evening — m u s t make more tomorrow…

Always nice to chance upon something new during the holidays and today I watched “Remember the Night” (1939) with Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray. It’s usually so tiresome when Hollywood gets preachy, but when it’s the Gospel (and not their politics du jour), it can be timeless. There are some genuinely moving moments. Lee’s vulnerable moments elevate the film and the rejection by her “mother” adds a real sting. John’s mother pushed me away a little bit, too, though, at the end of the visit with her shallow, petty mothering; but she has the best line of the film after she reminds her son earlier and says, it wasn’t she that corrected his childhood trespass: “No, dear. It was love that made you understand.”

But what great silhouette shots of the two of them at Niagara Falls and the classic lines… The ending was unexpected, but certainly appropriate — thoroughly entertaining film!

We also watched “White Christmas” this evening — WHO can watch this film and not smile ear to ear in the dance numbers?! Irving Berlin’s music is iconic: “The Best Things Happen While You’re Dancing,” “Sisters,” “Count Your Blessings,” “Love, You Didn’t Do Right By Me,” and, of course, “White Christmas”…

And then we watched this year’s “Carols from King’s College,” which was rather lack luster, we’re sorry to say. I want to root for Daniel Hyde, but the balance was simply off and the tenors / countertenors? often distort the sound. But the church was beauteous (to use Karon’s Uncle Billy’s word) as always in the gradually darkening twilight. Thanks be to God.