A Night to Remember (1942)

A Night to Remember (1942) Brian Aherne, Loretta Young (and Sydney Toler shows up as Inspecor Hankins) Mystery & SuspenseHam-handed tone. Rated *** but I think that's two stars too many.Aherne, an Errol Flynn clone, a mystery author, tries valiantly (and fails) to overcome bad script. Loretta Young same. I just don't remember her being such a novice actor.Even the incidental music is too light, wrong tone IMO. Befits a comedy.The mystery aspect is okay. Toler shows up as hard-nosed police inspector after a dead body is found in our couple's apartment. (The TV guide says "apartment" but actually it was the backyard.)Toler comes across as an extra-crabby Charlie Chan.This movie is really not done very well, I don't know how it rated ***. It's just clumsy and inept in tone, shifting to comedy often, overly broad, tries too hard and poorly acted & directed IMO. There's a difference between wonderfully unintentionally campy and intentionally exaggerated and manipulative.

Night to Remember, A (1942) *** (out of 4)Pretty entertaining mystery/comedy has a wife (Loretta Young) renting a basement apartment so that her mystery writing husband (Brian Aherne) can get some inspirations. They gets a lot more than that when they discover a dead body in their back yard and the husband is the main suspect. This film has a lot of people ranking it as one of the best of the genre but I think that's a tad bit too much praise for it even though it's still a pretty good little movie. The film starts off on a quick pace but I found the screenplay started to drag as it went along and one could also say the film is the tale of two halves as the first part tries to do comedy with the second focusing more on the actual mystery. The two really don't mix well together because the comedy in the first half is so over the top that you really don't pay too much attention to solving the mystery and then when that becomes the main focus, you have to ask yourself what was up with the type of comedy they were going after. Just take a look at the scenes following the body being discovered. We get both Young and Aherne fainting because they think the other is the dead person. Fine, it gets a laugh but it's also so over the top that you're really not building any mystery up nor do you care. How many "old dark house" movies has someone laid a candle down only to have it move? Well here we get that again but a pretty fun reason for it moving. With that type of laugh it's hard to get the "drama" to work a split second later. I personally think the two genres can mix quite well, just look at HOLD THAT GHOST, but it doesn't work well here. Both Young and Aherne turn in good performance but I think you can look at them and see that they're trying to force several of the jokes. The supporting players include the then Charlie Chan himself Sidney Toler, Lee Patrick and Gale Sondergaard. Fans of the genre or the cast will certainly want to check this out but it's not nearly as good as some would have you believe.

Loretta Young and Brian Aherne have "A Night to Remember" in this 1943 film about a couple that moves into a Greenwich Village apartment which turns out to be full of murder and mayhem. It sports an interesting supporting cast, including Sidney Toler of "Charlie Chan" fame, Lee Patrick, Gale Sondergaard, and Jeff Donnell.First of all, much as I liked this film, I'll go on record as saying that I can't believe Loretta Young was so anxious to get out of 20th Century Fox if this is the best anyone could come up with for her. Columbia wasn't at the top of the heap anyway, and this seems like a throwaway even for them. It's very light fare.Young and Aherne play the Troys, who move into a basement apartment at 13 Gay Street in Greenwich Village. Besides the cast, this is the main reason I liked this film. I used to live a couple of blocks from Gay Street, and 12 Gay Street is where the sisters in "My Sister Eileen" lived. In the '50's and early '60's, #10 Gay Street was home to Alice Ghostley, and her husband Felice Orlandi. Neighbors on another floor were Bea Arthur & Gene Saks. Close friend Paul Lynde was across the street at 123 Waverly Place, and Kaye Ballard was close by on 5th Ave. They all just walked to work at the Bon Soir, when they played that room.Tired and hungry, the Troys go out to dinner. They run into a friend of Nancy Troy's, Virginia (Donnell) who acts strangely. When Nancy goes into a phone booth, she hears someone setting up a meeting in her apartment! Strange goings on indeed. And when they find a co-diner at the restaurant dead in their backyard, things become stranger yet."A Night to Remember" moves quickly enough, and it's delightful, but probably a little miscast. Someone a little wackier than the stunning Young might have a better choice for the wife. Aherne, a very good actor, isn't quite at home in this milieu either. "A Night to Remember" resembles "Footsteps in the Dark" with Errol Flynn. Aherne was a better actor, but Flynn had a lighter touch and more charm. Alas, I think Aherne spent a lot of time in Flynn's shadow.I still love the movie despite its problems. Vintage 1943 - nothing wrong with that.

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.