Redemption in “Remember the Night”

That one’s past does not determine one’s future, but it also does not excuse one’s present choices is the profound message of Remember the Night. Starring Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray, this lesser-known classic speaks to a society today that tends to fall into the trap of excusing behavior because of victimization or assuming that one’s past fatalistically determines the outcome of a person’s life.

Set between Christmas and New Year, Remember the Night is the story of Lee Leander, played by Barbara Stanwyck, and John Sargent, portrayed by Fred MacMurray. It opens with Lee getting caught hocking a bracelet that she has stolen. Fearing that a jury will go easy on a woman during the holidays, John, the state’s assistant district attorney, gets her trial postponed, but then feeling guilty that Lee will have to stay in prison during the holidays, he bails her out and, upon discovering they are both from Indiana, offers to drive her to her mother’s on the way to his home.

It becomes clear that Lee is not remorseful for her crimes. In fact, she is quite proud of herself. This is not the first time she has been caught stealing, and each time, she has gotten off on various technicalities. Her ability to game the system is a source of pride, and this attitude is reflected in a rise in crime happening today. Whether it is turnstile jumping, theft, or any number of actions that people take to cheat a system they see as oppressive. While many feel such exploitation makes them monetarily richer, a society that accepts this behavior produces bad citizens and leaves people spiritually poorer.  Likewise, Lee had experienced a hard life, and she felt perfectly comfortable engaging in theft to advance her situation.

John Sargent is the opposite of Lee. He came from a poor family but worked his way to his current position. Their difference in attitudes is illustrated in one of their early conversations. Upon getting John to admit that he would steal bread if he were starving, Lee proudly responds, “That’s because you’re honest. You see, I’d have a six-course dinner at a fancy restaurant across the street and then say I forgot my purse. Get the difference?”

Upon returning home, Lee finds her mother unwelcoming and unable to forgive her. Her mother makes it clear that she does not love her daughter and sees her as beyond redemption. John takes Lee home with him, and, to her surprise, his family is the gracious loving home that she never experienced. Despite knowing that Lee will be on trial for theft, John’s mother welcomes her. Interestingly, John’s family falls into neither of the aforementioned pitfalls. They don’t treat Lee as though she is incapable of change and recognize the damaging effect of a childhood without love. Her behavior is also not excused, not treated as though it is acceptable because of trauma and hardship.

By loving Lee, they help her to transform, although she must choose to accept this transformation. By seeing her not only as she is but as the person she has the potential to be and showing her the life that is possible for those who live honestly and lovingly, they encourage her desire to change. Lee and John fall in love, and at the movie’s climax when she realizes that John is trying to throw the trial to save her, rather than proudly beating the system one more time, she stops him. Doing so requires great sacrifice on her part, but she has changed. Her repentance does not mean that she is free from all consequences, but something far greater has happened to her.

When society treats people as though their past excuses current wrongs, it fails to treat them with the dignity that persons deserve. To act as though certain people should not be treated as moral agents because they had a difficult past is to put them in a separate class in society, condemning them as being incapable of change. Rather than being compassionate, it is cruel. It is the responsibility of the government to faithfully execute justice. It is the duty of persons to walk alongside each other and help one another realize the possibility of redemption. This is the grand alternative that the Gospel provides to counter the world’s failed attempts at compassion.

Through Christ, all are offered redemption. Part of redemption is sanctification, the hope and promise that who we are today is not final, but that Christ will work in us to make us like Himself. To act as though some persons are incapable of receiving this is to deny them the full hope of the Gospel. No one is beyond redemption, and, through Christ, there is the secure hope that our pasts do not define our future.