Mjeteconer
Just perfect...
ScoobyMint
Disappointment for a huge fan!
TrueHello
Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.
utgard14
Comedy-mystery about a murder following a night of hard partying from a group of young ne'er-do-wells. Fast-forward sixty years and this might feature people being eviscerated and a bouncy heroine in a revealing tank top running for her life. But these were (thankfully) simpler times so, instead, we get the great Edward Arnold coming in to investigate the case. It's one of those grand old "no one leaves the crime scene until I solve the case" murder mysteries, told with style and wit by the master of both, director James Whale.It's an enjoyable movie with a really good cast that includes Robert Young, Constance Cummings, Reginald Denny, Robert Armstrong, Edward Brophy, Jack La Rue, Rafaela Ottiano, George Meeker, and Sally Eilers, among others. But Eddie Arnold is the scene-stealer, as was almost always the case with him. The only reason I don't rate it higher is the "cute" gets old after awhile and I found myself wishing they would wrap it up about twenty minutes before they did. Still, worth a look for anyone who ever wondered what a murder mystery would be like if you filled the cast with characters from a screwball comedy. Also, I love the references to Bride of Frankenstein and Dracula's Daughter. The former was, of course, Whale's masterpiece. The latter was the movie Universal head Carl Laemmle, Jr. wanted Whale to direct. To get out of it, Whale pushed Laemmle to let him adapt a novel called The Hangover Murders. That became this film.
Alec Kitroeff
I saw this 1935 movie as a Greek twelve-year old in Alexandria, Egypt where I grew up, and I have never forgotten it -- because of the cast which contains many of my favorite actors and mainly Arthur Treacher (who is unjustly trashed by another of your reviewers). Ever since it became possible to own and view movies on VHS and DVD I have been trying to get a copy of this one but to no avail. I even sent IMDb an email asking if you could help me find it but got no reply. Then, lo and behold, I found it the other day on a web site entitled LovingtheClassics.com, on sale for $14.99. I ordered it immediately and have just enjoyed seeing it again after all these years. I am sending you this in case there are any other old codgers like me around and who might remember and want to see it again.Best regards, Alec Kitroeff
blanche-2
When a man is found murdered after a night of carousing, a husband and wife set out to solve the crime in "Remember Last Night," a 1935 film directed by James Whale and starring Robert Young and Constance Cummings. They certainly did a lot of partying in the '30s, but the partying in this film is on a new level. Everyone is so drunk that the next morning, no one can remember a thing about what happened the night before and how one of their friends ended up dead."Remember Last Night" is along the lines of the Thin Man (with more booze, if you can believe it), "Fast and Loose," "Star of Midnight," etc. - the lighthearted man-woman crime-solving genre so popular in the '30s. What sets this one apart is the shameless drunkenness, which raises drinking to a new art form, and an appalling display of people wearing blackface masks and talking jive in one part of the movie.Constance Cummings and Robert Young play the couple, and they're delightful. Cummings is beautiful, sophisticated, and sparkles as the wife. An accomplished stage actress who lived to be 95, Cummings appeared as Mary Tyrone to Olivier's James in an acclaimed "Long Day's Journey into Night" and in her seventies toured the country in "Wings," about a stroke victim. Here she is young and dazzling. Robert Young does very well in a role normally played by Robert Montgomery or William Powell - he's younger, and gives the part just the right playful touch. He lived to be 91, so maybe there was something in whatever passed for booze in the movie. Edward Arnold, Reginald Denny, and Arthur Treacher provide solid support.This is a somewhat convoluted mystery - it was hard to follow even being sober, so just think what the characters went through. If you can get into the spirit of it (pardon the pun), it's fun, and as well, it's a great commentary on the times - and how they have changed.
LomzaLady
When I saw the opening credits announcing "A James Whale Production," I thought - yes, there will probably be outsized and grotesque sets, just like in Frankenstein. I wasn't mistaken. The weird decor of the house and restaurant where the action takes place is a movie in itself. The entire film plays like one big in-joke, like the sorts of things film studios put together to show to employees at Christmas parties.But that doesn't mean this movie isn't funny, and enjoyable. The two lead characters are the boozy, over the top kind that you know are going to get into more trouble than they can handle. To me, they were sort of a combination of Nick and Nora Charles, and Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. Their wild party was one of the wildest you'll ever see on film, and no nudity or foul language, either. Of course, there is the matter of that really tasteless, racist bit at the party. I suppose in 1935 some would have considered that funny, but it is painful to watch.I really liked Constance Cummings. The only other thing I've seen her in is Blythe Spirit. She was very good here in a screwball mode, and she was cute and perky without being obnoxious about it. Robert Young was winning as her not very much more sober and serious husband. The whole mystery with all the suspects in one house thing was pretty silly, but I really think it was supposed to be. This film is to be viewed with tongue in cheek. It's a joke, and a funny one. It has all the stock characters you would expect to find in such an old-fashioned mystery - the rich and careless, the hardbitten law, the ex-con and suspicious (but innocent) servants, and that great, supercilious, snooty butler. Arthur Treacher was the master of that genre. I thought it was hilarious the way he made all those snide comments whenever he turned his head from his employers. The dialog is really very funny, and goes by fast, but not too fast.I thought the funniest scene by far was where the hero is racing his car to get home, and he almost collides with a truck at a road construction site. The truck driver lets loose a stream of curses, without actually uttering any four-letter words. And listen carefully for the very last thing he says -- well, I won't give it away -- it caps the whole scene and makes it even funnier.
