Remember the Day

Claudette Colbert was always good no matter what kind of part she had to play, but although never funny she was always the perfect comedienne. Here she displays quite a different sort of character, and the moment she appears on the screen you are touched by her sincere melancholy. She plays a teacher, she has been a teacher all her life, she is about 60 when the film begins, and as she has to wait for the arrival of the public person she has come to catch a glimpse of, she recalls the days before the First World War (1916) when she found her husband, a colleague among the teachers at her school. She had very good relationships with her pupils, and one of them stuck out in particular, who actually became jealous of her becoming husband and almost became a rival of his in sending valentines. The film tells the story of these two lovers of hers, one her husband who never came back from the war (John Payne, very similar to James Stewart here,) and the boy, who eventually grew up to become a presidential candidate. The film is very sweet and warm, it's a heart-warming picture, it is well made with good music by Alfred Newman and well up to the best American standard of the time, and anyone could enjoy it for its genuine humanity bordering on sentimentality but never falling out of character. This kind of lovable Hollywood pictures were typical at the time, while the flair for this Hollywood sweetness got hopelessly lost by the war that broke out the year this film was made, 1941.

I've been trying to remember the name of this movie

for 30-40- years ,,, and found it tonight ! I've looked before but couldn't find it ..

i remember watching this on TV in the 50's and loved it and always thought about it .. the ending..was to me ..one of the Great movie endings..

the theme of " loyalty' ... is what always stuck with me .... and the people we've met in our life ...who we never forget...

thank you IMDb!!

Henry King has directed a nostalgic piece of great artistry that accurately evokes the World War One era in America. Claudette Colbert's wit and charm effectively offsets the potential sentimentality of the story, and handsome John Payne gives one of his finest performances as her love interest.

Lovingly photographed, Remember the Day is a charmer from start to finish.

This movie may seem old-fashioned today.Two teachers having an affair (this was also the subject of "these three" by William Wyler )causing a scandal ! These three are here a man,a woman and a boy;the movie begins when Claudette Colbert is an old teacher and the rest is a very long flashback ;it is interesting to notice there's something similar in a more recent work such as "Mr Holland's opus" in which a clumsy girl ,Holland's former pupil,becomes a senator.

More than a propaganda movie (WW1 and when the movie was produced WW2),this is a tribute to the teachers:Mrs Prinell is the kind of mistress every boy and girl would like to have (or would have liked to have).Her word reaches far when she tells Dewey he "stands out" but ,like any human being,he is on his own .Perhaps the ending is too good to be true and in real life people who make their way of life often forget the people who helped them along the way,but this is a wonderful ending:I love the moment when Deway mumbles "Mrs Trinell...Nora Trinell..." The boy writing "I beg your pardon" on the blackboard,the white Xmas ,the "auld Lang Syne" on the last day of the year and the train leaving the little town :we'll remember these days.

Claudette Colbert is a schoolteacher thinking about her past life in "Remember the Day," a 1941 film also starring John Payne, Shepperd Strudwick, Ann E. Todd, Jane Seymour and Anne Revere. As she waits to catch a glimpse of a former student, Dewey Peters, now running for President, Nora Trinell (Colbert) thinks back to 1916, when Dewey was a child in her class, and she had just met another teacher in the school, Mr. Hopkins (Payne). Dewey has a terrible crush on Nora, who sees his true worth right away; Hopkins is in love with her. Kay, a student in Dewey's class, is crazy about him, but Dewey is at an age where he doesn't want any girls around. Besides, he's in love with Nora.

Nora and Hopkins eventually marry secretly, and he signs up for World War I. Dewey is heartbroken when he sees them together. Before going away to prep school, Nora encourages him in his goals and tells him that he is like a son to her. At his request, she goes to see him off at the train, the same train her husband is on en route to battle. The last time we see her in the flashback, she is waving goodbye.

This is a very touching movie with some nice performances, particularly by Colbert, Payne, and Douglas Croft, who plays the young Dewey. The fashions don't look particularly of the period, and as usual, everyone is aged much more than the 25 years that are supposed to have passed. It is true that people look younger today at 50, partly because we fight aging and also because of a youthful attitude, as one of the reviewers states. I still think everyone looked too old, and that includes young Dewey's parents during the flashback, who looked like his grandparents. It's unusual for Twentieth Century Fox to have permitted any aging at all - Zanuck would barely let Tyrone Power have gray at the temples in films with long time spans.

Colbert was actually 9 years older than John Payne, but I was aware of it only because I knew it. She was cast opposite younger men more than once. She is very lovely in this, looking much younger than her 38 years. She really carries the film. Payne, a very well-built hunk, gives a wonderful performance.

The acting really uplifts this film as does the solid directing of Henry King. You may shed a tear or two - if you don't mind that, "Remember the Day" is well worth seeing.