Saturday Night Cinema: Made for Each Other

In the unlikely event you don't have a "get out of jail free" card and were unable to attend tonight's event in Huntington, New York at Book Revue, 313 New York Avenue, Huntington, with Robert and me, then console yourself with the gem. A classic.

Made For Each Other. 1939. A delicious classic. A David O. Selznick picture starring Carole Lombard, James Stewart, Charles Coburn, Lucile Watson, Eddie Quillan.

New York Times review from 1939:

Sweet are the uses of domesticity, as some one has said (probably Jo
Swerling), and Mr. Swerling never has used the domestic scene more
sweetly than he has in "Made for Each Other," the thoroughly delightful
film which he and the rest of Selznick International gave to the Music
Hall yesterday. It is a richly human picture they have created, human
and therefore comic, sentimental and poignant by turns. And we intend no
disrespect to their creation when we point out that everything about it
is as unoriginal as two young people getting married, having a baby,
experiencing mother-in-law trouble and servant trouble and baby trouble,
worrying about the job and having a quarrel on New Year's Eve.

For that, in fact, is the story of "Made for Each Other," and it
happens to be the story, in one form or another, of almost every young
couple that ever was or will be. Mr. Swerling hasn't said a new thing,
taken a stand pro or con, or shed a bit of light on the murky course of
human destiny. He simply has found a pleasant young couple, or has let
them find each other, and has permitted nature to have its fling. It is
an unusual procedure for a script writer. Habitually they toss nature
aside and think up the darndest things for their people to do. It's
amazing how interesting normal human behavior can be.

Of course, Mr. Swerling doesn't deserve all this credit. He merely
wrote the picture. It probably wouldn't have succeeded at all without
John Cromwell's wise direction and James Stewart and Carole Lombard
playing the Masons. You probably have met the Masons somewhere. He's a
young lawyer. She studied journalism once. She bullied him into asking
for a raise and junior partnership; he came home tight that night; old
Judge Doolittle, the senior grouch of the law firm, had beaten him to
the gun and talked him into taking a 25 per cent pay cut. They both were
crazy about the baby. It was only a week old when it smiled at him. At
least, he thought it smiled; his mother just sniffed. "Gas," she said.

You've met the Masons, we're sure.

Mr. Stewart and Miss Lombard play them perfectly, and in the best of
company. Charles Coburn's Judge Doolittle, Lucile Watson's
mother-in-law; Esther Dale, Louise Beavers and some unsung bit player as
the servant problem; Donald Briggs and Ruth Weston as a couple of
unpleasant people—they're right as rain, all of them. There may be a
cynical jeer at the conclusion, which is straight out of the Hollywood
good book "Pollyanna," but, honestly, we didn't mind. Don't believe you
will, either.

MADE FOR EACH OTHER, from a screen play by Jo
Swerling; directed by John Cromwell; produced by David O. Selznick for
Selznick International Pictures; released by United Artists. At the
Radio City Music Hall.

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