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.
