Made for Each Other

Lombard was tired of doing screwball comedies, and still had her eye on the Selznick ultimate prize, Scarlett O'Hara - but she had to prove she could handle dramatic parts, to herself and to the public. This film is low-key, charming in its own way, but rather schizophrenic in plot. James Stewart is a convincingly earnest young husband and fledgling attorney who meets and marries the Lombard character in a whirlwind romance, before the couple comes crashing back to earth with a loud thud. Baby soon makes three, and Mother-in-Law makes an uncomfortable four -- in a tiny apartment, with an even tinier household budget.

The plot peculiarities begin on a New Year's Eve -- although in the midst of a huge party, Jane and Johnny don't feel much like celebrating. They argue all the time, and can't really remember what they loved about each other to begin with. Then their baby gets desperately ill, and the plot appears to belong in a different movie. After some pretty dramatic twists, the movie returns to its original focus and becomes relatively normal again.

All in all, a fairly entertaining domestic soaper, until the Plot Twist from Mars rears its alien head. You'll be making faces at the screen, saying to yourself, "Hunhhhh?????"

NY lawyer John Mason (James Stewart) is newly married to Jane (Carole Lombard) despite the disapproval of his mother. They are supposed to take a honeymoon cruise to Europe but his nearly-deaf boss Judge Doolittle implies taking a big case away from him. Doolittle promotes co-worker Carter as partner over him. The couple has a boy and they struggle to make ends meet.

The pairing of Stewart and Lombard is very promising. In the end, this lacks a structure for the drama. It's more like a run-on sentence of a family drama. It also doesn't help to be missing the courtship. It needs a meet-cute and a good relationship progression. It feels like a laundry list of melodramas rather than a good flowing plot. Their difficult marriage leaves any chemistry with the leads in a precarious position. At its core, I find it hard to feel the love sometimes. Their individual screen presence is undeniable but this movie fails to capitalize on them.

This is really three stories in one about the same couple - and none of them would be really worth seeing if not enacted by Stewart and Lombard.

The first part is by far the best. It is a light-hearted comedy, in the screwball style, about a generally not self-assured young lawyer who for once has taken an impulsive decision, marrying a girl on a chance meeting as a result of love at first sight, putting himself at odds with the two persons he is in awe of and mostly dominated by - his deaf Scrooge of a boss, and his possessive mother. This is quite funny, especially the scene of breaking the news to the mother/mother-in-law.

Then things become fairly humdrum and boring with the second part. The lawyer does not get the promotion he deserved and expected, the young couple has a baby, and they start facing money problems. Baby scenes are a string of moderately amusing cliches, which are absolutely useless to the story. Money problems are trivial, and it takes James Stewart awkwardness to provide some fun when he tries to get a raise from his literally but potentially intentionally deaf boss - Charles Coburn not in one of his most memorable compositions. All of this part of the film spills the beans about what its problem really is - basically it has very little to tell, therefore it fills the void with everything which passes at hand.

And everything in the third part becomes an old plot trick of screenwriters with a shortage of inspiration - a severe, potentially fatal illness of one of the characters, in that case the baby in order to create drama where really there should have been none. Brutally the film turns to crude melodrama and the artificial suspense, extensively dilated, of a serum to be brought by an heroic pilot. Well, well - not telling whether the baby is saved, the film is most certainly not.

Carole Lombard and James Stewart are the only good reason, if any, to watch this mishmash. Stewart is mostly his usual funny and touching self, playing a well-meaning but not always well-inspired character who tries, through necessity, to become the hard-edged breadwinner whom he is not naturally. Lombard's role on the contrary evolves farther and farther away from her usual parts while the film shifts from one storyline to the other. Fresh-faced and fresh-tongued as the bride from nowhere, she adjusts less well, like her character, to the boring life of a housewife with domestic problems - hard to blame her not to put her heart fully in it when viewers are quite bored themselves. Then and finally, melodrama - not an usual or natural genre for her, but she more than deftly adjusts. Moreover, some shots of her face in grief and anxiety, unusually strained but as beautiful as always if not more, "Garbo shots", deepen our regrets of her tragically shortened life and career. Sooner or later it would probably have been discovered that beyond her innate talent for comedy, she could play with equal ease and natural much more dramatic roles. Alas, occasions including this botched one have been very limited.

I can't understand the harsh reviews that this film has received from other IMDb users! I really enjoyed this film, despite the disappointing ending. I don't know if this is because I am a very big fan of both James Stewart and Carole Lombard, but I thoroughly enjoyed it nonetheless. I especially recommend it to you if you enjoyed 'Penny Serenade (1941)' with Irene Dunn and Cary Grant as they are very similar in plot.

Without the charm and ability Lombard and Stewart, I believe Made for Each Other could have been extremely ill-fated and boring. However, they manage to bring life, charm and make their characters very genuine. Made for Each Other is about a couple (played extremely well by Carole Lombard and James Stewart as always) who meet, fall in love and get married quickly, seem simply made for each other... but when certain problems arise - disapproving in-laws, job stress, financial challenges and illness, their love really takes the test.

It is only the ending that lets the film down. Not only is it bizarre but it is extremely unrealistic too. I can understand why it was written - to give an added sense of drama for the finale, to keep the reader glued to the screen, but it seemed very unnecessary.

Other than that, I found it an absolute pleasure watching Carole Lombard and James Stewart fit so perfectly into a melodrama which many of us can relate to. Perhaps it is for 'die-hard fans' only, but I do recommend it to those who are not familiar with their work. I found it very interesting, charming and occasionally laugh-out-loud funny - a great balance of comedy and drama. I can't understand the dismal reviews for this film - I thoroughly enjoyed myself! Wonderful melodrama.

James Stewart and Carole Lombard meet and marry on impulse while Stewart is in Boston on a case.

When they get back to New York the two of them go through a lot of the trials that newlyweds do, a seemingly unfeeling and uncomprehending boss, a bitter mother-in-law for Lombard, a new baby and then a sick toddler. I guess the fact that they get through it all is proof that they were indeed Made for Each Other.

Other reviewers have noted some similarities between It's A Wonderful Life and Penny Serenade. They are certainly there. What's not there is the screwball comedy that we remember Carole Lombard for. No laughs in this one, she plays this quite seriously and shows her versatility.

Stewart however is pure Stewart. It's as if Jefferson Smith had gone to law school instead of becoming a Boy Ranger. He's so idealistic and full of hope as he starts married life with Lombard. As he appeals to Charles Coburn for financial help to save his kid, the whole audience in the theaters must have felt along with him.

The two have some problems keeping household staff and when they find one they really like, their budget crunch forces them to let Louise Beavers go. Though it sure has some racial clichés in it, my favorite moment comes from Louise Beavers in that scene with Carole Lombard as Lombard tells her they will have to discharge her. Beavers is a woman with real heart and soul and her words of comfort to Lombard never fail to move me.

For fans of melodramatic soap opera and the two stars. Some may find Made for Each Other too saccharine, but I like it.