Made for Each Other (1939)

CinemaSerf June 22, 2022

★ 6/10

Jimmy Stewart always could pull off the role as the hapless, dewy-eyed fellow; but in this one - despite actually shedding a tear - he struggles to hold this slightly gloopy melodrama together. He portrays a lawyer who falls in love with and impulsively marries Carole Lombard ("Jane") and they have a baby. Simultaneously, his job prospects take a turn for the worst and they find themselves a bit skint. This puts obvious pressures on their relationship and the film charts their ups and downs. Charles Coburn turns in a good performance as the "Judge" and there's quite a tense sequence with Ward Bond/Eddie Quillan flying in to the rescue at the end. I think sometimes we tend to forget that a lot of these films were little more than production-line efforts; so maybe we expect too much by way of distinctive storylines and/or performances. This one is fine, but forgettable.