Evening star., 1939-03-17

Each Other" In the course OF be-
ing the girl who marries the man
who takes a cinder out of her eye,
she is the f1ippant person she has
been for so long on the screen. Once
she settles down to the job in hand,
however, she is dramatic actress
quite up to the Job of being young
and valiant wife. never more so
than in the scene in which she
bathes the baby.
i X \
The story of Made for Each
Other" in case the title or the pre-
vious three paragraphs has not made
it clear, is that of the young couple
who marry for love and live to rue
it. He (Stewart, John Horace Ma
son, is chosen by his classmates as
the man most likely to succeed, but
when he gets out into the world
he turns out to be a kind of Caspar
Milquetoast. 1t is entirely matter
of responsibilities-the responsibility
of being deeply in love with his wife,
Of supporting a mother, of provid-
ing for a baby, and of being failure
in all three.
Very human it all turns out to be
as 10 Swerling has written his screen
play. 1t might have been easy for
Mr.. Swerling to turn deadly serious
on his audience, but he avoided the
temptation. Instead. he placed the
emphasis for the most part upon the
comedy aspects of his characters.
Not trying to be inventive-wait un-
til you see how things work out
Mr.. Swerling contrives to make
something very amusing out of the
hasty. idvllic-seeming marriage, the
birth of the baby, the battle of the
young husband to be good pro-
WIDER, the effort to support a mother
under a roof that hardly is large
enough for the young couple and the
baby.
Obviously. in the writing of the
dialogue, Mr.. Swerling is gent who
has been eavesdropping on the con-
versations of nine-tenths of the
young people who have found them
selves in his standard situations.
Not a single new thing does he say.
or do any of his characters say. but
it heiGhtens the amusement of his
picture that he stick to the formal
of such affairs.
The one protest which may validly
be made against Made for Each
Other" is that no one involved could
think of better climax than that
of reuniting the young newlyweds
through the device of having the
baby become so seriously i'll that
serum has to be flown from Salt
Lake City to New York to save the
infants life. 1t has been done 80
many times that not even some
passages showing the desperate OBJ
stacles of terrific snowstorm can
enliven the interval. It is a FORE
gone conclusion that the brave pilot
will get through and that the baby
will be spared AS result. when
the pilot cracks loudly against the
mountainside, it is no surprise that
not even the landing gear is dam
aged although for that volume of
noise the whole plane should have
been wrecked.
Some nice subordinate perform
ances abet the efforts of the princi-
pals in giving conviction to the vet
eran story of Made for Each Other" !"
Charles Coburn gives one of them as
the elderly lawyer who could not
understand the problems of his
youthful associate (Stewart again)
until the baby becomes i'll. Another
is that of Lucille Watson as the
bridegroom's mother. Still others are
given by Eddie Quillan, Alma Kru-
ger, Harry Davenport and Louise
Beavers.
The direction of Made for Each
Other" and skillful direction 1t is.
is something for which audiences
will have to thank John Cromwell
And so. speaking of thanks, will Mr..
Selznick, whose old story might have
suffered in less capable hands.