Made For Each Other (MGM)
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: D Film: C
1939 may have been a watershed year for films coming out
of Classical Hollywood, but not everything was great, even from David O.
Selznick. John Cromwell helmed Made
For Each Other for Selznick’s studio, and the film even landed Jimmy
Stewart and Carole Lombard, but it is nothing to write home about, being very
disappointing and not having gotten better with age.
Before I continue, unless there is some wacky,
unacceptable legal thing going on, the Selznick International Studio opening
has been blacked out! Why, I do not
know, but it is beyond problematic, especially with the new MGM logo in the
beginning. What is going on here? Fans deserve to know this, no matter what one
thinks of the film.
John & Jane meet and fall in love, which in Hollywood
language means instant marriage.
However, instead of a screwball comedy or love story, we get a long and
drawn out melodrama with tragedy and predictability that wears thin very quickly,
even with the charm of the stars themselves.
It offers more phony disaster than a reality TV set up, despite having
far more class. This would be
considered a really bad example of the “woman’s film” in a pre-TV soap opera
world, even though such shows were on dramatic network radio. Not even Charles Coburn and a decent
supporting cast can save the film. All
it is is a well-manicured production that has little good to recommend about
it, so see it at your own risk.
Despite my complaint about the missing opening piece, the
full frame 1.33 x 1 image is as good as you will see on any of the DVD versions
of this film issued to date. Detail is
not perfect, but Video Black and Gray Scale are on the solid side. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is about what you
would expect for its age, likely because it is licensed from ABC/Disney, who
owns the entire Selznick catalog and that is where the original elements are
for the most part. There are zero
extras, not even a trailer, so this is for fans and completists only in
collecting DVDs on the big names noted.
- Nicholas Sheffo
