Carole Lombard and James Stewart are “Made for Each Other”

 Made for Each Other (1939) is an American romantic comedy directed by John Cromwell and starring Carole Lombard, James Stewart, and Charles Coburn. The film was produced by David O. Selznick and the film was photographed by Leon Shamroy.

The film concerns John Mason (Steward), a young attorney in New York City, and his new bride Jane (Lombard). Mason is mild-mannered and a bit timid for a lawyer. When he is overlooked for a promotion, Jane encourages him to demand a raise and a promotion. Due to the Depression, instead of a raise, Judge Doolittle (Coburn) the head of the firm, requires all employees to take a pay cut. To make things more complicated, John’s mother Harriet (Lucile Watson) comes to live with the young couple. When Jane has a baby and the bills pile up, John is discouraged and feels like he is a failure.

Will things turn around for John and Jane?

John Cromwell (1886 – 1979) was an American film and stage director. Cromwell started his career as an actor on the stage and in the early days of talking pictures. He was under contract to Paramount where he directed many pre-Code films. Some of the stars he directed during this time included Kay Francis, William Powell, and Jean Arthur. In 1933, he moved to RKO and directed Irene Dunne in Ann Vickers (1933), Spitfire (1934) with Katharine Hepburn, and Of Human Bondage (1934) with Leslie Howard and Bette Davis. Of Human Bondage was a tremendous box office success and made Cromwell a top director in Hollywood. Other films he directed include Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936) The Prisoner of Zenda (1937), Since You Went Away (1944), Anna and the Kind of Siam (1946), and Dead Reckoning. He is the father of actor James Cromwell.

James Steward and Carole Lombard

Carole Lombard (1908 – 1942) was an American actress, well regarded for her many screwball comedy film roles. During the late 1930s, she was the highest-paid star in Hollywood. Lombard got her start in silent films as a child and set her mind on making movie acting her career. She was one of Mack Sennett’s bathing beauties, appearing in 15 of his comedy shorts before moving on to feature films. Her breakout performance came in 1934’s Twentieth Century co-starring John Barrymore. After that film, Lombard’s career soared. She starred in many successful comedies including Hands Across the Table (1935), My Man Godfrey (1936), which brought her a Best Actress Academy Award nomination, Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941), and To Be or Not to Be (1942), her final film.

James Stewart (1908 - 1997) was an American actor whose career spanned almost five decades and 80 films. Stewart often portrayed the ideal of the average American who was decent and honest. Stewart signed a seven-year contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer where he appeared in a variety of supporting roles in B and A pictures. It wasn’t until he was loaned out to Columbia Pictures to costar in Frank Capra’s You Can’t Take It With You (1938) that his home studio began to take notice. Still, his best roles were on loan to other studios including Mr. Smith Goes to Washinton (1939) at Columbia again and Destry Rides Again (1939) at Universal. M-G-M eventually cast him in The Philadelphia Story (1940) where he won the Academy Award for Best Actor which cemented his reputation as a leading man and star. From there he went on to make The Shop Around the Corner (1940) and The Mortal Storm (1940). After serving in the United States Army from 1941 - 1945, Stewart returned to Hollywood where he continued as a popular leading man. During the 1950s, Steward made two films with director Alfred Hitchcock which are considered two of the director’s best films: Rear Window (1954) and Vertigo (1958). Vertigo was voted the greatest film ever made by Sight & Sound in 2012.

Charles Coburn (1877 – 1961) was an Academy-Award-winning character actor. Coburn was one of the most popular character actors in film during the 1940s. He was nominated for three Best Support Actor Academy Awards for The Devil and Miss Jones (1941), for The More the Merrier (1943)—won, and The Green Years (1946). Other classic films featuring Coburn include The Lady Eve (1941), Kings Row (1942), The Constant Nymph (1943), Monkey Business (1952), and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953).

Lombard and Stewart with the director and crew; ya gotta love Lombard’s movie star fur coat!

Made for Each Other trivia:

• The film was well-received by the critics but the film was a box office failure.
• The ocean liner pictured in the film is the SS Normandie.
• Some of the film’s dramatic moments were based on events in producer David O. Selznick’s life.
• A special effects technician died when he fell from a catwalk while he was releasing balloons for the New Year’s Eve party scenes.
• Lombard praised co-star Stewart’s performance in several media interviews at the time of the film’s release.

To watch the film on YouTube, click on the link below.

To join the discussion on Zoom, March 23, 2021, at 6:30 p.m. click here. Once you RSVP, you will receive an invitation to the discussion with a link to the Zoom meeting.

Questions for discussion:

1. What did you think of the pairing of Lombard and Stewart? Was it a good fit?
2. Do you think the film has any relevance to audiences today? Can we relate to the characters?
3. Did you have a favorite performance from any of the character actors?
4. Do you think the relationship between Watson and Lombard’s characters was realistic?
5. Why do you think the film wasn’t a bigger hit with audiences in 1939?

Films From My Father

Child of the Depression
My dad grew up during the Great Depression. Like many kids his age, he went to the movies at least once a week. Back in the late 1930s, a Saturday at the movies might have included several films. The main attraction was generally an A-picture, one with major movie stars, a second feature or B-film with lesser stars, a cartoon, a serial, and a newsreel. If you lived in a relatively large city, you may have experienced some live entertainment. And on some other days, you may have gotten a free gift like Constance Bennett makeup (to give to your mom) or an ice cream cup.


A Love of the Movies is Born
Part of the reason I love the movies, is due to my father’s influence. In the days before cable, old films would routinely show up on television on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. My dad and I often watched movies together. Dad seemed to know every actor in every movie we watched, right down to the character actors who uttered but one line. In those days my favorite movies were the Abbott and Costello comedies, Buck Privates, Keep ‘Em Flying, and Hold That Ghost. My dad enjoyed these films too, but he also had a fondness for two classics released in 1939: Gunga Din and The Four Feathers. Most classic film buffs have seen Gunga Din at least once, but the same cannot be said for The Four Feathers, my father’s favorite film when he was a young man.

June Duprez and John Clements

Third Time is a Charm
The third movie version of the A. E. W. Mason novel is considered the best of the bunch. Produced by Alexander Korda and directed by brother Zoltan, The Four Feathers is an epic production, filmed in Technicolor when the process was still a bit of a novelty. Like Gunga Din, it portrays the British Empire, during the late 19th century, in the best possible light, but we won’t take issue with that here. As an adventure and melodrama, The Four Feathers is hard to beat.

Impeccably British
Starring an impeccable British cast, including John Clements as the conflicted aristocrat Harry Faversham, Ralph Richardson as his commrade and rival John Durrance, and the always enjoyable C. Aubrey Smith as General Burroughs, who constantly reminds everyone how he single-handedly won the Crimean War.

Harry Faversham's Dilema

A publicity still promoting the film

The plot revolves around Harry’s decision not to follow in the family tradition of serving in the army. He very dramatically resigns his post on the eve of his regiment’s journey to the Sudan. Their mission: To recapture Khartoum. Branded a coward by friends —the white feathers given to Harry by his comrades are emblems of cowardice—, and his fiancée played by the lovely June Duprez. As a result, Harry becomes a tormented soul. In an attempt at redemption, he disguises himself as an Arab to rescue his friends, who are imprisoned by Egyptian rebels, and prove that he isn’t a coward. As you might expect, Harry is successful in the end, reclaiming his honor, his friends, and his fiancée. A good story supported by a superior production, The Four Feathers holds up remarkably well. The on-location color cinematography is remarkable. The spectacle of the battle scenes combined with the dazzling red uniforms of the British soldiers still impress today. I remember how awed I was when I saw How The West Was Won, shot in Cinerama, in the theater. I think my dad, then barely 16 years old, must have been similarly impressed by the scope of The Four Feathers upon its initial release.

"Explosively Cinematic"
Many of the scenes shot on location, give the film a polish unmatched by its contemporaries. Osmond Borradaile (I Was a Male War Bride) shot the scenes in the Sudan and Georges Perinal (The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp) shot the rest of the film. What seems remarkable is the almost entire lack of process photography. Even The New York Times film critic was impressed, (no easy task then as now) calling it “explosively cinematic” and overwhelmed by the “sheer weight of size and width of camera field.”

An Overwhelming Year
The Four Feathers had the misfortune of being released in 1939, the year of Wuthering Heights, The Wizard of Oz, Stagecoach, and the Civil War epic, Gone With the Wind, which swept the Oscars that year. Nominated for a single Academy Award (best color cinematography), The Four Feathers was one of many great films vying for attention in 1939, perhaps the most remarkable year in motion picture history.

No matter what its reputation today, The Four Feathers will always hold a special place in my heart because it reminds me of my father and those lazy afternoons of movie watching that we shared.