Cinema: The New Pictures: Feb. 27, 1939

Made for Each Other (United Artists-David Selznick) starts with a printed announcement on the screen: "Greater New York has a population of 7,434,346, among the least important of whom is. . . ." The camera cuts to a page of the Manhattan Telephone Directory and telescopes down on the name of "John Mason, lawyer." The opening action shot then shows Mason (James Stewart) pausing on his way to work to examine something he is carrying—a cabinet-size photograph of his wife (Carole Lombard).

From this point on, Made for Each Other proceeds to turn its prefacing remark into a bare-faced lie. In the...

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