Made For Each Other (1971)

hyped garbage

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

This is a really bad movie. My wife and I recently saw Renée Taylor live in Queens Theatre, and wanted to watch one of her early movies. "Made For Each Other" looked like a good candidate, so I went and ordered a DVD on Amazon. We were very disappointed. Directing was simply awful, and it was very boring and even depressing for a comedy. After struggling through the first half hour, we fast-forwarded the rest of the movie with only one stop - the cabaret number (the extra star in my rating), which we already saw on YouTube in the same quality free of charge. Speaking of quality: at $20 list price, Twentieth Century Fox could have bothered to clean up video and sound somewhat or at least to make subtitles.

I saw this as a half of a double feature on a double date in the 1970s. Three of the four of us preferred the other film ("Marriage of a Young Stockbroker"?), but I liked this one and went back to see it again. It IS a funny film, but also a believable love story with (understandably) good chemistry between the two leads. And no other reviewer has mentioned that Bologna was pretty hot back in the day if you like those Big types. It is borderline painful to watch Renee Taylor's various "acts" as she skates close to some sort of showbiz fame--sort of a proto-Bridget Jones--but you have to admire the candor of these two writers in filming this autobiographical material, warts and all.

I've loved this movie ever since I saw it when it came out. I have a tape, which is deteriorating, copied off Encore. In general, the film translates well to tape--the biggest loss are car scenes where two-shots become alternating one-shots, and the squabble outside the diner, a three shot in the theater (inscrutable dude leaning against store shutters), now mostly a two-shot, which really removes a lot of the dry wit. I'm writing this because I see that the DVD has been released on September 28 for $4.95, but I haven't found any information on who released it, where I can get it, or anything else. Does someone out there know the answer? I'd like to buy a replacement for my old tape and copies for my friends. Letterbox would be great! But I won't hold my breath.

Saw this film for the first time tonight, on Turner Movie Classics.Having missed the first few minutes, and altogether ignorant of the film, I didn't know that it was 30 years old. But the principal's bright orange, full-length coat of an unidentified material, brought on a rush of uncertainty. She is no beauty, this woman - yet she reminds me of (somebody) Derisher, of "Nanny", only rubber-faced and unpretty.There's a great deal in common and feel with Neil Simmon's plays - the pain and torment of love among the unloveable, e.g., the girl friend kicks her boy friend in the groin and asks, "How much do you love me now?"). The parental years of the principals are identical to "Torchlight Trilogy" - grotesque and self-parody. The principal's vulnerability is totally believable and rather marvelous.Thirty years on, there's a lot of elemental clinical psychologyto "Made for Each Other". And one wants to keep that in mind.The Neil Simmon-like crying scene at the end was highly effective and moving until a moment before the clench, when one realized that one was a voyeur to a dreadful, cathartic and eventually successful, if not somewhat mangled, love match.I agree that this is "Like real life" but it's also Felinni-esque and somewhat grotesque. Probably the most moving scene for me was the New Year's Eve dinner scene when the mother gets hysterical, and her son leaves the room to tell her to friggin' SHUT UP! Killing. --And yet highly poignant with the poor Jewish guest sitting there getting slayed.I didn't dislike the movie, and did laugh out loud at times. It was utterly professional at all times, never manipulative - but there is a sense of passe to it that goes beyond the orange lip stick and tomato-red bola. En fin, glad that I saw it.