Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

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.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Very entertaining. To start with you have Joan Blondell, Ann Dvorak, and Warren William all delivering great performances. Add to that a 24-year-old Bette Davis in a supporting role showing off her legs in addition to her beautiful face, Humphrey Bogart working on his tough guy character 9 years before 'The Maltese Falcon', and a number of cute performances by child actors, most notably 6-year- old Buster Phelps. There are shots of newspapers headlines over the years of the previous decade, including the 'amazing feat of the new wireless telephone' (radio), and the trend of wearing 'sun suits', the 'new brief attire greatly favored for bathing resorts' for the 'fad of sun-bathing'. You see Joan Blondell in prison, listening to a stories read out of a steamy book, and then later connected to a giant hair-curling machine with wires descending from the ceiling to her metallic skullcap. The pre-Code script is a little over-the- top but that's part of the fun. It has three girls growing up into very 'types' of women, and then Dvorak's character getting so bored with her life of luxury that she slips into alcohol, drugs, and adultery, imperiling her little boy. Director Mervyn LeRoy keeps things moving and I liked how it was both short, at 63 minutes, but also packed with content. It's not "high art" or anything, but there are so many bits of interest that this is one that I would recommend to people who aren't normally interested in old movies, and I round up my review score a bit.

Directed by Mervyn LeRoy with a story by John Bright and Kubec Glasmon and a screenplay by Lucien Hubbard, this 60+ minute drama features many of the actors and actresses who would become Warner Bros.'s biggest stars early in their careers. The story moves so quickly, utilizing several film montages of newspaper headlines to mark the passage of time from 1919 to 1932, that many of these stars' roles barely exceed that of a cameo appearance. Its pre-code subject matter is noteworthy though, and given the small time investment to watch it, most viewers will "leave" satisfied.It's 1919 at public school #62: Mary Keaton (Virginia Davis; Clara Blandick, uncredited, appears briefly as her mother), the preteen that smokes with the boys, doesn't graduate, and goes to reform school, grows up to be chorus girl Mary Bernard (Joan Blondell). The school's most popular girl Vivian Revere (a young, unrecognizable Anne Shirley, as Dawn O'Day) wears pink bloomers, does better in school, and has wealthy parents that can afford to send her to the best boarding school, eventually marries a successful lawyer Robert Kirkwood (Warren William) and has a son. Ruth Wescott (Betty Carse), who graduated valedictorian and can only afford to go to trade school, becomes a stenographer (Bette Davis).All three childhood "friends" end up meeting 9 years later (1921 is the year they left the public school) in 1930. While it appears that Vivian, who treats the other two to lunch, has done the best, her life feels empty since she's accomplished nothing on her own. Her busy husband has given her everything she has. Realizing she's not happy, Kirkwood offers to take a trip with her to a foreign locale; she accepts, but only if she can "get away" from everything including her husband, but except for their 5 year old son (Buster Phelps, uncredited).So, Vivian and her son board a cruise ship. Kirkwood is interrupted by a message, and then called away on business before its scheduled midnight sailing time. He excuses himself with his regrets. Coincidentally, Mary and a couple of her male friends are onboard to help celebrate another couple's sendoff. They run into Vivian and convince her to join them later, after her son is asleep such that he can be watched by an attendant. When she does, she gets to know Michael Loftus (Lyle Talbot), one of Mary's friends, so much better that, in the span of less than 90 minutes, she decides to hurried leave the ship with him, and her son, before it sails.The newspapers report that Robert Kirkwood's wife and son are missing, and the lawyer urges the police (and hires others?) to find her. Mary soon learns where Vivian is, shacked up with Loftus, and discusses the deplorable conditions in which Vivian's son is living with Ruth. Ruth has a sister who's a widow with a young child of her own, so the two friends decide to offer Vivian a chance to let them take care of her son. When Vivian refuses Mary's offer, she goes to Kirkwood such that the boy is rescued from a near passed out Vivian.After many months, with both Vivian's and Ruth's assistance, things are back to normal for Kirkwood's boy such that he's fallen in love with Vivian, whom he marries, and hires Ruth as his son's nanny. A destitute Vivian (later, it becomes even more clear that she's addicted to drugs) approaches the recently wed Mary when she exits the beauty parlor and asks her for money. Mary gives them all she has, $80. Vivian and Loftus have pawned her jewelry and the $80 isn't enough to satisfy the $2,000 debt he owes a loan shark named Ace (Edward Arnold).Ace, with heavies Harve (Humphrey Bogart), Dick (Allen Jenkins), and another (Jack La Rue, uncredited) threatens Loftus that he has to pay or else. Desperate, Loftus uses an assumed name and goes to Kirkwood, threatening to expose Mary's reform school past to the press. Kirkwood says that no newspaper would print the libelous story but, if one should, he'll break every bone in "Loftus's" body. As Loftus is leaving Kirkwood's office, he notices Ruth bringing the lawyer's son into the office. So, he hatches a plan to kidnap the boy, intending on ransoming him for the $2,000 he owes Ace.Vivian is horrified when Loftus returns to their squalid apartment with her son, but not as much as she is when Harve (and company) knocks on the door and takes over the operation. Having heard of the kidnapping on a police radio, Ace figures Kirkwood's boy is worth a lot more than $2,000 and ransoms him for $25,000 instead.However, the police have a pretty good idea, because of witnesses, where the boy is being held. So, as the search gets closer and closer to the apartment, the hoods get desperate. Loftus is killed because he won't kill the boy. Vivian "comes to" in time to realize what is going on, so she hides the boy under her bed. She then writes a message using lipstick on her dress as to the location (4th floor) of the Kirkwood boy. When La Rue's character enters the room, she jumps out the window to her death.Presumably the bad guys are caught, and the boy is rescued, because the last scene has the two remaining childhood friends sharing a match to light their cigarettes.

Anne Dvorak is a nice married lady. Her husband is the wealthy, older Warren William, also a nice guy but perhaps a little stuffy. They have a cute little boy, about four, who whines all the time, whether he's happy or unhappy, and should be stomped like a roach. The problem is that Dvorak is bored with it all. She itches for something new. This is always a bad sign in a wife.William arranges for her and that nettlesome child to have a vacation in Europe but before boarding she meets a handsome young seducer and, well, they shack up in the Warwick Hotel without leaving New York. Her paramour seems to lack anything in the way of frontal lobes because he can not plan for the future. He gives a rubber check to gangster Edward Arnold, introduced by being first seen plucking nose hairs out of his nostrils with a pair of tweezers. Mervyn LeRoy directed. Of the check, goon Humphrey Bogart says, "If you drop a golf ball off the top of the Chrysler Building, does it bounce?" The seducer, Lyle Talbot, tries to get the money he owes by blackmailing Dvorak's husband. If William doesn't fork it over, Talbot will sell the scandalous story of Dvorak's loose morals to the tabloids. William throws him out.Well, I'll tell you. It gets worse and worse as Dvorak slips deeper into immorality. When the kid, in filthy clothes, asks for something to eat, she gestures from the couch to a tray of half-eaten bon bons. She goes beyond being a simple drunk and gets into cocaine.Arnold and his henchmen kidnap the kid and try to ransom him off to William. At that point, seeing her own little boy in danger (sob), she undergoes an epiphany, scribbles a description of the situation on her nightie in lipstick, then jumps out the window. The police arrive and twig immediately. The end.I'd like to point out a refulgent display of perspicacity on the part of another reviewer, who has seen depths in this film that my own poor sensibilities have kept from my mental grasp. The reviewer's handle is "Howdymax." He's a beacon to all of us.None of that is true, of course, but he's my brother and I owe him a lot of money and his agents are beginning to follow me around. One is a dead ringer for Humphrey Bogart.

...I'm glad you asked… Pre-Code Hollywood refers to films made after the introduction of sound in the late 1920s and the enforcement of the Hays Code censorship guidelines, which went into effect on July 1, 1934. During the Great Depression era, studios - in order to increase box office lowered their moral standards to more realistically depict what was already in newspaper headlines. Movie content (sexuality, violence, drug use) was restricted more by local laws and public opinion than adherence to the Motion Picture Production Code, which generally was ignored by Hollywood filmmakers. After 1934, Hollywood films had to show separate beds, if someone was shot or stabbed, no blood could be shown, if kissing was shown, both parties had to have at least one foot on the floor at all times, etc.Films made pre-Code frequently presented people in suggestive situations, and did not hesitate to display women in scanty attire (in this film you'll see more of Bette Davis than you've seen before). After 1934, a scene such as this would not be shown in a Hollywood film for decades or early TV (think of the separate beds used on I Love Lucy or The Dick Van Dyke Show.) Today, these films are almost quaint to what is seen in even a PG-13 rated film but back then they were adult stories that mirrored real life. And film historians love pre-Code films. The term "Three On A Match" legend has it, was used in the trenches of WWI. It was rumored that if soldiers at night tried to light more than two cigarettes in the dark an enemy sniper would have enough time to take aim and shoot, killing the third person using the match. So… using one match to light three cigarettes became a symbol for bad luck. The truth is "Three On A Match" bad luck was an advertising ploy by Ivar Kreuger whose nickname was The Match King (title of another great WB film)! Ivar Kreuger was the Bernie Madoff of his era. Using a Ponzi-like scheme, he used investors monies to pay stockholders and at one time controlled three fourths of the worlds match business until he lost it all and committed suicide in March of 1932. Let's talk about the stars of this 1932 film, we are first introduced to three school girls (take note of Dawn O'Day she later changed her name to Anne Shirley of Stella Dallas fame), and Virginia Davis who was a star in Walt Disney's first series of silent Alice comedies that mixed live action Alice with animated cartoon characters.) Then we see three adult women who play these kids grown up. Joan Blondell as the flirty Mary who shows her bloomers, smokes with the boys and then ends up in reform school. Ann Dvorak who is pretty, popular and given every advantage of wealth and position but is bored to death. And blonde Bette Davis, the smartest girl in school who works hard but only becomes a stenographer. As for the leading men, Warren William who usually played a captain of industry, a wheeler of great power here is a highly successful lawyer that bores his beautiful wife. Lyle Talbot starts out a charming playboy but his bad character is eventually revealed and he becomes a despicable criminal. Edward Arnold that played heavies in so many Frank Capra films is first seen here plucking hairs from his nose until this Mr. Big needs a welcher squeezed of someone killed. Allen Jenkins and Jack LaRue play gangsters. Seen briefly in the film are Bowery Boy Frankie Darrow; Auntie Em from THE WIZARD OF OZ Clara Blandick; Grant Mitchell as the school principle; and Glenda Farrell as a reform school inmate.This 64 minute film moves fast and it covers a lot of territory in the beginning by using montage sequences. A montage is a technique in film editing, a collection of images, short shots, headlines edited into a sequence with sometimes nostalgic music that briefly shows the passing of time, condensing space and information while propelling the plot forward. Three On A Match is interesting for a many reasons. It represents the kind of film that Warners did best in those years. Fast, cheap and packing a punch with action, pathos, no nonsense, no glamour and lots of underworld. It is also interesting because of the casting. Although Humphrey Bogart plays a thug, he wasn't Mr. Big yet. He was just a run of the mill thug. Ann Dvorak slender and elegant, with a refined beauty, and big, feverishly bright eyes and an air of electric, restless energy seems to have switched characters with Bette Davis or Joan Blondell. She becomes more and more corrupt as the picture wears on until you are convinced she is beyond redemption. Bette and Joan, on the other hand, become more and more saintly.Finally, there are the pre-code shenanigans. For a change, Joan Blondell doesn't sit on the edge of the bed, in her slip, rolling on a pair of stockings. Bette Davis does. This may be the only picture I have ever seen where Bette Davis shamelessly displays her legs, and what a fine set of legs she had.Sadly Ann Dvorak the lead in this film, who could have been a major star after this movie -- confronted the powers at Warner Bros. when she found she was only being paid the same as Buster Phelps the uncredited 6 year old actor playing her son. That fight led to her getting smaller roles, eventually marring English actor Leslie Fenton and moving to Britain to make films there for a while. Most film buffs don't know her name, that is until they see her in SCARFACE or in tonight's film THREE ON A MATCH… you can decide if you think she should be forgotten or was it just bad luck.