3 on a Match (1932)
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
Mary Keaton (Joan Blondell), Vivian Kirkwood (Ann Dvorak / Anne Shirley), and Ruth Westcott (Bette Davis) have just run into one another for the first time since graduating from Public School 62 a decade ago, and in their re-acquaintance they renew their friendship. Their lives are going much as predicted when they were at school: Mary, the troublemaker who almost didn't graduate with her class, spent time in a reformatory but went straight and became a showgirl. Vivian, the popular beauty with a charmed life, married wealthy, renowned lawyer Robert Kirkwood (Warren William) and had son Robert Jr. (Buster Phelps) Ruth, the quiet, hard-working, smart one, became a stenographer. Mary's life took a positive turn since her reformatory years, but Vivian has realized that she is unhappy with her predictable life and wondered if she ever really loved Robert. Her quest for pleasure, with a blessing of sorts from Robert who doesn't want his wife, whom he still loves, to be as distant as she seems, will affect Mary as well. Their collective destinies might be foreshadowed by the old wives' tale about three sharing a single match, from which the film takes its name. - Actors:
- Joan Blondell, Ann Dvorak, Bette Davis, Warren William, Lyle Talbot, Humphrey Bogart, Allen Jenkins, Edward Arnold, Hardie Albright, Virginia Davis, Anne Shirley, Joan Sheldon, Herman Bing, Clara Blandick, Dick Brandon, Ann Brody, Spencer Charters, Frankie Darro, Mary Doran, Patricia Ellis
- Directors:
- Mervyn LeRoy
- Producers:
- Samuel Bischoff, Darryl F. Zanuck
- Writers:
- Lucien Hubbard, Kubec Glasmon, John Bright
- Aka:
- Three on a Match
- Genres:
- Classics, Drama, Romance
More like 3 on a Match
Reviews (1) of 3 on a Match
Thirties Melodrama. - 3 on a Match review by Steve
Oddball precode melodrama which is so squalid it's hard to believe your eyes! There's enough plot for a four hour epic, yet Mervyn LeRoy bundles the whole lot into a reckless 63m! Three ex-school pals meet sort-of-by-chance for lunch and light up their cigarettes on one match. Apparently, this means bad luck and the third will be dead in a year!
It actually starts as a comedy with the girls in school. Ann Dvorak is the girl most likely, Joan Blondell the dirty blonde and a pre-stardom Bette Davis the goody-two-shoes. Dvorak marries into money (Warren William), but after the fateful smoke, her life goes into a tailspin. She gets divorced and shacks up with bootleggers while on a strict booze and cocaine diet.
She neglects her incredibly annoying little boy and launches herself- literally- into the gutter. This is astonishing stuff which delivers an onslaught of unforeseeable delights. Best of all is Dvorak who gives a sensationally out of control performance. The male quintessence of precode sleaze, Warren William, is buttoned up, but can't hide that instinctive seediness.
Blondell is typically fine as a sassy good-time showgirl and it's fun to see Humphrey Bogart- who kidnaps the kid- and Davis in eccentric early roles, scrapping for screen time. Glenda Farrell turns up for mere seconds as a reform school dropout. Every minute delivers either a good laugh, or a twist that is completely off the wall. It's ludicrous, but unmissable.