sol
***SPOILERS*** The movie follows the lives of three classmate from P.S 62 in New York Ciy from the time they graduated in 1921 to the present which in this case is 1932 at the depths of the Great Depression and how fate treated them during that period of time in their lives.The three girls now all grown ups Mary Keaton,Joan Blondell, Ruth Westcott, Bette Davis, and Vivian Revere, Ann Dvorak, would later after having lunch light up a cigarette. But with only one match between then it's Vivian who get the short end of the match or last light which is to mean in superstitious circles that she's the one who'll ends up dead before the other three. Now that we know all that ironically of the three girls who seemed to have the biggest piece of the pie in life is the one who's not going to finish eating it Vivian Revere!Vivian has it all money family and a loving husband Robert Kirkwood, Warren William, who's not only sweet kind and handsome but loaded with cash in him being one of the top defense lawyers, those are the guys who make all the money in court system , in New York Cty. Vivian also has a beautiful and sweet, just like his daddy, boy Bobby Jr, Buster Phelps, who makes everything just perfect in her life. As for Mary she's been in and out of jail since high school and Ruth she's just a plain Jane working girl office worker trying to make ends meet during the Great Depression with the meager salary she earns.It's seems that by being the last of the three girls to get her cigarette lighted with one match turned Vivivan's life around for the worst as we soon see when she and little Bobby Jr go on a cruise to France and she meets the gigolo like smooth talking Mike Loftus, Lyle Talbot, who sweeps her off her feet and has her check out with him to this sleazy hotel together with the confused 5 year old Bobby Jr who's not quite sure,because of his young age, what's exactly going on!Meanwhile back home Vivivan's hubby Robert Sr. is doing everything he can to track her and Bobby Jr. down and bring them home and in the case of Vivian have her treated for whatever mental illness, in how she's been behaving lately, she's suffering from. After tracking down Vivian and Bobby Jr in some dump in downtown Manhattan Robert finally set Vivian free, by divorcing her, but takes custody of his son Bobby Jr and,this must have really killed her, marries Vivivan's classmate the ex-con, who among her crimes served time for grand larceny, Mary Keaton! After cutting his wife loose Robert's life together with Bobby Jr and Mary really picks up but as for the by now alcoholic and coke sniffing Vivian her's goes straight down the rat hole. It's Vivian's now live-in boyfriend Mike Loftus who's in hot water with the mob, which he's a member of, in welching on a $2,000.00 loan from his boss Ace, Edward Arnold, whom were introduced to in his office trimming his facial, mostly in his nose, hair. Desperate to get the money that he owes Ace Mike at first tries to blackmails Vivian's ex,Robert Kirkwood,in threatening to expose to the media that his new old lady Mary is an ex-jailbird! That has Mike almost get his clock cleaned by the outraged defense lawyer who ends up throwing him out of his office. Finally in desperation Mike comes up with this bright idea of kidnapping Bobby Jr and holding him hostage for the $2,000.00 he owes Ace.This turns out to be the worst mistake that Mike made in his entire life leading to not only his murder but that of his by now totally out of it girlfriend, the years of booze & coke has finally gotten to her, Vivian!***SPOILERS*** Finally getting down to brass tracts Ace sends his goons lead by "Harv the Hammer", Humphrey Bogart, to work Mike over in not being able to get Vivian's ex, Robert Kirkwood Sr,to pay up the now, due to inflation, $25,000.00 in ransom money to get his son Bobby Jr back: As for Kirkwood's ex-old lady Vivian he, Mike & Co, can keep her as far as he's concerned. Really getting nowhere with the ransom money Ace orders "Harve the Hammer" to ice, or murder, little Bobby which has the by now ready for the city morgue Mike Loftus get religion and refused to,like the excuse the Nazi bigwigs at Nuremberg used for the crimes that they committed, follow orders! Blasting Mike away "Harve the Hammer" and his goons were now ready to do the same to both Vivian and Bobby Jr but Vivian despite being totally strung out on coke had enough smarts and lipstick to prevent them, killing little Bobby, from doing it! But as it turned out her heroic and selfless actions ended up costing Vivian her life!P.S Check out the future Sgt. Joe, "Just the facts Mame", Friday actor Jack Webb as an 11 year old classmate of Mary Ruth & Vivian at the very start of the movie.
kirksworks
I highly recommend this Pre-Code film, an early directorial effort by Mervyn LeRoy. "Three on a Match" is more frank about life than many other films from that early era. Though Bette Davis is in it, she was still an ingénue with a very small part. She makes no major impact, but the real star of the show is Ann Dvorak (pronounced Vorzhak in case you didn't know). I have only recently gotten acquainted with this exquisite actress and have yet to see a bad performance in the half dozen or so films I've seen of hers. She was amazing in "Match," just so very natural, believable, one of the best at making not great dialog zing. And her eyes!! Wow! The concept of the film comes from a superstition that grew during WWI about three soldiers lighting cigarettes from the same match being bad luck for one of the three. This is not a war film. The girls are civilians, who at one point light up cigarettes with one match, recalling that superstition. The three are: Ann Dvorak, Bette Davis and Joan Blondell (she's also good). What is surprising is how their lives change and how straightforward the film is in depicting one woman's downfall. It's very intense, with a shocking and heartbreaking ending.We get to know three girls as children first and then see them again years later when they reconnect after becoming young women. As children they were very different. As adults their lives take different paths. The film is segmented by yearly dates, jumping ahead every few years to see where they are and how things have changed. The story becomes a bit predictable, but it's still very much worth sticking with because of how honest the portrayals are and how good Dvorak is. She made an even bigger impact not too long after this by playing Paul Muni's sister in Howard Hawks' "Scarface." "Three on a Match" is worth seeing for a view into a short period of early sound films when they approached their subject matter fearlessly, and had more realistic female characters. Once the production code was instated, female roles became more constrained. This is one of the must-see Pre-Code films.
GManfred
Didn't like this picture as much as I thought I would. It had a great cast of future and contemporary Hollywood stars, some who are not credited or listed in the credits. It was directed by Mervyn Leroy so there was no argument there.Maybe I just don't like soapers as much as other viewers. This one had some melodramatic moments, true, but it was too stagnant and the story line lacked energy. It is basically a woman's picture, a "chick-flick" as they like to say, and, speaking for myself, I have a hard time sitting through these. Julia Roberts and Meryl Streep specialize in this type of movie nowadays and they make lots of money, so I guess I'm out-voted. I almost forgot to mention that this picture belonged to Ann Dvorak and she was excellent. She added weight and substance to the picture which I felt needed some. She was especially effective at the climax of the picture.Always enjoy Joan Blondell, thought Ann Dvorak is very close to plain and didn't know Bette Davis was a thunder-thighs, as she appeared in a bathing suit towards the end of the picture.I would certainly recommend it to fans of the Golden Age of Hollywood and to those who would disagree with my jaundiced view of motion picture entertainment.
