Three on a Match (1932)

The Worst Film Ever

That was an excellent one.

Sadly Over-hyped

Please don't spend money on this.

Three women who were childhood schoolmates take different paths in life. Vivian marries a very wealthy lawyer and has an adorable boy. Mary, on the other hand, takes the hard road through reform school. After a superstitious faux pas, Vivian's luck turns. She strays from her steadfast husband to a life of debauchery and alcoholism. Meanwhile, Mary turns her life around and not only wins the heart of Vivian's ex-husband, but also becomes a loving step-mother to Vivian's only child. Then Vivian's worthless boyfriend makes a desperate move.Quite simply, this movie is horrible. I kept re-reading the plot, thinking I was watching a different film. But no. The film really sucks. Poorly written and even more poorly directed. The entire first half seems like a comedy.The only thing interesting are Bette Davis's pre code bazookas. Other than that it's a bore

It's not often that I am truly impressed with films as early as 1932. This is one of the exceptions, and I give it an "8", a rating which I rarely hand out. And I credit director Mervyn Leroy for its excellence.Three women who had attended elementary school together (but were not exactly friends and had distinctly different personalities) meet again by chance and become friends. Mary (Joan Blondell) has gone into show business after spending some time in reform school. Ruth (Bette Davis) is in secretarial school. And Vivian (Ann Dvorak) has married a rich businessman, but is not content. At lunch one day they each light a cigarette from the same match and briefly mention the superstition that doing so is bad luck and that the last to light her cigarette -- Dvorak -- will be the first to die.On a cruise, a gambler (Lyle Talbot) sweeps Dvorak off her feet and she runs away with him...becomes addicted to drugs (watch for Humphrey Bogart's hint at this)...and she gives up her child to her ex-husband...clearly the good guy here. Dvorak's ex eventually marries Blondell. Dvorak's money slowly disappears, and Talbot owes big money to gangster Edward Arnold and his thugs (including a young and handsome Humphrey Bogart). Desperate, Talbot attempts to blackmail Dvorak's ex-husband by threatening to expose Blondell's time in reform school. His blackmail attempt is rebuffed, so he kidnaps the child. Dvorak eventually jumps out the window to her death, sacrificing her own life so the crowd below will see a message in lipstick on her nightgown, telling police where the child is.This is Dvorak's picture, and she is excellent, though not very likable. Blondell is superb, as well. Bette Davis' part is the lightest of the principals, but she does fine as the most prim and proper of the three friends (although in this pre-code film you do get to see her in her undies). The film is fast paced, not lasting much over an hour, but it's the pace adds to the excellence of the film. And, it's intense; it's gut-wrenching to realize the thugs are about to murder the child when the kidnap plan begins to go wrong, and a shock to see Dvorak leap out the window to her death. Make no mistake, this is an emotional film, and Leroy handle sit perfectly.A great addition to your DVD shelf!

Though I'm a big fan of movies of the 30s and 40s, I was unaware of Ann Dvorak prior to seeing this one. I thought she gave a very realistic performance (for the time), and it's a shame she didn't have a longer career.Others have synopsized the plot in prior reviews, so I won't rehash it. However, I am surprised that no one else has made the connection to the Lindbergh kidnapping that seemed so obvious to me.On March 1, 1932, the young son of America's hero of the day, Charles Lindbergh, was kidnapped. Google the kidnapping and take a look at pictures of the child...the resemblance to the child in "Three On A Match" is striking. And certainly, the audiences of the day would have been well aware of the connection, as the kidnapping was the top news story in the country for months.A fascinating film!

This probably mostly gets watched by Bette Davis or Humphrey Bogart completists. But, while Bette Davis is one of the titular three smokers, her role is relatively minor. Bogart plays the typical gangster he played so many times before The Maltese Falcon. The stars of this film are Ann Dvorak and Joan Blondell. The story is about former classmates who meet again as adults. Dvorak grew up a goody-two-shoes who was always secretly jealous of the more popular troublemaker Blondell. Blondell has had a bad life, been in a reform institution and hangs out with gangsters. Dvorak, on the other hand, went to college and is raising a son with her high-powered attorney husband. When the two meet again, Dvorak is still jealous of Blondell's exciting lifestyle. She's bored with her husband, and ends up leaving him. Blondell tries to save her by going to her husband, but that plans goes awry when the husband falls for Blondell. The two women basically exchange lives, and Dvorak goes through Hell. I have to admit, the main reason this movie is memorable is because of the gasp-inducing ending. It's just one of the most shocking things I've ever seen in a classic movie. The story is pretty good, and Dvorak in particular is excellent. The thing that hurts the film enormously, though, is that freakin' little brat who plays Dvorak's son. Kids in classic movies are so often terrible, but this one takes the cake. Since a lot of the plot is about how hurt one parent is because the child is with the other, it doesn't always work. You want to shove that kid's face in a blender.