Three on a Match (1932)

Director:

Mervyn LeRoy

Writers:

John Bright (story)
Kubec Glasmon (story)

Release Date:

29 October 1932 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Romance

Plot:

Although Vivian Revere is seemingly the most successful of a trio of reunited schoolmates, she throws it away by descending into a life of debauchery and drugs.

Plot Keywords:

Gangster | Lawyer | Secretary | Jazz | Cocaine Addict

Cast

Virginia Davis	...	Mary Keaton as a Child
Joan Blondell	...	Mary Keaton, aka Mary Bernard
Anne Shirley	...	Vivian Revere as a Child (as Dawn O'Day)
Ann Dvorak	...	Vivian Revere Kirkwood
Betty Carse	...	Ruth Wescott as a child (misspelled Westcott in opening credits)
Bette Davis	...	Ruth Wescott (misspelled Westcott in opening credits)
Warren William	...	Robert Kirkwood
Lyle Talbot	...	Michael Loftus
Humphrey Bogart	...	Harve
Allen Jenkins	...	Dick
Edward Arnold	...	Ace

Runtime:

63 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono | Vitaphone

Certification:

Finland:(Banned) (1933) (uncut version) | USA:Unrated

Filming Locations:

Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA

Company:

First National Pictures

Trivia:

Scenes of frenzy caused by the enactment of Prohibition were originally used in The Public Enemy (1931).

Quotes:

Mary Keaton, aka Mary Bernard: Will you stop remindin' me of Heaven when I'm so close to the other place?

Movie Connections:

Featured in Thou Shalt Not: Sex, Sin and Censorship in Pre-Code Hollywood (2008) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Oh! What a Pal Was Mary

Mom's Not Quite Herself Today

Another neglected eye-opener from the pre-Code era. No doubt, this cynical essay on wanton motherhood helped bring down the wrath of the censors two years hence. Ann Dvorak is a bored upper-class matron who flees to Europe with toddler son in tow, seeking excitement and a sexual adventure she can't admit to herself. She finds them in the person of shady character Lyle Talbott, with whom she shacks-up neglecting her boy in the process. Dvorak shines in those scenes that graphically chart her growing degradation, which I take from her appearance to include heavy drug use. The ending is frankly pretty predictable, Code or no Code.

The movie is no unmixed triumph. The Blondell--William relationship seems highly improbable, while Bette Davis's contrived role as the third girl on the match remains largely a waste. In fact, the movie's second half comes nowhere near the vitality or subtlety of the first half-- note the nuances of that early bedroom scene where we become privy to Dvorak's failing marriage. It's a little gem. The second half, on the other hand, is not helped by the caricatured gangsters, especially in their final scene which unlike the rest of the movie is also poorly directed. Nonetheless, the 60 minutes comes as a revelation to those of us accustomed to the conventions of a 30-year Code period.

Thanks be to TCM for rescuing these sleepers. I doubt they were shown anytime during the censorship era, and by the time they could be shown, they were too dated and obscure. But now film buffs have a chance to discover a Hollywood era most of us didn't know existed. Three on a Match may not be the most compelling product of that time, but it does prove one thing-- despite the opinion of some, sex was not an invention of the 1960's.