Main Cast: Joan Blondell, Warren William, Ann Dvorak, Bette Davis, Buster Phelps
Release Year: 1932
Country: US
Run Time: 64 minutes
Plot
Three on a Match covers approximately 13 years in the lives of girlhood chums Mary Keaton (Joan Blondell), Ruth Wescott (Bette Davis) and Vivian Deverse (Ann Dvorak). Having graduated from grammar school together in 1919, the girls stage a reunion ten years later. Hard-boiled Mary is now a chorus girl, level-headed Ruth has a steady job as a secretary, and vixenish Vivian is on the verge of capriciously deserting her wealthy husband Robert Kirkwood (Warren William) and their baby in favor of sexy mob-boss Mike (Lyle Talbot). Several more years pass, during which Mary marries Henry, Ruth is hired as governess for Henry, and Vivian's son and a drug-addicted Vivian become fatally enmeshed in a kidnapping plot involving her own child. In his second Warner Bros. film, tenth-billed Humphrey Bogart essays his first sneering-gangster role. Three on a Match was remade (and considerably laundered) in 1938 as Broadway Musketeers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Although she figures prominently on the cover art for the video release of Three on a Match, a very young and very blond Bette Davis has very little to do other than fill out Swedish industrialist Ivar Kreuger's infamous prophecy. By the end of this typical pre-Production Code drama, we know very little about Davis' character, other than she is a most competent woman who, through no fault of her own, loses her valuable charge to a gang of kidnappers. In contrast, we have learned a great deal more about Joan Blondell, who does her usual chorus girl-turned-society wife routine, and Ann Dvorak, the two other girls sharing that notorious match. The latter, an unfairly neglected actress, remains the drama's focal point and although we suspect that she won't stay that way, is quite believable as the bored wife of a busy attorney. There was always something disturbing about Dvorak, whatever character she was given to play, and her fall from grace here is not quite as surprising as screenwriter Lucien Hubbard may have hoped. The dark-eyed Dvorak was really more "street" than "parlor" and she plays her descent into cocaine addiction with little or no vanity. Said addiction is almost shockingly commented on by gangster Humphrey Bogart, who dismisses Dvorak's ill temper by gesturing to his nose, a "bit of business" not permitted after July of 1934 when the Code became strictly enforced. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
Three friends from childhood, Mary (Joan Blondell), Ruth (Bette Davis), and Vivian (Ann Dvorak), meet again as young adults after some time apart. They each light a cigarette from the same match and discuss the superstition that this is unlucky and that Vivian, the last to light her cigarette, will soon die.
Mary is an entertainer who has established stability in her life after spending some time in a reform school, while Ruth works as a stenographer. Vivian is the best off of the three, married to successful lawyer Robert Kirkwood (Warren William) and with a young son, but she has grown dissatisfied with her life. On an ocean cruise, gambler Michael Loftus (Lyle Talbot) persuades Vivian to run away with him. She soon becomes addicted to cocaine (this is not explicitly spelled out, but a young Humphrey Bogart, playing a hood named Harve, mimes the dissolute woman's habit by brushing his hand under his nose in one scene, winkingly).
Concerned about Vivian's neglect of her son, Mary tells Robert where to find his boy. Robert retrieves his son and divorces Vivian. Mary and Robert become better acquainted and eventually marry.
Meanwhile, Vivian's money runs out and Michael owes $2000 to three sadistic gangsters, Harve, Dick (Allen Jenkins) and Ace (Edward Arnold), who tell him to pay up or else. Desperate, Michael tries to blackmail Robert by threatening to inform the press about Mary's criminal background. When that doesn't work, he kidnaps Robert's boy. However, in a selfless act of contrition and self-sacrifice, Vivian scrawls a message in lipstick on her nightgown and throws herself out the window of the fourth-floor apartment where she and her son are being held, alerting the authorities and saving her son's life at the cost of her own.
Jack Webb has an uncredited role as a 12 year old boy in a schoolyard - his first ever film appearance
Main cast and characters
Joan Blondell as Mary Keaton, also known as Mary Bernard. A tomboy as a child, Mary spent time in a reform school, before becoming an entertainer.
Ann Dvorak as Vivian Kirkwood, a beautiful woman from a background of wealth. She is married to Robert Kirkwood, and is the mother of their young son.
Bette Davis as Ruth Wescott. Serious and studious as a child, Ruth works as a stenographer.
Warren William as Robert Kirkwood, Vivian's husband, a successful attorney.
