Grade: B-
Synopsis: A woman (Ann Dvorak) married to a successful lawyer with a young son, runs off with her childhood friend’s (Joan Blondell) grifter boyfriend.
Three on a Match is one of those great pre-code Hollywood drama’s that tells a refreshingly dark story without any sugarcoating.
Ann Dvorak plays a well-off woman bored with her married life. Through a chance meeting with an old childhood friend she winds up running off with a small time grifter, taking her young son with her. She parties to excess, and maybe even picks up a drug habit, all the while neglecting her son, who has to beg her for food. Unfortunately, her new man owes money to a mob boss—played wonderfully by Edward Arnold—who makes it clear that if he isn’t paid soon, his enforcer—played by Humphrey Bogart, in a small part—will extract it in pain. Faced with this, Dvorak’s character and her boyfriend hatch a kidnapping plot involving her son.
In-between all this there’s a sub plot involving Dvorak’s character’s childhood friends—played by Joan Blondell and Bette Davis—meant to illustrate how much these characters have change, or not, since their youth.
The great thing about Three on a Match is that all of this is crammed into only 63 minutes of running time. Things move along at a breakneck pace, and the plot, free of the Motion Picture Code’s later trappings, feels remarkable fresh and honest. This, combined with the great cast (excluding Buster Phelps, who’s just annoying as Ann Dvorak’s character’s kid) makes for a very entertaining experience.
One Response on “Three on a Match (1932)”:
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Bacall said:
One of the things I love most about pre-code movies is how fast they move. They managed to get all kinds of plots in as little as 63 minutes. And the best part about that, the movie moves quickly, but you don’t feel cheated. The movie said a whole lot in little time. But that was old Hollywood’s way of doing things, sort of like Abraham Lincoln with the Gettysburg address, short and sweet, but said plenty.
Sadly most movies today, with a few exceptions, make you want to run out of the theater in 30 minutes. Too much bells and whistles, and no substance. One of my favorite pre-code movies is “Three on A Match.” It’s a sad and gritty story of how low a person can get when using drugs. It’s a story of a woman who thought the grass was greener on the other side even though she had it all. She lost everything including her life. Nice Blog!
