Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Cleveronix A different way of telling a story

Lucia Ayala It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Walter Sloane Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Antonius Block Very entertaining. To start with you have Joan Blondell, Ann Dvorak, and Warren William all delivering great performances. Add to that a 24-year-old Bette Davis in a supporting role showing off her legs in addition to her beautiful face, Humphrey Bogart working on his tough guy character 9 years before 'The Maltese Falcon', and a number of cute performances by child actors, most notably 6-year- old Buster Phelps. There are shots of newspapers headlines over the years of the previous decade, including the 'amazing feat of the new wireless telephone' (radio), and the trend of wearing 'sun suits', the 'new brief attire greatly favored for bathing resorts' for the 'fad of sun-bathing'. You see Joan Blondell in prison, listening to a stories read out of a steamy book, and then later connected to a giant hair-curling machine with wires descending from the ceiling to her metallic skullcap. The pre-Code script is a little over-the- top but that's part of the fun. It has three girls growing up into very 'types' of women, and then Dvorak's character getting so bored with her life of luxury that she slips into alcohol, drugs, and adultery, imperiling her little boy. Director Mervyn LeRoy keeps things moving and I liked how it was both short, at 63 minutes, but also packed with content. It's not "high art" or anything, but there are so many bits of interest that this is one that I would recommend to people who aren't normally interested in old movies, and I round up my review score a bit.

zardoz-13 Director Mervyn LeRoy, who helmed "Little Caesar" and "I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang," directed this seamy but above-average urban saga about three women who attended the same grammar school Public School No. 62 and then departed to got their separate ways in life. Fun-loving Mary Keaton wound up in reform school. Academically gifted Ruth Westcott, who graduated with highest honors, entered a business college to learn how to become both a stenographer and a typist. Finally, Vivian Revere went to an elite boarding school. Ultimately, Vivian (Ann Dvorak of "G-Men") wedded a wealthy lawyer Robert Kirkwood(Warren William of "Midnight Madonna") and they have a little boy. Mary (Joan Blondell) survives the reformatory and becomes a chlorine in the chorus line. Ruth (Bette Davis of "Waterloo Bridge") works in a business office as a secretary. Although it may not appear to be a seamy, unsavory proletarian melodrama, "Three on a Match" presents images of child abuse, suicide, alcoholism, and despicable debauchery.The problem with poor Vivian is that she does not appreciate all the good fortune that she has achieved. She does not love her husband, refuses to kiss him on the mouth, and wants to separate from him. Robert Kirkwood agrees to send her and his son on a cruise. After Kirkwood leaves the ship to attend to legal matters, Vivian runs into Mary aboard the ship before it heaves anchor. Mary is enjoying a party with several people, one of whom is a shady character (Lyle Talbot) who eventually gets Vivian drunk and preys on her weakness for alcohol. Vivian leaves the ship under mysterious circumstances and Kirkwood sends out detectives to find her with no luck. Mary realizes the wrong that she has done and worries about the welfare of Vivian's child. Eventually, Vivian turns into an alcohol and there is the implication that she is snorting cocaine. She divorces Kirkwood and he remarries. He takes Mary Keaton has his wife and they live happily until Vivian needs money and her evil boyfriend kidnaps her son to pay off his debts to a gangster (Edward Arnold) who employs a nasty thug (Humphrey Bogart in a minor role). Meantime, the cops close in on the kidnappers and a desperate Vivian writes a note on her gown about the whereabouts of her son and crashes through an upstairs window and dies when she strikes the stairs outside the apartment building. Mervyn LeRoy does a good job with this trim 64 minute drama. He establishes the historical setting of the events and that adds to the realism. This is an example of Pre-Code Hollywood entertainment and it is well above average. Bette Davis exposes more of her flesh that she ever would in later pictures, and Warren William (who went on to play the first Perry Mason) is cast ironically as a sympathetic character.

blanche-2 Ann Dvorak, Joan Blondell, and Bette Davis are "Three on a Match" in this 1932 precode film also starring Warren William, Humphrey Bogart, and Lyle Talbot. The story concerns three girls who grow up together - one, Vivian (Dvorak) is from a good family and marries a wealthy attorney (William); Mary (Blondell) ends up in reform school and goes into show business when she gets out; and Ruth (Davis) becomes a secretary. The three reconnect in adulthood, but the most successful one, Vivian, is bitterly unhappy. She eventually leaves her husband for a friend (Talbot) of Mary's and becomes a nympho drug addict. Ruth and Mary become concerned for her child and work with the boy's father to get him out of the bad situation.Heavy melodrama with a showy performance by Dvorak. Davis is unbelievably young and very pretty; she has hardly anything to do. Bogart is a thug whose boss is owed money by Talbot - he, too, has s small role. The film is almost like a history lesson - as each year goes by, we see sheet music for the popular song of the day and newspaper headlines.Short and entertaining, it's so interesting to see Bogart and Davis, who would end up on top 50 lists of greatest film stars in history, laboring away at these tiny parts. No one can say they didn't pay their dues.

zetes 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.