THREE ON A MATCH (1932)

To see what all the fuss is about concerning the pre-Code era, this is the movie to see, maybe on a double bill with BABY FACE. It's short (64 minutes, too short to really do the material justice, but it does move at a lightning pace), has crime, violence, sex, and debauchery, features three standout performances, and is loads of fun. The movie begins in 1919 and moves forward a few years at a time, with newsreel footage and period music to set each scene; we follow the paths of three young women from their playground days through their late 20's. Mary (Joan Blondell) is the school tramp, showing off her bloomers and skipping class to go smoking with the boys; she winds up spending some time in a reform school before becoming a chorus girl. Ruth (Bette Davis) is the valedictorian who goes to business school and winds up as a secretary. Vivian (Ann Dvorak), pretty and popular, gets married to a lawyer (Warren William) and has a son, but finds the pampered life boring. In 1930, the three meet up for lunch and use one match to light three cigarettes, defying a legend that says one of the three will meet with an early death. Soon, Dvorak has left her family to hang out with no-good but handsome Lyle Talbot; she becomes an alcoholic and a drug addict and, when Talbot can't repay a big gambling debt, she arranges to have her son kidnapped to ransom for cash. In the meantime, Blondell has married William and Davis is their governess, but the last half of the movie is pretty much focused on the tragic Dvorak, leading to a wild and woolly climax with a truly shocking last scene for Dvorak.

Dvorak is the standout here, doing a great job going from mild to restless to slutty to debauched. Blondell is fine, but Davis has very little to do--in fact, after the three meet up for their fateful lunch, she's barely involved in the proceedings at all. Talbot is excellent, almost as good as Dvorak as a guy who's slick and charming on the outside, but who falls apart quickly when the going gets rough--though he went on to appear in dozens of movies, he was rarely able to show the kind of spark he does here. Humphrey Bogart and Allen Jenkins are thugs, and Edward Arnold has a small but important part as the gangster boss--we first see him in a distorted close-up mirror, plucking his nose hairs, and it's a creepy moment. The three young actresses who play the trio as girls (Anne Shirley, Virginia Davis, and Betty Carse) are good, and one of my favorite child actors, Frankie Darro, plays one of the smoking boys in the schoolyard scene. Glenda Farrell, Clara Blandick, and Grant Mitchell also appear. A must-see for anyone interested in the minor masterpieces of pre-Code Hollywood. [TCM]