"Three on a Match" (1932) is everything pre-Code Hollywood should be. Sixty-three minutes of affairs, divorce, kidnapping, drugs, and a cast so stacked it's almost unfair. Bette Davis. Joan Blondell. Warren William. Humphrey Bogart. Ann Dvorak. Lyle Talbot. All in one movie. It was one of the first pre-Codes I ever saw, and I've never forgotten it.
The title? Comes from an old superstition: lighting three cigarettes with one match brings bad luck — especially for the third person. Ironically, the myth might have been invented by the "Swedish Match King" Ivan Kreuger as a marketing stunt. It allegedly made his company an extra $5 million a year.
The story: Three schoolgirls — Vivian (Ann Dvorak), Mary (Joan Blondell), and Ruth (Bette Davis) — go their separate ways after graduation. Years later, they bump into each other at a beauty salon and light three cigarettes from the same match. Vivian's is lit last.
Vivian has everything. Rich husband. Beautiful home. Adorable son. But she's miserable. "I guess something must have been left out of my makeup," she says. Her unhappiness destroys her — and I mean destroys.
Mary? Rebellious tomboy. Ends up in reformatory. Ruth? The smart one. Business college.
Why you need to see it: The last eight minutes are brutal. Ann Dvorak is mesmerizing. And Bette Davis gets the obligatory pre-Code lingerie shot.
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