“Some people get all the luck.” — Ruth to Mary
“I wonder.” — Mary as she and Ruth watch Vivian's driver take her away

For those interested in the frankness of Hollywood films during the early 1930s in dealing with subjects that would become taboo just a few years later, Three On a Match is required viewing. Thanks to director Mervyn LeRoy and a marvelous cast, some who were not yet big, but would be, this is much more than just a pre-code curio. It is a very good film which manages to cover decades in the lives of three women in just over a single jam-packed hour. It is frank, sometimes raw, yet tender and involving. In the end it is tragic. Ann Dvorak is wonderful and Joan Blondell memorable, as is a young Ann Shirley, billed here in 1932 as Dawn O’Day.

LeRoy had a knack for making you care about his characters and their plight, which was also in evidence in the other memorable film he helmed in 1932, I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang. By showing the girls in school, their personalities and vulnerabilities on full display as they grow up, we both better understand and have empathy for their actions, especially Dvorak’s Vivian. As the young Vivian, Ann Shirley is marvelous, and strikingly pretty just as Dvorak was, capturing the inner restlessness despite her privileged upbringing. Virginia Davis is also quite lovely as the free-spirited Mary, and seems as though she really is the younger version of Joan Blondell. Betty Carse is sweet and subdued as the poor Ruth, and makes for a perfect transition to a young and blonde Betty Davis. The Davis persona did not yet exist, and I find that quite refreshing in this film.

The director used newspaper headlines to mark the passage of time and it works wonders, cramming decades into minutes, making the viewer feel like they are actually following every moment as the three girls mature and go their separate ways. In a good way, it sort of gives the impression to the viewer they’ve watched a two-hour film rather than one which barely clocks in over an hour. The story begins in 1919 and hinges on a superstition borne from the trenches of the Great War, that if you left a match lit long enough to light three cigarettes, the third was marked for death. When the three schoolmates have a reunion of sorts, catching up on their lives since school, it is the rich but unhappy Vivian who gets the last flaming ember, and starts her decent.

Blondell is simply terrific as the vivacious member of the trio, having spent time in the pen and working as a showgirl. In a smaller role, Davis is quite nice as the regular girl working her way into respectability. It is Dvorak's nervous energy as Vivian which drives this film, however. Alive but not living, bored with her rich husband and empty existence, her inner desires will be unleashed by Lyle Talbot. He is no good, and her decent into the rough world of addiction and crime becomes so complete that only Mary’s concern for her child saves him from the same fate. It is here that a romance develops between Mary and Vivian's ex, Robert Kirkwood (Warren William), with her friend Ruth acting as nanny to Vivian’s son.

These are the days of gangsters and depravity, and the story begins to bear this out. Talbot is appropriately weak and slimy as Vivian's connection. It is a very young Humphrey Bogart who impresses, however, as boss Edward Arnold’s unfeeling henchman. A strung out Dvorak shines in a stark and shattering climax when she attempts to redeem her lost soul. One of the finest of the early 1930s pre-code films, Three On a Match has bite with substance, and not one, but two terrific performances. Blondell and Dvorak are incredible here, and fans of this genre and time period in American cinema would do themselves a great favor viewing this one. ( )