MAKSQUIBS CINEMATHEQUE: THREE ON A MATCH (1932)

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Wednesday, May 20, 2009

THREE ON A MATCH (1932)

The ‘three’ are Bette Davis, Joan Blondell & Ann Dvorak, but Davis was the new gal @ Warners so it’s more like ‘two & a half,’ with Davis in support. This is one of Mervyn LeRoy ’s best pics, a fast, racy Pre-Code programmer about three school girls who meet up as adults and find their lives crisscrossing. Dvorak is shockingly fine as the beauty who married well, but got too bored to appreciate her husband, home & child. Drugs & empty love affairs cause her life to spiral out of control and her physical decline and tenement life are shown with surprising realism. Blondell is the tough kid who takes her knocks and eventually sees life straight. She ends up with Dvorak’s ex, the normally shady Warren William in good-guy mode. Poor Bette gets stuck playing nursemaid for this swell couple & watching Dvorak go to pieces in the showiest role. Davis must have been pea-green with envy! Watch for an exceptional scene where Dvorak catches Blondell on the street and asks for a hand-out. And what a line up of supporting actors: Humphrey Bogart, Allen Jenkins, Grant Mitchell, Glenda Farrell, Edward Arnold; in a 64 minute programmer! How’d they do it?

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Wednesday, May 20, 2009

THREE ON A MATCH (1932)

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