Forbidden Holywood Collection Vol. 2 - Disk 2 - Xvid 1cd - Three on a Match (1932) [DDR]
Three on a Match is a 1932 crime drama released by Warner Bros.
The film was directed by Mervyn LeRoy and stars Joan Blondell, Ann Dvorak and Bette Davis.
The film also features Warren William, Lyle Talbot, Humphrey Bogart (in his first tough-guy role), Allen Jenkins and Edward Arnold.
The film depicts the passage of time through several montage sequences, which drew positive criticism from the Spokane Spokesman-Review which described the film as utilizing "a brand new approach and treatment...
The parade of time is cleverly portrayed through news headlines down the years, popular song sheets, reproduced on screen, and excerpts from the news weeklies from 1919 and 1932."
TIME felt the film did not carry much weight, unlike previous Glasmon-Bright productions and that the suicide at the end was more implausible than tragic.
Film critic Kaspar Monahan lauded the performances in the film but called the "erratic" scenario "loses its convincing flavor midway;"
He also criticized Davis' role as "superfluous... except that her presence is needed to give some excuse for the title."
Mordaunt Hall of the New York Times felt Three on a Match was tedious and distasteful as well as unintelligent.
CAST:-
Joan Blondell as Mary Keaton, also known as Mary Bernard. A tomboy as a child, Mary spent time in a reform school, before becoming an entertainer.
Ann Dvorak as Vivian Kirkwood, a beautiful woman from a background of wealth. She is married to Robert Kirkwood, and is the mother of their young son.
Bette Davis as Ruth Wescott. Serious and studious as a child, Ruth works as a stenographer.
Warren William as Robert Kirkwood, Vivian's husband, a successful attorney.
Lyle Talbot as Michael Loftus
Humphrey Bogart as Harve
Allen Jenkins as Dick
Edward Arnold as Ace
Jack Webb (uncredited) boy in schoolyard
Directed by Mervyn LeRoy
Produced by Samuel Bischoff, Raymond Griffith, Darryl F. Zanuck
Screenplay by Lucien Hubbard
Story by Kubec Glasmon, John Bright
THREE ON A MATCH (superstition)
Three on a match (also known as third on a match) is a supposed superstition among soldiers during the Crimean War to World War I. The superstition goes that if three soldiers lit their cigarettes from the same match, one of the three would be killed or that the man who was third on the match would be shot. Since then it has been considered bad luck for three people to share a light from the same match.
The belief was that when the first soldier lit his cigarette, the enemy would see the light; when the second soldier lit his cigarette from the same match, the enemy would take aim and note if the soldier was friendly or foe; when the third soldier lit his cigarette from the same match, the enemy would fire. Another explanation for this was that the first to light the match gave an enemy marksman the range to the target, the second gave the windage on the target, and the third one was shot using this information.
First National Pictures released a film in 1932 called The Match King, starring Warren William; it was loosely based on the life of the Swedish match tycoon Ivar Kreuger and depicts the protagonist creating the "three on a match" superstition in order to sell more matches.
The 1932 Hollywood film Three on a Match made use of the superstition, but also had a graphic of a "Believe it or Not" newspaper clip that explains Kreuger's exploitation of the superstition. The character in the film who is "third on the match" does die at the end of the picture and the final scene depicts the surviving two sharing a match.
SYNOPSIS:- Three on a Match (1932)
Three friends from childhood, Mary (Blondell), Ruth (Davis), and Vivian (Dvorak), meet again as young adults after some time apart. They each light a cigarette from the same match and discuss the superstition that such an act is unlucky and that Vivian, the last to light her cigarette, will be the first to die.
Mary is an entertainer who has established stability in her life after spending some time in a reform school, while Ruth works as a stenographer. Vivian is the best off of the three, married to successful lawyer Robert Kirkwood (Warren William) and with a young son, but she has grown dissatisfied with her life. Just before she is about to leave on an ocean cruiser with her son, gambler Michael Loftus (Lyle Talbot) persuades Vivian to run away with him. She soon becomes addicted to cocaine (this is not explicitly spelled out, but a young Humphrey Bogart, playing a hood named Harve, mimes the dissolute woman's habit by brushing his hand under his nose in one scene, winkingly).
Concerned about Vivian's neglect of her son, Mary tells Robert where to find his boy. Robert retrieves his son and divorces Vivian. Mary and Robert become better acquainted and eventually marry.
Meanwhile, Vivian's money runs out and Michael owes $2,000 to three sadistic gangsters, Harve, Dick (Allen Jenkins) and Ace (Edward Arnold), who tell him to pay up or else.
Desperate, Michael tries to blackmail Robert by threatening to inform the press about Mary's criminal background. When that doesn't work, he kidnaps Robert's boy. However, in a selfless act of contrition and self-sacrifice, Vivian scrawls a message in lipstick on her nightgown and throws herself out the window of the fourth-floor apartment where she and her son are being held, alerting the authorities and saving her son's life at the cost of her own, making the superstitious comments at the beginning of the film about the last to light the cigarette being the first to die, accurate. (In real life, actress Ann Dvorak, the youngest of the three lead actresses, was also the first to die, in 1979, followed by Blondell later the same year, and, a decade later, Davis, in 1989.)
Three women who were childhood schoolmates take different paths in life. Vivian marries a very wealthy lawyer and has an adorable boy. Mary, on the other hand, takes the hard road through reform school. After a superstitious faux pas, Vivian's luck turns. She strays from her steadfast husband to a life of debauchery and alcoholism. Meanwhile, Mary turns her life around and not only wins the heart of Vivian's ex-husband, but also becomes a loving step-mother to Vivian's only child. Then Vivian's worthless boyfriend makes a desperate move.
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
Video Codec: XviD ISO MPEG-4
Video Bitrate: 855 kbps
Video Resolution: 640x480
Video Aspect Ratio: 1.333:1
Frames Per Second: 23.976
Audio Codec: 0x2000 (Dolby AC3) AC3
Audio Bitrate: 192kb/s CBR 48000 Hz
Audio Streams: 2
Audio Languages: English
RunTime 1:03:00
Subtitles: None
Ripped by: Trinidad [DDR]
Duration: 1:03:00
