Amongst a blend of films that were never to be missed between my mom and me in regard to film watching, THREE ON A MATCH (1932) (and not to be confused with its remake BROADWAY MUSKETEERS (1938) starring (it's my girl!) Ann Sheridan, Margaret Lindsay, and Marie Wilson) was amongst them.
There are many ties I can knot between my mom and me with this film, from the 1st time we watched it and how it came about, to the last time, unbeknownst to us then, we watched the film together. Forever my #PartnerInCrime ... Yes, I miss my mom every day.
But for this coffee talk, let's pour a roast with a brew full of reasons to watch this film if unseen, rewatch, or introduce to your own movie buddy #FilmPartnersInCrime.
Aside from being directed by Mervyn LeRoy ("GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933", "LITTLE CAESAR", "MILLION DOLLAR MERMAID", "EAST SIDE, WEST SIDE", "RANDOM HARVEST", "JOHNNY EAGER" ... you get the point, you're always in good hands when it comes to LeRoy), let's give a who's who rundown of the cast, shall we ... Hang on to your mugs, Mugs.
Aside from being directed by Mervyn LeRoy ("GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933", "LITTLE CAESAR", "MILLION DOLLAR MERMAID", "EAST SIDE, WEST SIDE", "RANDOM HARVEST", "JOHNNY EAGER" ... you get the point, you're always in good hands when it comes to LeRoy), let's give a who's who rundown of the cast, shall we ... Hang on to your mugs, Mugs.
Joan Blondell, whom, no matter how many films I've seen her in (and brother that's a lot!), I can only hear her saying the words "cheap and vulgar" thanks to my mom repetitively wanting that scene replayed over again whenever we'd watch GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933.
Ann Dvorak (born Anna McKim); underrated, under-appreciated, or under-known, I don't know which, but if you don't know her, get to know her, she's the real thing. You can almost pick a feature when it comes to Ann and you'll be alright in the worth the watch department (IMO).
Bette Davis, before she became Bette Davis. *cue my "The Bette Davis Show" tweet* ...
RANDOM: Have to say out loud, as much as I [heart] Brando, it's "The Bette Davis Show" when she walks out on stage. Every single time I watch this, I want to stand up and applaud BD's entrance. Every. Single. Time. Alright, carry on.https://t.co/TclhjXnv9H pic.twitter.com/Q9uaIUs0uy
— Dominique Revue (@DominiqueRevue) December 9, 2017
... "WONDERFUL!"
Humphrey Bogart, before he became BOGART, delivering one of the funniest gestures in the film ...
"Uh-oh."
Warren William. Whom, I might add, a smile always seems to grow across my face when I see or hear mention of Warren William. With the "King of Pre-Code" you're always in for a good time.
Lyle Talbot. Yes, he is the father of "Gilbert" Stephen Talbot from 'Leave it To Beaver' in real life. And shout out to Grant Mitchell, Glenda Farrell, Allen Jenkins, Jack La Rue (haven't you watched NO ORCHIDS FOR MISS BLANDISH yet?), and Edward Arnold, all albeit brief scenes, are always memorable no matter how large or small their roles. |
And the child stars that make their impression onscreen from the start; the one's you know by sight, if not by name. Frankie Darro as "Bobby," Sidney Miller as "Willie Goldberg" ...
... and from what I understand, a young uncredited Jack Webb as one of the boys in the schoolyard playing.
That impressionable notice goes too, especially for the three girls, Anne Shirley (yes, that Anne Shirley, the one who up to this point, having had several stage names since her beginnings as an infant/child star, adopted her permeant name at 16-years-old after playing "Anne Shirley" in ANNE OF GREEN GABLES in 1934), billed here as Dawn O'Day (acting as Dvorak's character as a child); Virginia Davis, and Betty Carse, all three who carry the beginning of the film from the 1919 female characters, leading into the grown women, Ann Dvorak, Joan Blondell, and Bette Davis's characters in modern day 1932. They set the tone of the characters perfectly.
The concept for the film spawned from the phrase, "3 on a match," which is believed to have first been used in the United States after WWI from the superstition (turned reality in the film through the ladies) that if three soldiers used one match to light a ciggy, one of the three would be shot. And it does, in its way, have a connection to another Pre-Code film, THE MATCH KING (1932), also with the ''King of Pre-Code" himself, Warren William as the title character, "Paul Kroll" (The Match King). It was due to the real-life match king, Ivar Kreuger's monopoly on matches that the phrase "3 on a match" is too considered to be associated with (not originated by), as this was a "campaign", for lack of a better word, the tycoon tried to drive home in order to boost sales in matches ...
This phrase; which has gone past soldiers into the life of civilians in the film, seems to open Pandora's Box for one of the three girls who strike the match on an afternoon lunch in order to "dish the dirt" as the three girls have all taken different paths since their school days.
Joan Blondell (as Mary), a reform schoolgirl turned actress in the course of ten years; Ann Dvorak (as Vivian), the high society girl with a prominent lawyer for a husband (Warren William) and a son, who has become bored with her life and everything in it "that leaves her cold," and poor Bette (as Ruth). Who is the only character who doesn't seem to make that much of a change in position, a stenographer turned governess to William and Dvorak's son.
Joan Blondell (as Mary), a reform schoolgirl turned actress in the course of ten years; Ann Dvorak (as Vivian), the high society girl with a prominent lawyer for a husband (Warren William) and a son, who has become bored with her life and everything in it "that leaves her cold," and poor Bette (as Ruth). Who is the only character who doesn't seem to make that much of a change in position, a stenographer turned governess to William and Dvorak's son.
In the end, I think what attracted my mom and I to this film, outside of the cast, was that it was Pre-Code (a favorite genre), and—wait ... You mean you need more reasons than that? Nope. I didn't think so.
This film is zipped up tight in all of ... about an hour, give a few minutes. It's like Howard Hawks' dialogue in action. It gets you from 1919 to 1932, through three lives, a trip on a boat, and a hideout with gangsters, all wrapped in a sassy bow called Pre-Code, with a fish named Oscar ... All in an hour!!
And I can attest to this being the only film I know of, that my mom actually got out of bed (as to not wake my dad by turning the telly on) at the break of day before the sun came up, (she *never* did this outside of Black Friday) to go lay on the couch and watch THREE ON A MATCH, after we had initially discovered the film several years ago, without me! She told me she didn't have time for all that, I shouldn't have been sleepin' on the job!
Having said all that, I'll leave you with one (of many) film quotes we'd throw on each other, this one being mine to her when I was ready to go, "007 reporting for duty," as I hope you will be on the job next time you light up the coffee pot and watch THREE ON A MATCH ... #ForMyMom.
This film is zipped up tight in all of ... about an hour, give a few minutes. It's like Howard Hawks' dialogue in action. It gets you from 1919 to 1932, through three lives, a trip on a boat, and a hideout with gangsters, all wrapped in a sassy bow called Pre-Code, with a fish named Oscar ... All in an hour!!
And I can attest to this being the only film I know of, that my mom actually got out of bed (as to not wake my dad by turning the telly on) at the break of day before the sun came up, (she *never* did this outside of Black Friday) to go lay on the couch and watch THREE ON A MATCH, after we had initially discovered the film several years ago, without me! She told me she didn't have time for all that, I shouldn't have been sleepin' on the job!
Having said all that, I'll leave you with one (of many) film quotes we'd throw on each other, this one being mine to her when I was ready to go, "007 reporting for duty," as I hope you will be on the job next time you light up the coffee pot and watch THREE ON A MATCH ... #ForMyMom.
For my other CINEMA COFFEE blog pieces:
#ForMyMom Cinema Coffee ... | COFFEE CINEMA: Talking Streetcar | CINEMA COFFEE: "Et tu, Brute?" | CINEMA COFFEE: "La Chocolaterie" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Milk? I loathe milk!" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Elderberry Wine ..." | CINEMA COFFEE: "The choice I never had ..." | CINEMA COFFEE: "The smell of Mimosa" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Mighty like a Rose" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Don't cry on the rolls" | CINEMA COFFEE: "You're the first Kansas I ever met" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Everybody calls me Gracie" | CINEMA COFFEE: "What the devil are Belinskis?!" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Hello friends and enemies." | CINEMA COFFEE: "Stop remindin' me of heaven." | CINEMA COFFEE: "Even Gatsby could happen" | CINEMA COFFEE: "I made a wish" | CINEMA COFFEE: Audie Murphy | CINEMA COFFEE: Put The Blame on Mame | CINEMA COFFEE: "Just Singleton." | CINEMA COFFEE: "Where I Come From, Nobody Knows" | Film Therapy: Coping through Cinema | CINEMA COFFEE: Socks fall down | CINEMA COFFEE: "The moon's reaching for me" | CINEMA COFFEE: The Horne: Luso World Cinema Blogathon | CINEMA COFFEE: Aunt Bettye Lightsy | CINEMA COFFEE: I never lose | CINEMA COFFEE: "I have a mother!" | CINEMA COFFEE: THE SIGN OF GEMINI | CINEMA COFFEE: Venus Rising | CINEMA COFFEE: Stan vs Geek | CINEMA COFFEE: "Positively the same dame"
#ForMyMom Cinema Coffee ... | COFFEE CINEMA: Talking Streetcar | CINEMA COFFEE: "Et tu, Brute?" | CINEMA COFFEE: "La Chocolaterie" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Milk? I loathe milk!" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Elderberry Wine ..." | CINEMA COFFEE: "The choice I never had ..." | CINEMA COFFEE: "The smell of Mimosa" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Mighty like a Rose" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Don't cry on the rolls" | CINEMA COFFEE: "You're the first Kansas I ever met" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Everybody calls me Gracie" | CINEMA COFFEE: "What the devil are Belinskis?!" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Hello friends and enemies." | CINEMA COFFEE: "Stop remindin' me of heaven." | CINEMA COFFEE: "Even Gatsby could happen" | CINEMA COFFEE: "I made a wish" | CINEMA COFFEE: Audie Murphy | CINEMA COFFEE: Put The Blame on Mame | CINEMA COFFEE: "Just Singleton." | CINEMA COFFEE: "Where I Come From, Nobody Knows" | Film Therapy: Coping through Cinema | CINEMA COFFEE: Socks fall down | CINEMA COFFEE: "The moon's reaching for me" | CINEMA COFFEE: The Horne: Luso World Cinema Blogathon | CINEMA COFFEE: Aunt Bettye Lightsy | CINEMA COFFEE: I never lose | CINEMA COFFEE: "I have a mother!" | CINEMA COFFEE: THE SIGN OF GEMINI | CINEMA COFFEE: Venus Rising | CINEMA COFFEE: Stan vs Geek | CINEMA COFFEE: "Positively the same dame"