Three on a Match [VHS]
If three people light cigarettes from the same match, one will die soon, or at least that's how the old superstition had it. Three childhood friends (Joan Blondell, Bette Davis, Ann Dvorak) laugh it off as they all light up from the same match. Vivian (Dvorak) is married to a wealthy attorney (played by Warren William, in a sympathetic role for once). Bored and stifled in her life, she decides on a walk on the wild side; absconding with their 4-year-old son, she falls in with gangsters and takes a nosedive. Soon she's living the life of a slattern, hooked on cocaine and bootleg liquor, neglecting her son like he's so much excess baggage. Meanwhile her husband and friends are frantic to get the little boy back and set things right again. In this movie's 64-minute running time, director Mervyn LeRoy managed to include Depression-era social commentary, drugs, crime, sex, violence, and some surprisingly well-fleshed-out characterizations. The young Bette Davis is beautiful (even playing one scene in her lingerie), and Blondell and Dvorak are both great in their roles. Even more remarkable, though, is the number of future stars that can be spotted inThree on a Match: Lyle Talbot, a young Anne Shirley, Edward Arnold, and Humphrey Bogart in a great role as a menacing hood. This is entertaining fare that's still potent today in all its pre-censorship seediness.--Jerry Renshaw