Wow! Such a good movie.

People are voting emotionally.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Although Vivian Revere (Ann Dvorak) is seemingly the most successful of a trio of reunited schoolmates, she throws it away by descending into a life of debauchery and drugs.This film has it all, and could very easily be called the exploitation film of the 1930s. While common decency kept it from showing nudity and having people cussing, it has a wealthy wife neglecting her son and getting involved in partying with gamblers and gangsters. This is very much the "bad girl" film of its time.Interestingly, in retrospect the biggest names attached are Humphrey Bogart (who barely has a supporting role) and Bette Davis, who still looks like she had the potential to be a movie star rather than the B-movie queen she became.

***SPOILERS*** The movie follows the lives of three classmate from P.S 62 in New York Ciy from the time they graduated in 1921 to the present which in this case is 1932 at the depths of the Great Depression and how fate treated them during that period of time in their lives.The three girls now all grown ups Mary Keaton,Joan Blondell, Ruth Westcott, Bette Davis, and Vivian Revere, Ann Dvorak, would later after having lunch light up a cigarette. But with only one match between then it's Vivian who get the short end of the match or last light which is to mean in superstitious circles that she's the one who'll ends up dead before the other three. Now that we know all that ironically of the three girls who seemed to have the biggest piece of the pie in life is the one who's not going to finish eating it Vivian Revere!Vivian has it all money family and a loving husband Robert Kirkwood, Warren William, who's not only sweet kind and handsome but loaded with cash in him being one of the top defense lawyers, those are the guys who make all the money in court system , in New York Cty. Vivian also has a beautiful and sweet, just like his daddy, boy Bobby Jr, Buster Phelps, who makes everything just perfect in her life. As for Mary she's been in and out of jail since high school and Ruth she's just a plain Jane working girl office worker trying to make ends meet during the Great Depression with the meager salary she earns.It's seems that by being the last of the three girls to get her cigarette lighted with one match turned Vivivan's life around for the worst as we soon see when she and little Bobby Jr go on a cruise to France and she meets the gigolo like smooth talking Mike Loftus, Lyle Talbot, who sweeps her off her feet and has her check out with him to this sleazy hotel together with the confused 5 year old Bobby Jr who's not quite sure,because of his young age, what's exactly going on!Meanwhile back home Vivivan's hubby Robert Sr. is doing everything he can to track her and Bobby Jr. down and bring them home and in the case of Vivian have her treated for whatever mental illness, in how she's been behaving lately, she's suffering from. After tracking down Vivian and Bobby Jr in some dump in downtown Manhattan Robert finally set Vivian free, by divorcing her, but takes custody of his son Bobby Jr and,this must have really killed her, marries Vivivan's classmate the ex-con, who among her crimes served time for grand larceny, Mary Keaton! After cutting his wife loose Robert's life together with Bobby Jr and Mary really picks up but as for the by now alcoholic and coke sniffing Vivian her's goes straight down the rat hole. It's Vivian's now live-in boyfriend Mike Loftus who's in hot water with the mob, which he's a member of, in welching on a $2,000.00 loan from his boss Ace, Edward Arnold, whom were introduced to in his office trimming his facial, mostly in his nose, hair. Desperate to get the money that he owes Ace Mike at first tries to blackmails Vivian's ex,Robert Kirkwood,in threatening to expose to the media that his new old lady Mary is an ex-jailbird! That has Mike almost get his clock cleaned by the outraged defense lawyer who ends up throwing him out of his office. Finally in desperation Mike comes up with this bright idea of kidnapping Bobby Jr and holding him hostage for the $2,000.00 he owes Ace.This turns out to be the worst mistake that Mike made in his entire life leading to not only his murder but that of his by now totally out of it girlfriend, the years of booze & coke has finally gotten to her, Vivian!***SPOILERS*** Finally getting down to brass tracts Ace sends his goons lead by "Harv the Hammer", Humphrey Bogart, to work Mike over in not being able to get Vivian's ex, Robert Kirkwood Sr,to pay up the now, due to inflation, $25,000.00 in ransom money to get his son Bobby Jr back: As for Kirkwood's ex-old lady Vivian he, Mike & Co, can keep her as far as he's concerned. Really getting nowhere with the ransom money Ace orders "Harve the Hammer" to ice, or murder, little Bobby which has the by now ready for the city morgue Mike Loftus get religion and refused to,like the excuse the Nazi bigwigs at Nuremberg used for the crimes that they committed, follow orders! Blasting Mike away "Harve the Hammer" and his goons were now ready to do the same to both Vivian and Bobby Jr but Vivian despite being totally strung out on coke had enough smarts and lipstick to prevent them, killing little Bobby, from doing it! But as it turned out her heroic and selfless actions ended up costing Vivian her life!P.S Check out the future Sgt. Joe, "Just the facts Mame", Friday actor Jack Webb as an 11 year old classmate of Mary Ruth & Vivian at the very start of the movie.

The tragic consequences following a young woman (Ann Dvorak, sensational) who impulsively leaves her rich, successful lawyer husband (Warren William) for a no-good gambler (Lyle Talbot) who owe thousands to a menacing loan shark (Edward Arnold, very bullish). When Talbot fears for his life he first approaches William for the dough, threatening to expose his wife's provocative activities to the newspapers, turning so desperate he kidnaps his and Dvorak's child. Arnold enlists his hoods (led by a thuggish Humphrey Bogart in one of his standard issue Warner Bros gangster parts, bullying and intimidating) to hold sway over Talbot and Dvorak, demanding a far greater ransom than what was first asked for. Dvorak makes a startling decision only a mother could do for a child, the ultimate sacrifice in a potent, shocking finale, produced during the Pre-Code era of the 30s. Joan Blondell (who seems to have star treatment—and she is quite beautiful—but has the less interesting part opposite Dvorak) is one of Dvorak's childhood friends, along with Bette Davis (who has an underwritten part as a secretary). Watching Dvorak's life unravel and diminish is haunting and sad, as Blondell (who would marry the betrayed William after Dvorak divorces him), once in prison for grand larceny, rises from a difficult predicament to secure a better life. Dvorak, unhappy with William, despite the luxury and comfortable trappings of wealth and family, finds excitement and worldly pleasure with Talbot, missing from the married life, selfish in her own desires, not thinking about the repercussions of her behavior, particularly in regards to her son, who Blondell cares deeply for. The film, directed by Mervyn LeRoy (The Bad Seed; Mister Roberts), establishes time and place and how the city is affected by what was going on at the time, such as the Depression and rise in gangster activity. Very quickly paced and doesn't have a lot of fat, "Three on a Match" is mostly melodrama, using images just as importantly as dialogue and performance, with plenty of subtlety. The film does a fine job of making us aware of Dvorak's plight, as each scene she reappears after time away from the screen, she looks more and more worse for wear, such as the fidgeting while waiting on a street corner for Blondell (by this time married to her ex-husband) for some money or the dark circles under her eyes--the worsening state reminds us of those who fall under the spell of meth or crack.

Though I'm a big fan of movies of the 30s and 40s, I was unaware of Ann Dvorak prior to seeing this one. I thought she gave a very realistic performance (for the time), and it's a shame she didn't have a longer career.Others have synopsized the plot in prior reviews, so I won't rehash it. However, I am surprised that no one else has made the connection to the Lindbergh kidnapping that seemed so obvious to me.On March 1, 1932, the young son of America's hero of the day, Charles Lindbergh, was kidnapped. Google the kidnapping and take a look at pictures of the child...the resemblance to the child in "Three On A Match" is striking. And certainly, the audiences of the day would have been well aware of the connection, as the kidnapping was the top news story in the country for months.A fascinating film!