Tonight I watched another pre-code selection from my "Forbidden Hollywood" set : "Three On A Match" (1932), starring Ann Dvorak (of "Scarface" fame), Joan Blondell (who seems to be in every one of these movies), and a very young Bette Davis. They are the "Three" referred to in the title. As the movie begins, we see them as schoolmates. The year is 1919. The girls are about 12 years old. Vivian (played later as an adult by Dvorak) is the class valedictorian, also voted most popular by her peers. She looks down upon her rival Mary, also very popular, mostly with the boys. Vivian is the school Good Girl, Mary the Bad, though early on we can see that she has a kind heart. Bette Davis is Ruth, the friend in between the two rivals. Ruth as a schoolgirl sides with Vivian, though she likes Mary as well. But Ruth is basically a Good Girl, too. She and Vivian knowingly predict that Mary will not graduate with them but will end up in Reform School, and their prediction of course comes true.
Next, we fast forward about fifteen years. Vivian has married a wealthy lawyer and seems to Have It All - a mansion with servants, society friends, and a child, a little boy who adores her. Her husband, big shot though he is, really loves her too. But she feels empty inside. Her life is full and luxurious, and stifling.
One night at a party, she runs into her old rival classmate Mary, the girl who wound up in reform school. Mary (now played as an adult by Joan Blondell) has completely transformed her life and is now an actress on her way up the ladder of success. She has remained close all of this time to Ruth (Bette Davis), and so the Three Friends, now adults, are reacquainted after all this time.
Also at the party is a sharply dressed man (Lyle Talbot, who acted for eons, into the 1980s). He hits on Dvorak immediately, knowing she is married and has a child (whom she has brought with her to the party), but he is the type of guy who doesn't care. This is where your Pre-Code kicks in, this time with a Morality Play. "Three On A Match" is more a Crime Story than an exercise in titillation ala last night's "Night Nurse", though there are scenes early on of former figure model Bette Davis changing her clothes. The lingerie scenes must have been written into the contracts of these actresses, because they are de rigeur in pre-code films.
The plot begins when Ann Dvorak, an exceptionally good actress for her time, runs off with suave skunk Lyle Talbot, forsaking her loyal husband and taking her little boy along for the ride. The former Good Girl of the private school has gone totally off the rails and is now drinking and partying to beat the band. In a shocking scene, she leaves her little son neglected and hungry in an adjoining room while she makes drunken love to Talbot on the couch. Again, this is pictorially tame by today's standards, but the impact of the message is just as great if not greater because of the early 1932 time frame.
Wanton behavior and child endangerment, shown on the big screen all the way back in 1932.
But then, as I remind you (and myself), that this movie was released only 28 years before I was born. Not long at all, though cinematically it seems much longer. And, when Hollywood enacted The Hays Code in 1934, this style of film making was curtailed. I mean, it's not fair to say that movies made after 1934 did not confront hardcore moral issues or deal with sexuality. Of course they did, and often in formidable ways. It's just that the frankness wasn't there anymore, the in-your-face confrontations and call-outs of evil and hypocracy, of the type we saw Barbara Stanwyck unleash last night against more child abusers in "Night Nurse".
So again tonight, with "Three On A Match", we have a very moral tale, an ironic one this time, where roles are reversed. The Good Girl becomes the Bad One, and vice versa, with the third friend in the middle remaining loyal to both girls throughout.
Joan Blondell tonight takes on the same role we saw Barbara Stanwyck assume last night, that of Crusader for The Children. Blondell lets it be known that, as a former Bad Girl, she is not a prude. She has no judgement against her former schoolchum Dvorak, who has now thrown her privileged life away. But she draws the line when she sees the extent to which Dvorak has neglected her child.
"Three On A Match" runs 63 minutes, which we love because short movies rule, and every single minute of the film is packed with story development. I have only presented the highlights. The plot as a whole has much more nuance and interaction of the characters.
It's a classic of the Pre-Code era, and so I must give it Two Very Big Thumbs Up, due to the tightly woven script, the performances by all three ladies, and the direction by Mervyn LeRoy. See it if you have the chance and the inclination. /////
I am super tired and will sign off now, but not before sending you many xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo's.
See you in the morning. :):)
No comments:
Post a Comment