"Three on a Match" Could Still Spark

Three on a Match (1932)

Remake potential: Move the melodrama into the fashion world, where beauty, ambition, and professional power keep the triangle alive.

• Country: United States

• Genre: Pre-Code melodrama

• Director: Mervyn LeRoy

• Starring: Joan Blondell, Ann Dvorak, Bette Davis

ANN DVORAK, JOAN BLONDELL, AND BETTE DAVIS IN THREE ON A MATCH (1932), DIRECTED BY Mervyn LeRoy. COURTESY OF Warner Bros..

Clinical Overview

Three school friends—beautiful Vivian, easygoing Mary, and dependable Ruth—reunite as adults to find their lives have unfolded in ways both expected and surprising.

Diagnosis

When the film shifts toward Vivian’s shocking abandonment of her husband and child for a reckless lover and a spiral into addiction, the triangle becomes severely lopsided.

Prescription

Vivian is now a model; Mary, a stylist; Ruth, a producer. Vivian resents motherhood for derailing her career. During an on-location swimwear shoot, she falls for a handsome male model. Her photographer husband develops on-set intimacy with Mary. Ruth manipulates all the relationships through the call sheet’s power.