Three on a Match

How's that?

- Hey, Mary, your bloomers are showing. - What do I care?

Mary!

I hate black bloomers, don't you?

- What color are yours? - Pink.

Bob, come here. I've got something to tell you.

Don't go, Bobby.

- If you do, I'll be mad. - Oh, yeah?

All right, Bob, I'll meet you. You know where.

I know where you're going, Mary.

Children, children, order! Order.

Now, ready.

"Look forward and not back",

"look out and not in,"

"look up and not down,"

"and lend a hand."

Willie Goldberg, would you keep quiet?

Willie Goldberg?

Oh, I'd like to be your mother for just about two minutes.

- I'll speak to Pop about that. - (SHUSHING) Order!

Has anyone seen Mary Keaton?

She was here this morning,

and I'm sure I saw her in the yard a few minutes ago.

Did you want to say something, Vivian?

Why... Why, no, Miss Blazer.

Where did you get these, Max? - Oh, my mom smokes them all the time.

Boy, it's a good thing she don't roll her own.

Yeah, it is.

Say, Max, that's a nice piece of goods you got there.

- Yeah, pretty swell. - Nice suit.

You've got a good suit yourself, Willie.

- I got two pair of pants with this suit. - Say, how do you like my suit, Willie?

- It's all right. - You bet it's all right.

- Aren't you scared? - No, why should I be?

- I'll bet Mary is catching it all right. - It serves her right.

- I feel sorry for her. - Well, I don't see why.

Mary, look at me.

If I permit you to join your classmates out on that platform,

will you strive to do your best from this day forward?

Will you listen to this fine mother of yours and do what she expects of you?

Yes, sir.

All right, then, take your place.

Thank you, Mr. Gilmore. I'm sure Mary will not disappoint you.

She's not a bad girl, Mr. Gilmore.

She's just not serious enough. She's too full of fun.

I am the last person to disapprove of fun at the right time.

But there is also a time for work.

Hello, Mr. Gilmore.

The first diploma tonight will be awarded to Miss Phylis Fraser.

Now, I take pleasure in graduating the class prophet, little Willie Goldberg.

Four score and seven years ago

when our forefathers brought into this continent a new nation...

Now I shall award a diploma to the girl

earning the highest marks ever attained by anyone in this school.

The class valedictorian, Miss Ruth Westcott.

Lastly, but not least,

I shall award a diploma to the girl

voted by her class the most popular, Vivian Revere.

Rise!

"Look forward and not back",

"look out and not in,"

"look up and not down,"

"and lend a hand."

Good luck to all of you. - Thank you, Mr. Gilmore.

Oh, Ruth, what are you going to do now?

- I'm going home. - I mean, about school?

- Are you going to high school? - I can't.

I think I'll go to business college so I can learn to work.

Are you going to high school?

Oh, no. Mother said I could go to an exclusive boarding school.

Gee, that's fine. I wonder what will happen to Mary.

Oh, she'll probably go to reform school.

Will you stop reminding me of heaven when I'm so close to the other place?

What's the matter, Mary? Don't you like our little hotel?

Oh, I think it's swell.

The ventilation is great, my room has a southern exposure,

the rates are cheap,

but somehow or other, the atmosphere is too confining.

Don't let it get you down, kid.

At least we don't have to wait in line for a bowl of soup like they do outside.

Don't be always a-stewing, dearie.

You only get your insides in an uproar. And for what?

You're in and you're gonna stay in

until they get even with you for busting the rules.

Yeah, I'm in all right, but that don't mean I have to like it.

I'll bet you a red herring against a case of pre-war Scotch

it was some man that got you pushed in here.

Well, don't sit around figuring the worse things

you'd do to him if you was Mussolini.

Just make up your mind not to get tangled up with a man again.

Any man.

Girls! It's 9:05.

Oh, so it is, Lady Diana. My watch has stopped.

Remind me to have James take it to the jewelers in the forenoon.

Lights go out in three minutes.

What was that song about heaven?

Go on, Vivian, read us some more.

"Gloria tried to resist him, but in vain.

"The tone of his voice, the satanic gleam in his eye,

"his warm breath upon her cheek routed her resolution completely."

"Feeble cries of, 'No, no, ' came to her lips but were never uttered,"

"for his powerful arms crushed her to him."

"Her temples throbbed with pain"

"and then suddenly she went limp with submission"

"and her mouth melted into his."

"She was lost in a fever of pain and pleasure."

Well, that ends Chapter 6.

Wow! I wonder what they'll be doing in Chapter 10.

That's all for today, girls. Hand in your work at the desk.

- Everything all right? - Gee, I look like an octopus.

- How much longer do I have to fry? - You'll be out of here in a few minutes.

Gee, I had a funny experience today.

Bumped into a kid I haven't seen in 10 years, Ruth Westcott.

We used to go to Public School 62 together.

Is she in the show business, too?

Nope, just a stenographer and probably eating three meals a day

while I have to live on the hot air these producers put out.

But you're getting a lucky break in this new show, aren't you?

Oh, sure. Three weeks rehearsal and two weeks work if I'm lucky.

The lady in the next booth heard you saying

that you went to Public School 6210 years ago.

She says she went there, too.

Now don't tell me I'm gonna meet another one.

You tell her I'm Mary Keaton, the worst girl in school.

She'll remember me.

Sounds like old home week.

Funny, meeting two people in one day you haven't seen for 10 years.

Makes me feel like a kid again.

- Hope I don't break out with the measles. - She says she knows you.

Her name used to be Vivian Revere.

Oh, I remember her. She was the class beauty.

- Is she still pretty? - In a mud pack?

- Tell her I'd love to see her. - Well, I've got to give her a facial first.

It won't take long.

Vivian used to be a ritzy little devil. I wonder if she's changed.

Well, it's been nice seeing you again.

I'll look forward to hearing from you, sometime this week?

- Did you keep Ruth's number? - Yes.

Well, bring her along. We'll all have lunch together.

Sure and dish the dirt.

You know, I didn't like you much as a kid.

- No? - No.

Maybe it's 'cause you wore pink pants.

- Remember old Blazer, our teacher? - Oh, yes.

I used to sit up nights thinking of a way to cut her throat.

- Three on a match. - What's the difference?

- Will there be anything else? - If there is, don't tell me about it.

Well, all in all, I've had a great day. In fact, it's been darn near perfect.

I'm certainly glad you got that job in the show.

And treated to a swell luncheon.

- Little Mary's doing all right for herself. - I sincerely envy both of you.

Now look who's talking, will you?

Did you get a flash of that 50-foot kiddie car outside

with the Russian grand duke for a chauffeur?

I wish I could get as big a kick out of it as you got out of this luncheon.

It must be a grand feeling to have everything you want.

If it is, I never had it.

Oh, I suppose I should be the happiest woman in the world.

Beautiful home, successful husband and a nice youngster, but...

Add it all up and it spells herring! Is that it?

Somehow the things that make other people happy leave me cold.

I guess something must have been left out of my makeup.

I think I want things passionately, and when I get them, I lose all interest.

If wanting things make you happy, I should be turning cartwheels right now.

Maybe life's been too easy for you, Vivian.

I wonder. But it's you I really envy, Mary.

Your independence and your courage.

Oh, I've had to go into port for repairs a few times.

I accepted the first man who really wanted to marry me.

I thought it meant comfort and security.

You're doing all right for yourself.

That thing on your finger isn't a pop bottle, you know.

- But didn't you love him, Vivian? - I thought I did. Maybe I do still.

Maybe it's my fault that things have turned out to be rather,

well, tiresome and pointless.

- But you have a child? - Yes, a boy.

Three-and-a-half and a darling.

What does your husband do?

He's a lawyer, one of the most prominent in the city.

But let's talk about you, Ruth. What are you doing?

I won't be doing anything if I don't get back to the office.

I've been here an hour and a half.

Well, let's go then.

Oh, will one of you girls help me up, please?

Well, goodbye, girls.

- Goodbye. - Goodbye, Vivian.

- Some people get all the luck. - I wonder.

Molly!

Molly!

Junior. Junior, where are you?

Stop! There's something big and black out there.

Nonsense, you get right back into bed.

You better look out.

There, hear it?

Silly boy, that's just a branch tapping against the window, see?

There we are. Goodnight.

Let's play horsy. Let's play horsy.

We'll play horsy in the morning.

Now you lie down and go to sleep.

But I don't want to go to sleep.