MATCHES IN OLD HOLLYWOOD

From Fred Astaire to Audrey Hepburn, discover the best Hollywood movie scenes involving match lighting

October 01, 2021

Lauren Bacall in To Have and Have Not, 1944

North by Northwest, 1959: Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint star in this American spy thriller film produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock where a Madison Avenue ad-man named Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) finds himself involved in a confusing cross-country chase with enemy spies, the police, and a beautiful woman, Eve Kendall (Eve Marie Saint).

Strait-Jacket, 1964: Joan Crawford acts in this psychological thriller movie as Lucy Harbin, a mother who after a twenty-year stay at an asylum for the double murder of her husband and his mistress, she returns to her estranged daughter Carol where suspicions start to arise about her behavior.

The Band Wagon, 1953: Famous musical movie star Tony Hunter, played by Fred Astaire, fears his career may be down the tubes, but his friends, Lester and Lily, have written a Broadway play to kick-start his professional life again. Tony is elated, until ballerina Gaby Gerard, played by Cyd Charisse, joins the cast as the leading lady and his second chance seems to be fading.

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Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint in North by Northwest

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Joan Crawford in Strait-Jacket

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Fred Astaire in The Band Wagon

The Snows of Kilimanjaro, 1952: This American romance sees Harry (Gregory Peck), an American writer, who after laying down from an infection acquired from an injury in the jungle, he starts to reminisce about his wasted life and the women he has loved, among which there is sexy actress Ava Gardner.

Three on a Match, 1932: Mary, Vivian, and Ruth, played by Bette Davis, are old schoolmates who run into each other by accident ten years later and decide to meet for lunch for a catch-up. Though Vivian is seemingly the most successful of the trio, she throws her life away by getting hooked on drugs and the underworld.

To Have and Have Not, 1944: Lauren Bacall (Mary) and Humphrey Bogart (Harry) star together in this romantic action movie where Harry, the owner-operator of a charter boat in wartime Martinique falls head over heels for Mary, a pickpocket who wants to go to America that he tries to help out with all his might.

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Ava Gardner and Gregory Peck in The Snows of Kilimanjaro

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Bette Davis, Joan Blondell, and Ann Dvorak in Three on a Match

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Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in To Have and Have Not

Wait Until Dark, 1967: In this psychological thriller, beloved Audrey Hepburn plays a recently blinded woman who is terrorized by a trio of thugs while they look for a heroin stuffed doll they presume is hidden in her apartment.

Chained, 1934: This film sees actor Clark Gable (Mike), a South American rancher, and actress Joan Crawford (Diane), a mistress of one man, involved in a whirlwind romance set in Argentina.

Breathless, 1960: Directed by Jean-Luc Godard, the iconic French New Wave movie revolves around Michel, played by Jean-Paul Belmondo, a small-time thief who steals a car and impulsively murders a policeman on a motorcycle. Wanted by the authorities, he plots an escape plan to hide away in Italy with his love interest Patricia, a cool American Journalism student played by Jean Seberg.

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Audrey Hepburn in Wait Until Dark

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Clark Gable and Joan Crawford in Chained

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Jean Seberg in Breathless