Themes: Work Ethics, Rise and Fall Stories, Office Politics
Main Cast: Warren William, Lili Damita, Glenda Farrell, Harold Huber, Spencer Charters
Release Year: 1932
Country: US
Run Time: 70 minutes
Plot
The Match King was inspired by the checkered career of entrepreneur Ivar Krueger. Warren William plays a Krueger-like businessman who takes over a bankrupt Swedish match factory, then lies his way into getting corporate backing for the operation. With little regard for ethics, William purchases all existing match patents, ultimately monopolizing the industry. Ruining lives and breaking laws all over Europe, William is himself emotionally devastated when betrayed by a glamorous actress (Lily Damita). Shortly afterward, William's business empire crumbles during the worldwide Depression, and the onetime Match King commits suicide. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Almost by necessity, bankers or industrialists were often depicted as villains by a Hollywood squarely on the side of the common man in the early years of what later came to be called the Great Depression. No more so than at that most proletarian of major studios Warner Bros., where the greedy capitalist reached a zenith of sorts in The Match King. Warren William's rise and fall was a highly fictional depiction of Swedish industrialists, who, like William's Paul Kroll, reportedly dallied with Swedish movie star Greta Garbo. And Warner Bros. did indeed attempt to borrow Garbo for The Match King. Unsuccessful, the studio instead cast French actress Lili Damita as the woman who eventually becomes the protagonist's downfall, a rather odd choice considering that also in the cast -- and complete with phony European accent -- is one Juliette Compton, whose screen career was bedeviled by her likeness to the Swedish diva. A missed opportunity, to say the least. The Match King opens with a montage demonstrating the international dependence on the cheap, wooden matchstick and screenwriters Houston Branch and Sidney Sutherland -- who based their story on a Swedish novel by Einar Thorvaldson -- take it from there without letting sentimentality interfere with their purpose. The suave William is at the peak of his not inconsiderable powers here and is backed up by the usual competent Warner stock company that this time includes Claire Dodd, as one of the industrialist's many conquests, and Harold Huber, as the forger who turns him into a murderer. The screenplay never spares Mr. William's Paul Kroll and the depression-fatigued audience must have enjoyed his well-deserved downfall at the film's December 1932 premiere. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
Orry-Kelly - Costume Designer, Howard P. Bretherton - Director, William Keighley - Director, Jack Killifer - Editor, Leo F. Forbstein - Composer (Music Score), Robert Kurrle - Cinematographer, Hal B. Wallis - Producer, Houston Branch - Screenwriter, Sid Sutherland - Screenwriter, Einar Thorvaldson - Book Author
Though a lowly Chicago street cleaner, Swedish immigrant Paul Kroll (Warren William) is ambitious and unscrupulous. When a fellow employee is fired (due to one of Kroll's schemes), Kroll convinces his foreman (John Wray) to keep him on the payroll (officially at least) so they can split his salary. Soon there are eight "phantom" workers, and Kroll and his partner have amassed $460. However, Kroll has been romancing his partner's wife, Babe (Glenda Farrell), behind his back.
Meanwhile, he has also been lying to the people of his hometown, telling them what a successful businessman he has become. As a result, when the local match factory is in trouble, his uncle begs him to return and save it. Kroll gets Babe to withdraw the money he has stolen, deceiving her into thinking they are running away together, then leaves her behind as he sails away to Sweden.
Back home, he cons the local bank into giving him a loan to buy a second match factory so he can merge them. Only his friend Erik Borg (Hardie Albright) knows the truth about Kroll's "success", so Kroll recruits him as his all-too-trusting second in command in his expanding business. Eventually, Kroll owns all of the match factories in Sweden. However, his ambitions do not stop there. Using information he obtains from beautiful, well-placed women he has charmed, he gains official match monopolies in first Poland, then Germany and other countries by offering loans to cash-strapped governments and bribes to corrupt officials.
One day, while dining with Ilse Wagner (Claire Dodd), one of his conquests, he is dazzled by the beauty of star actress Marta Molnar (Lili Damita). Despite her initial rebuffs, he goes to great lengths to win her heart, even hiring a celebrated "gypsy violinist" to serenade her. So enamored is he that he dangerously neglects his business, financed by an ever-growing series of loans.
However, he reluctantly returns his attention to his company. One of his agents discovers an eccentric recluse named Christian Hobe (an uncredited Harry Beresford) has invented an everlasting match, so Kroll has him locked away as a madman.
When the stock market crashes, Kroll can no longer obtain a bank loan. In desperation, he buys $50 million in fake Italian bonds from forger Scarlatti (Harold Huber), whom he then dumps in the middle of a lake to drown. With the bonds as collateral, he obtains a $40 million loan from an American bank. Then he thinks of retiring. He asks Marta to marry him, only to discover that, in his frequent absences, she has fallen in love with the gypsy violinist. Much worse, his forgeries are detected, and his American loan is canceled. Kroll shoots himself on the balcony and his body tumbles into the gutter, where he started.
