The Match King

It's a Warren William showcase that should be seen along with his other ruthless tycoon triumphs, such as Employees Entrance (1933) and Skyscraper Souls (1932). Cagney personified the street tough with a gun and the guts to power his way into the penthouse. William personifies the unscrupulous aristocrat with the charm and polish who's already in the penthouse. What both have that makes each so convincing is total self-assurance. When Kroll (William) says: Wait till it (the bad) happens, then I'll take care of it-- we believe him, just as much as we believe Cagney's snarl. Today, Cagney is still a household name, while William has unfortunately been forgotten, the victim of an A-picture career that peaked during the forbidden pre-Code era that never turned up on popular TV.

Here William plays a real life character (Swedish match king Ivar Kreuger) who schemes and manipulates his way to the top of Europe's financial empire. Oddly, the schemes and shenanigans remain illuminating of our own time some 80 years later, as other reviewers point out. After all, it looks like Kroll relies on a Ponzi setup in assembling his empire much in the way Bernie Madoff swindled billions from investors before finally taking a fall. In fact, a viewer can probably learn more about the anatomy of our own recent financial meltdown from this antique than from anything on the current screen.

All in all, this celluloid obscurity remains both broadly topical and a fascinating glimpse of capitalism's perils and attractions at the top. It's also a chance to catch one of Hollywood's most compelling actors in a tailor-made part. William may be unknown to the broader public, but it looks like a new appreciation is building among old film buffs.

True story of not, this tale of a swindler who fleeced banks and governments throughout Europe is a ridiculous movie. Warren William is seriously miscast in the title role, though perhaps his ardent fans back in the '30s swallowed this dumb picture.

Growing up watching these movies on TV and later at revival house showings, I became enamored of the formula Warner Brothers movies, especially those starring Edward G. Robinson, that painted stories of rags to riches, with Edward G. Inevitably suffering the sin of hubris and seeing his life fall apart. "I Loved a Woman", "Silver Dollar", "Smart Money" and of course "Little Caesar" followed this pattern, but it doesn't work with Warren William.

Right from the beginning when we meet WW looking rather foolish sweeping the sidewalks (including used match sticks), to his rise as a monopolist controlling the entire match industry, the film is phony as hell.

Concocting a sort of Pyramid or Ponzi scheme, he ends up financing his empire with loans he never intends to pay back, and in the process supposedly saves governments that are tottering in financial difficulties, but it's obvious this scheme will eventually all fall apart. The film only comes alive when he romances a beautiful film star played by Lili Damita (who made one of my all-time favorite movies "This Is the Night"), with a memorable subplot involving a gypsy violinist. The movie's finale, following a "dying-flash" presentiment montage depicting all the folks he's swindled, is pure corn.

William presents a great screen presence, similar to that of John Barrymore, in his films, which works well when he's playing a suave lawyer type, but here he's smug and detestable throughout. Even the notion that the lowly match is the most valuable commodity in the world comes off as silly right from the git-go.

"The Match King" is a 1932 precode film based on the life of Swedish industrialist Ivar Kreuger, known as the Match King and the inventor of the concept that three on a match is unlucky. That, of course, was so he could sell more matches. This film was rushed into release after Kreuger's suicide. Kreuger's brother claimed that Ivar was murdered, and 30 years after Ivar's death, documents appeared to back this up. In 2000, a book was published about the case, but it's in Swedish.

Warren William, one of my favorites, plays Paul Kroll, the main character in this film, and Lily Damita (Mrs. Errol Flynn) is his great love, an actress who gets a chance at a Hollywood career. She is supposedly based on Greta Garbo. I worked on the Greta Garbo biography by Barry Paris. It's been a long time -- I do believe she worked for a store that Kreuger owned and appeared in a film that Kreuger had something to do with, but I'm not sure the two had any involvement. Damita is lovely, though she doesn't register strongly.

This film deals with Kroll's European match monopoly, which bailed out quite a few countries, earning him the title "Savior of Europe." However, he used probably the first Ponzi scheme or a variation on it, so 88 years later, this movie is still relevant! Warren William is terrific as the smooth, charming, but ruthless and underhanded Kreuger. William during the silent era and early talkies often played the heavies; later on, he got to show his lighter touch, which was on a par with William Powell's. Supposedly a book was published about him in late 2010, which is a tribute to a renewed awareness of him thanks to TCM.

The actual Ivar Kreuger owned many, many businesses, and varied ones, not only match companies in many countries, but stores, banks, a ball bearing company, mining companies, a department store, a movie company, a telephone company, a railroad etc. His demise hit world finances very hard. He was a crook, but a borderline one, and many of his companies are still in existence today.

Very good film that is worth seeing.

Three years into the Depression, America was cynical of the institutions that had led to a system which had failed, and resentful of its professional classes. Films like 'The Match King' really illustrate this, and if for nothing else, they're worth watching for that reason. With Warren William playing a guy who rises to the top of the match empire through his ruthless behavior and cheating the system, you may see some parallels in the businessmen of today as well.

In the film, William will do anything to individuals around him or in the world at large to advance his own power and prosperity. It's all a giant game to him, one in which he cautions others to "never worry about anything 'til it happens, then I'll take care of it" usually before screwing them over. He borrows money to revive the family's business in matches, and then borrows still more money to pay off the first loan and expand the business - going into debt heavily in a pyramid scheme. He is comfortable in debt, heedless of what it might mean for the future, an approach that is mostly form and marketing, with little substance. He plays on the public's ignorance, pushing the myth about "three on a match" spelling doom in order to increase demand. He digs up dirt on people to use it as leverage to expand his business. He shows his character most when an inventor has come up with a breakthrough - a reusable match - which would clearly be great for humanity, but which might threaten his bottom line, so he schemes to have him silenced.

The scene with the inventor is interesting both for what William says and for what he doesn't say. He simply asks how much it cost to make the reusable matches, and whether anyone else knows about it, which shows he has only business in mind (it should also be noted that ironically, he doesn't care to use matches of any type himself, preferring a lighter instead). He doesn't ask anything at all about how the technology works, how many times the match can be used, whether the materials are safe, how the scientist figured this out or if there are other applications, etc - he doesn't care about any of that stuff. This is not some benevolent, enlightened businessman who is pushing humanity forward with his own personal success; he's the polar opposite of Ayn Rand's Howard Roark. We see a cold-blooded criminal in the white collared world, one who plays classical piano and speaks eloquently instead of toting a gun, but is a criminal nonetheless. We also of course see the deep cynicism America had towards businessmen in the 1930's.

William gives a fine performance, even if he was typecast. The film falters a bit in his love interest (Lili Damita), which is a bit of a clunky subplot. I loved the retrospective sequence showing the consequences of his actions, which I thought was a nice touch. If only those thoughts ran through the minds of all corporate crooks.

A totally unscrupulous cad plots & schemes to finally become THE MATCH KING of the world, oblivious to the many lives he's destroyed. But with blackmail & murder part of his personal arsenal, how long can it be until avenging fate topples him from his throne?

Warren William dominates this splendid, albeit neglected, crime drama. As in some of his other roles of the same period, William displays his talent for portraying characters simultaneously repulsive & appealing. With his sophisticated good looks & deep, interesting voice, Warren William was the perfect embodiment of the corporate climber, the crook, the conniver. It is a shame this fine actor is generally forgotten today.

Although the plot is firmly centered around William, his co-stars all do a fine job. Brassy Glenda Farrell appears all too briefly as William's first betrayed lover; this was an actress who could really light up the screen, but she's only given two scenes here. Lili Damita is fetching as the movie actress who attracts William. Hardie Albright is a younger relative of William's who gets pulled into his orbit. Blink your eyes and you'll miss Alan Hale as a timber baron. Movie mavens will recognize Charles Sellon as an elderly Match Company executive.

The film makes good use of an intriguing series of short opening scenes, showing various classes of people around the world using that indispensable enabler of civilization, the match.

There was a real life Match King upon whom this drama was based. Ivar Kreuger (1880-1932) was a financial genius whose Swedish Match Company controlled more than half the world's output of matches by 1928. This was accomplished through amazingly speculative deals involving long-term loans to poor nations desiring US dollars, in exchange for match monopolies. As a result, Kreuger's empire grew immensely rich and diversified in many ways. The bubble was soon to burst. World wide depression hit in 1929 and economic pressures mounted steadily. Rather than wait for his holdings to collapse in bankruptcy, Kreuger shot himself in a Paris hotel room on March 12, 1932, aged 52. Subsequent investigations showed his companies to be riddled with fraud & forgery.