Le Roi des allumettes

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.

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.

This is probably the best performance you'll see by Warren William--a very popular leading man in the early to mid 1930s but who has been all but forgotten today. And, since he's no longer a household name, it's not surprising that this film is very much unknown.

This story is based on a real individual named Ivar Kreuger, who tried to corner the world market on matches by being about the most unscrupulous and power-hungry man of his day. The film concerns the many ways he shows that down deep he has no soul and there is no sin beyond him if it gains him more money and power.

William is exceptional in the role and the film is fascinating from start to finish. Considering the film is about matches, it must have taken considerable writing, acting and directing talents to produce such a captivating film.

Match King, The (1932)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Based on the life of tycoon Ivan Kreuger, who would become known as Match King, this Warner film was rushed into production after Kreuger killed himself on March 12, 1932 and would be released before the end of the year. In the film Warren William plays Paul Kroll, a poor man working as a janitor who cheats countless people before eventually getting a hold of a match company, which he plans to use to take over the world. As Kroll sees it, gold is only valuable because man makes it so but matches are needed by everyone from the rich to the poorest in the world. I wish THE MATCH KING were a better movie but you can tell it was rushed because the screenplay isn't nearly as good as it needed to be and it also gets bogged down in a love story with Lila Damita playing a Swedish beauty who goes to Hollywood and pretty much breaks the heart of Kroll. Apparently this part was based on Greta Garbo but this doesn't add any value to the movie. The main thing this film has going for it is the performance by William who is downright terrific in the part. There wasn't anyone in the pre-code era that could play sleazy characters better than William and he once again delivers the goods here. The coldness to this guy is perfectly brought to life with William who just has a certainly smile that you can see in his eyes when he gets one over on people. It could be getting a friend fired to that he can make more money or pretending to love his best friend's wife so that she will take her husband's life savings and give to him. William delivers the goods and makes this one of his most memorable performances. Damita is also good in her part but the screenplay does very little for her outside of a few quick lines. The supporting cast includes Claire Dodd, Glenda Farrell and Juliette Compton as well as Harold Huber, John Wray and Alan Hale. The film starts off pretty good as it seems to have fun showing off how greedy and crooked this guy is but it loses itself during the middle with the silly love story and things don't pick up much during the final half. The film is certainly still worth viewing for fans of William due to his performance but you can't help but think the thing could have been much better had the studio taken their time with a better story. It is worth noting that the movie has a pre-credit sequence, which was very rare for its time. Also fascinating is that there's a sequence in the film where the legend of "three on a match" gets started by Kroll to help sales and William actually appeared in the Warner film THREE ON A MATCH also released in 1932.

This gangster-styled story set in the world of business shows the rise of a janitor Paul Kroll, who as a janitor in the US returns to Sweden and rises to own and become a monopoly in the world matches business using unscrupulous and immoral antics. You know he has to fall. Good acting by the always good Warren William and an extremely beautiful LIly Damita as the "woman". The difference between making the movie today, than back then, would be the lack of melodrama between the William and Damita character (heck! it was the era of the woman's picture) Formulaic stuff but good formula all the same with an unusually expensive look (good cinematography, tons of location shooting, great sets, lots of wide shots) for a WB thirties picture tells you this was probably an expected blockbuster in the year of 1932.