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.