The Match King (Warner Bros.) (1932)

A MATCHLESS LOBBY FOR "THE MATCH KING’ wh HOV NEWS Je ae La Mimo Kx rhRess "the = Wes MATCH KING It is important in selling “The Match King” that you emphasize that this is the inside story of a recent international financier’s gigantic swindles. The front outlined above is calculated to do this. The newspaper clippings can either be blown up, as is indicated on the sketch, or maybe consist of photostatic copies of your local newspaper headlines of this story which appeared in the middle of May, 1932. On the returns indicated on this sketch, or, in your inner lobby, you may also make a display of interesting stories of famous swindlers. If not, your newspaper must have the story of Kreugar, Ponzi or Dr. Cook. The display will prove fe ee highly interesting and will certainly accomplish the purpose of identifying the characters of this story. On the front itself, it is advised that you use large heads of WARREN WILLIAM and alluring stills of Lili Damita. The ones outlined above were selected from the regular still-set. The color combination recommended is a flame color. It gives the idea of matches and flame, going from yellow to deep red. On the attraction front above the box office, if possible, you ean use the transparencies illuminated with a flasher button behind the transparency which when illuminated lights up a “hot-clinch”? between Warren William and ARREN WILLIAM MITA ab _DA Danna 5-6 WAR R EN WILLIAM “DheMATCH KING LIL! DAMITA Damita. If it is not possible to obtain this transparency, the same effect can be obtained by paint. Be sure to use plenty of the alluring stills of the women in the cast. Ample room has been left for these in the layout. SS It is important that everything you do on the front is an inference and not direct identification. By that we mean, it is not necessary to identify the story of the “MATCH KING” with any one personality. If you merely use the photostatic copies from the headlines of your newspaper, covering them in part, the inference will be sufficient. The display board outlined above will also add to this effect. SEASON PASS NOVELTY 1932-33 COURTESY N? "THE MATCH KING" December | to 6 A very clever take off on the Season Pass gag has been made available on this picture. The COMPLIMENTS OF “THE MATCH KING” line surprinted in red over the card will get plenty of teaser interest. Send them through the mails, have them distributed with heralds on the picture or place them in stores throughout the city for counter distribution. Attractively printed in two colors on a good blue stock it closely resembles the Season Pass issued by the N. Y. Strand. Actual size 4144 by 31% inches. Order direct from EXPLOITATION PRINTERS 20 West 22nd Street, New York City Price, including theatre imprint and _ playdate: $4.00 per M, $3.75 per M for 3M, $3.50 per M for 5M. @ SPECIAL BURGEE |C OLORTONE WARREN WILLIAM inDhe MATCH KING wi DAMITA For marquee and lobby hanging. Size 20 by 30 inches, printed on durable canvas. In brilliant colors, complete with eyelets. 45¢ Each Available only from MORRIS LIBERMAN 729 B’way, New York, N. Y. Cash or C.O.D. 4x5—Colored positive only .. $2.00 Set (positive and negative).... 3.00 3144 x4—Colored positive only 1.50 Set (positive and negative)... 2.25 Order by No. N-500 NATIONAL STUDIOS, Ine. 226 West 56th St., New York Be sure to specify size and send re miitance with order to avoid parcel post and C.O.D. charges. Send for catalogue of Colortone Effects. Page Eight IMPRESSIVE LOBBY BLOW UP OR THROWAWAY “THE MATCH KING” AUTHOR’S FOREWORD HIS is the story of the super-crook of the ages; the all-time master of chicanery f oe deception; the never-equalled worker of miracles in fraud. All other giants dwindle in comparison. Napoleon, Charlemagne, Hannibal, Alexander, Ghengis Kahn—these used blood and gold and iron and gunpowder; and they gained immortality as much from their final failures as from their triumphs. “The Match King” was the Colossus of them all. They would have been his errand boys today! They changed destiny—he made it! How? On the slender sticks of cheap little matches he built a globe-girdling empire that literally altered the history of mankind. Matches—matches—matches! With insatiable appetite and incredible cunning this Titan strode across the world, until he towers immeasurably above all the achievers of all times. Yet, from the day the midwife said “It’s a boy!” to that grim night the coroner said “Suicide!” this man was a crook. Kingdoms and empires and republics and stock exchanges were his playgrounds and chessboards; statesmen and diplomats and Parliaments and banking consortoriums and industrial magnates were his puppets. Scopeless power, fabulous wealth, utter unscrupulousness, and men and women, these were the tools with which he wove the tapestry of financial supremacy. Beautiful women he made love to and ruined and then used without qualms—venal politicians were the prey of these Delilahs, their sex frailties were the lathes on which he turned out his schemes. Like an octopus he literally gobbled up the world until all nations and all industries and all peoples paid him tribute. Built thus on sheer and unmitigated crookedness, the audience understands from the opening scene of the picture that he is casually spinning the first strand in a web of retribution that eventually will strangle him. We have been able to establish his character with one striking and revelatory sequence—and thereafter the picture unfolds with gigantic brush-strokes that paint the portrait of a giant doomed to destruction. Always just one step ahead of his fate, the watchers, breathless on the sidelines, see the Juggernaut of intrigue and cupidity and insensate ambition roll slowly on and on until it overtakes its creator and crushes him to a crimson clot. The horror of it all is, that he drags the world down with him—bankruptcies, closed factories, ruined industries, gutted banks, despoiled depositors and investors, defalcations, suicides, hunger, shattered homes, betrayed hopes, and, more cruelly tragic still, the loss of human faith—the collapse of confidence of the poor people in their leaders. Lord, lord, if The Match King, the miracle Messiah, turns out to be a common crook, where, alas, shall mankind pin its faith? Here, then, is an episodic saga of the arch-racketeer of the ages—a racket built on little matches!