The Match King

Paul Kroll, a Chicago street cleaner and Swedish immigrant, secretly creates a payroll of workers who do not exist. He and his partner siphon their salaries, building a growing stash of cash. The scheme seeds his early ambition of wealth and escape.

As the scheme expands, eight phantom workers are kept on the payroll. Their salaries are skimmed, fueling more money for Kroll and his partner. The illicit funds bolster their dream of returning to Sweden.

Kroll romances Babe behind his partner's back and boasts of a success he doesn't deserve. He tells people in Sweden that he has become a prosperous businessman, hiding the truth at home. The duplicity strains every relationship and fuels his arrogance.

When the local match factory faces trouble, Kroll's uncle begs him to return and save it. The appeal pulls him toward Sweden while his Chicago fraud continues to simmer. He weighs family duty against the fortune he's built on lies.

Kroll persuades Babe to withdraw the money he has stolen by convincing her that they will escape together. She is driven to take the money, believing in their joint future. He then sails for Sweden, leaving Babe behind.

In Sweden, Kroll cons a local bank into extending a loan to buy a second match factory so he can merge them. The move seems to legitimize his empire, though it rests on increasingly fragile fraud. His financial gambits grow bolder as the mark of success widens.

Kroll hires Erik Borg, his old friend who knows the truth of his success, as his assistant. Borg's loyalty helps keep the scheme running without immediate exposure. Together they consolidate power over the match industry.

Using information obtained from wealthy women he has charmed, Kroll secures monopolies first in Sweden, then expands to Poland, Germany and other countries. He offers loans to cash-strapped governments and bribes corrupt officials to cement his control. The empire grows, but the rot underneath deepens.

During dinner with Ilse Wagner, Kroll is dazzled by rising actress Marta Molnar. He goes to extravagant lengths to win her affection, including hiring a gypsy violinist to serenade her. His personal fixation begins to threaten his business focus.

Marta departs for Hollywood, and Kroll reluctantly shifts his attention back to his company. The romance cools as he doubles down on financing his expanding operations. The absence of Marta marks a renewed emphasis on wealth over relationships.

When eccentric inventor Christian Hobe creates an everlasting match, Kroll has him institutionalized as a madman to eliminate competition. The move strengthens Kroll's monopoly by removing a potential rival. His control over information and power grows.

The stock market crashes and Kroll finds himself unable to obtain a bank loan. His plans begin to crumble as liquidity dries up. He realizes the system that sustained his fraud is failing.

Desperate, Kroll buys $50 million in fake Italian bonds from forger Scarlatti and arranges for Scarlatti to drown in a lake. He uses the bonds as collateral to secure a $40 million loan from an American bank. The plan is bold, illegal, and increasingly reckless.

Marta returns to Sweden and Kroll contemplates retirement, asking her to marry him. She reveals that she has fallen in love with Trino, the gypsy violinist. Personal and financial ambitions collide as the path to retirement stalls.

Kroll's forgery is detected and the American loan is canceled. In a final act of despair, he shoots himself on a balcony as his body tumbles into the gutter where his story began. The rise-and-fall arc closes with a tragic, inevitable end.