Prosperity

In 1925, childhood friends Marie Dressler (as Maggie Warren) and Polly Moran (as Lizzie Praskins) oversee the wedding of their children, Anita Page (as Helen) and Norman Foster (as John). Before the celebration, Ms. Dressler turns the reigns of her small town bank over to her son, Mr. Foster. Six years later, the Great Depression brings many bank closures, and financial insecurity. Banker Foster is able to survive, due to mother Dressler's wise planning. But, Ms. Moran is worried about her fortune, and loudly demands a complete withdrawal. Other "Warren Bank" customers hear Moran's rant, and start questioning their own solvency. Soon, the family is in financial crisis.

Dressler's huge critical and financial film hit "Emma" had been released early in the year, and MGM had to have wanted to get a new Dressler film out as soon as possible. Dressler's 1931 hits, "Reducing" and "Politics" were still making a lot of money; and, Dressler had become 1932's US #1 Box Office Star, according to the industry standard list compiled by Quigley Publications. "Prosperity" certainly celebrated Dressler's status, but the production appears uncharacteristically sloppy, and rushed. The cast does well, considering. Some more care in direction and editing, and some retakes, would have helped… apparently, they needed it in theaters for the holidays.

**** Prosperity (11/12/32) Sam Wood ~ Marie Dressler, Polly Moran, Anita Page, Norman Foster

This movie has a propensity towards tedium and confusion. Also a propensity to omit comedy from nearly every situation that required it. It was dull and annoying and unfunny, and raises a cogent question; who wrote this mess?

Aha! a quick scan of the credits reveals that it was written by the sister of Irving Thalberg, Head of Production at MGM. The poor woman apparently had no feel for comedy or continuity, and they stuck Marie Dressler into the abyss, hoping she could make a silk purse out of this sow's ear.

Marie Dressler was one of our premier comediennes of the silent-into-sound era; she may have been The Best, and it's always a treat to see her, even in dreck like this. She got no help from one of her former sidekicks, Polly Moran, who was shrewish and strident in an unrewarding role. I am awarding my rating of four based on the welcome addition into the cast of the great Marie Dressler.

Maggie Warren (Marie Dressler) is the hard-nosed matriarch who runs the family bank. His son John is marrying Helen Praskins. Helen's mother Lizzie Praskins (Polly Moran) is one of the bank's biggest depositor. Maggie appoints John as the new head of the bank. The two mothers fight over the wedding. Some years later, various problems arise and there is a run on the bank.

I like the part where Maggie and Lizzie fight over the wedding. If only they could incorporate the bank run with the wedding and have the whole thing take place before the vows. Dressler has a great presence. The two older ladies have good comedic chemistry. This is their movie.

What drags Prosperity down is the repeated insertion of low comedy gags involving Polly Moran, a successful silent-era slapstick comedienne whose humor didn't play very well with sound. Far too much footage is wasted in setting up lame punch lines or overdone sight gags. These tedious distractions, unfortunately, also tend to involve the film's star, Marie Dressler, who could easily have done without them in her otherwise impressive portrayal of a small-town bank president who weathers the storm of economic depression by a combination of ingenuity and what they used to call gumption. The plot involves Dressler's struggle with entangled financial and familial crises.

Her son is played by Norman Foster who was an able actor but had no distinctive traits to set him apart from a host of other nice looking young male performers. Anita Page, just past her brief burst of major stardom, is cast as Foster's wife in an undemanding supporting role.

This film is less successful than "American Madness," released the same year, which is also about the travails of a small town banker during the Depression.

I am not familiar with Marie Dressler at all so I approached this unprimed without any preconceptions whatsoever. As a Dressler virgin, I found this difficult to get into, it feels like it was made for her fans.

A lot of us grew up watching Laurel and Hardy on the tv so when we watch them now it's with a sense of nostalgia. They're likeable because we feel we know those guys intimately. Because we like them we can relate to them and laugh along with them. However had we never seen a L&H film and stumbled upon one, to be honest I doubt we'd find them as funny. For this type of comedy to work, it's essential that we like the characters. Comedy is very much a two way process and so without knowing who Marie Dressler is, this just leaves the uninitiated cold. This might work for her fans but my excuse would be: It not you Marie, it's me.

This film however is not just comedy. It's also a full blown melodrama with a serious dark sub-plot - comedy from a dark place is always more effective and there aren't much darker places than The Depression. The subject of this film is the United States banking crisis of the 1930s. Whilst this is a really fascinating subject to study, it clearly wasn't fun if you had to live through it so making light of people's misery peppered with trite optimistic and patriotic speeches was not what people who had just lost their jobs and homes wanted to hear.

This subject was handled much better in Frank Capra's fantastic AMERICAN MADNESS made a few months after this one. That however benefited from being released at the same time FDR was just taking charge of America and also from a typically impassioned performance from Mr integrity himself, Walter Huston. That was also written by the great Robert Riskin whereas this wasn't which is a big factor. Irving Thalberg's sister's script is ok, Sam Wood's direction is a bit more pedestrian than usual but ok and the acting is ok but this relies too much on the appeal of Miss Dressler.