User reviews

... with the first two being "Reducing" and "Politics".

As in the others, Polly Moran and Marie Dressler play lifelong friends who fight like cats and dogs. Dressler is the more anchored and likeable one. Moran plays somebody you'd like to tie an anchor to and throw in the ocean. Her character is that obnoxious and snobby. But the contrast works. MGM didn't get comedy right very often in the 1930s - their specialty was drama - so this teaming was one of their rare hits in the comedy genre.

Dressler plays the president of a small town bank. Moran is one of her larger depositors, always thinking this entitles her to complain about this or that regarding the bank. The film opens on the year 1925 "when money talked and was on speaking terms with everybody" as Dressler's son John (Norman Foster) and Moran's daughter Helen (Anita Page) are about to get married. Dressler is going to retire and let John run the bank. And then comes the Great Depression with Moran withdrawing all of her money on a whim, causing a "run" on the bank, and ultimately causes the bank to close. These things happened in the Depression with people left without their life savings because there was no FDIC. Your average bank had zero protection for your savings. Without getting into the details of the plot, let's just say complications ensue.

I know that this doesn't sound like a comedy at all, but the secret to the Dressler/Moran comedies is that there is usually something very serious going on in the broader plot punctuated with lots of gags and broad physical comedy by the two leading ladies.

The odd thing about this film? The year before, over at Warner Brothers, Page and Foster played newlyweds in "Under Eighteen". There are lots of similarities - the two get married at the beginning of the film during the roaring twenties, then the Depression hits, then their marriage troubles rise with their monetary ones. And they weren't even the main characters. Did that have anything to do with them being reteamed here? Could be.

Prosperity is a comedy/drama that was very timely in 1932. It concerns bank closures. In the last of the Films that Dressler starred in with Polly Moran, she plays a bank president who saves her town. Lots of plots twists but basically a star vehicle for a great star--Marie Dressler. She can ham and mug her way thru anything and always get a laugh, but when Dressler played dramatic scenes, no one could touch her. No art. Nothing arch. Just her her old, worn, wonderful face to put across the feeling. That Marie Dressler is largely forgotten now except for her rather gauche comedy style (a style that Lucille Ball and Carol Burnett borrowed from liberally) is a pity. In Prosperity as well and Min and Bill, Anna Christie, Tugboat Annie, Emma, and Politics, she proves she was a fine dramatic actress. As a comic she ranks among the all-time best.

Polly Moran plays another hateful character, but plays it well. Anita Page, Norman Foster, Henry Armetta, Claire du Brey, and Frank Darien co-star. Rather dark ending is salvaged by low comedy, but somehow it all works.

Marie Dressler is Norman Foster's mother, and Polly Moran is the mother of Anita Page, Foster's wife. Foster runs the bank Miss Dressler runs. When Miss Moran starts a run on the bank, Miss Dressler is confident until she discovers that Foster has used the bonds she keeps as a bulwark to back a building project run by John Miljan, and Miljan is a crook.

Bank runs were a theme at this time, with the best-remembered example being Capra's AMERICAN MADNESS. Director Sam Wood stages his version well.

It's the last pairing of Dressler and Moran, and Miss Page's last movie at MGM. This doesn't stop the usual mix of pathos and comedy that fans had come to expect. They were more than satisfied with the results. So was I.

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

The big-hearted matriarch of a small town bank works furiously to keep her institution alive. Though beset by trial & tribulation, she teaches her community that there is much more to PROSPERITY than how much money one has in the bank.

Marie Dressler was Hollywood's Queen when she made this crowd pleasing comedy/drama in 1932. She is perfect as the tough old lady with a tender heart who fights for her son's happiness and the well-being of their family owned bank. Depression audiences adored Marie because she was one of them, blunt, honest, no-nonsense, nothing fake or phony about her. They rewarded her by making her the box office champion in the years before her untimely death in 1934.

However, it's important to notice that Dressler shares star billing in PROSPERITY with her frequent sidekick, the ubiquitous Polly Moran. This spunky, buxom little comedienne cut her teeth in Mack Sennett Comedies and was most adept at slapstick & physical humor. Together, Marie & Polly, like a distaff Laurel & Hardy, were formidably funny. Their several screen pairings, though seldom revived today, are comedic gems.

Others in the cast (Anita Page as Polly's daughter, Norman Foster as Marie's son & John Miljan as the villain) are all very competent, but exist mainly to showcase the Ladies.

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.

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.

Let's face it. ANY movie that features Marie Dressler is going to be a hit!! Dressler makes the movie fun, emotional, and spirit lifting!!

Dressler gets teamed up again with her side kick Polly Moran. There are many scenes where Moran's acting and expressions remind me of some of the best comedy scenes played by Bette Midler. Moran has the gift of gag reactions and makes a perfect companion for Dressler. Dressler can be "over the top" at times but Moran is SO "over the top", she makes Dressler look grounded. It all works out evenly in a perfect balance when these two get together.

Norman Foster is her son. He is weak and selfish and it makes it tough on Dressler when she turns the family bank over to his care. He means well but he just keeps messing things up. If he would only listen to his mother!!

The film deals with the Great Depression, inspiring supportive relationships, and learning when to speak and learning when to bite your tongue.

With the laughs come tears and Dressler is the best when it comes to playing the tough scenes. She has a heart of gold through out. If you liked her in "Emma", you will love her in "Prosperity".

Take 90 minutes out of your day and see this Classy Classic. You won't regret it.