Prospérité

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.

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.

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.

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.