''Prosperity'' is a 1932 American

pre-Code Pre-Code Hollywood was the brief era in the Cinema of the United States, American film industry between the widespread adoption of sound in film in 1929LaSalle (2002), p. 1. and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorshi ...

comedy-drama film starring

Marie Dressler Marie Dressler (born Leila Marie Koerber, November 9, 1868 – July 28, 1934) was a Canadian stage and screen actress, comedian, and early silent film and Depression-era film star. In 1914, she was in the first full-length film comedy. She ...

and

Polly Moran Pauline Theresa Moran (June 28, 1883 – January 25, 1952) billed as Polly Moran, was an American actress of vaudeville, stage and screen and comedian. Career Born in Chicago, Illinois, Moran started in vaudeville, and widely toured North A ...

. The two leading actresses play longtime matriarchal ladies comically sparring off each other, and trying to control their intertwined lives.

Plot

Maggie Warren (Dressler) inherited a family bank during the Depression and Lizzie Praskins (Moran) is one of her biggest depositors. Maggie’s son John is engaged to Lizzies's daughter Helen. All kinds of farces happen when the would-be mothers-in-law battle for setting the wedding's protocol including their different preferences of choosing the pastor to perform the ceremony. As the story goes on, Lizzie has a panic attack based on rumors about the bank going to belly-up. She hysterically withdraws all her money causing all other customers in the bank to panic and they in return take out their money. The Warren family bank is forced to close. Maggie’s naive son gets swindled out of his mother’s bonds. As farces go, at the end the swindlers are caught and Maggie’s matriarchal resourcefulness with her wised-up son gets the bank solvent again, and the two matriarchal families are bonded with mirthful resolutions. Ludington Daily News (Dec 12 1932)
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Cast

as Maggie Warren *

as Lizzie Praskins *

Anita Page Anita Page (born Anita Evelyn Pomares; August 4, 1910 – September 6, 2008) was an American film actress who reached stardom in the final years of the silent film era. She was referred to as "a blond, blue-eyed Latin" and "the girl with the mos ...

as Helen Praskin *

Norman Foster Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

as John Warren *

Jacquie Lyn Jacquie Lyn (born Elizabeth Anne Mary Jacqueline Dufton; 3 September 1928 – 21 March 2002) was a British-born American child actress, who had a brief yet notable career in motion pictures. Career Lyn was born at 8 Sandfield Road, Croydon, Sur ...

as Cissy * Jerry Tucker as Buster *

Charles Giblyn Charles Giblyn (September 6, 1871 – March 14, 1934) was an American film director and actor of the silent era. He directed nearly 100 films between 1912 and 1927. He also appeared in 23 films between 1914 and 1934. He was one of the foun ...

as Mayor * Frank Darien as Ezra Higgins * Henry Holland as John Roche

Box office

According to MGM records the film earned $1,166,000 in the US and Canada and $348,000 elsewhere resulting in a profit of $378,000.

References

External links

* * * * 1932 films 1932 comedy-drama films American black-and-white films American comedy-drama films Films directed by Sam Wood Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films 1930s English-language films 1930s American films {{1930s-comedy-drama-film-stub