| Prosperity | |
| Director: | Sam Wood |
| Producer: | Irving Thalberg (uncredited) |
| Story: | Sylvia Thalberg Frank Butler |
| Screenplay: | Zelda Sears Eve Greene |
| Starring: | Marie Dressler Polly Moran Anita Page Norman Foster |
| Cinematography: | Leonard Smith |
| Editing: | Le Vanway |
| Distributor: | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| Released: | [1] |
| Runtime: | 87 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Budget: | $628,000[2] |
| Gross: | $1,514,000 |
Prosperity is a 1932 American pre-Code comedy-drama film starring Marie Dressler and Polly Moran. The two leading actresses play longtime matriarchal ladies comically sparring off each other, and trying to control their intertwined lives.
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 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.[3] [4] [5]
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.[2]