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Tuesday, September 3, 2019

PROSPERITY (1932)

Times were good in 1925 when Marie Dressler handed over her small-town bank to son Norman Foster on his wedding day. But now it’s 1932 Depression and a silly spat with mother-in-law Polly Moran leads to her abruptly closing her account, yelling at the teller for her cash, and precipitating a run on the bank that will ruin them all. A surprisingly timely dramedy to come out of M-G-M. (Issues & resolution not so far from Frank Capra’s superior AMERICAN MADNESS made the same year at Columbia.) Even more surprising, while the knockabout family comedy can be forced & downright annoying (Polly Moran’s full-out style has aged poorly), the dramatic side of things (simplistic, naive, highly unrealistic even in context), works very well within the film’s framework. Director Sam Wood, after some stiff Early Talkies, starting to get his camera up & running again (much like the beleaguered bank); Dressler, as always, uniquely fascinating, fussy & overcooked working thru mediocre gags and one-liners, then utterly still and rawly powerful in serious moments. Moving from one extreme to the other without transitions to buffer emotional whiplash. It’s an acting trick Dressler does a lot, a technique more in line with neighboring panels in a cartoon strip than anything like acting in a modern sense. And we’re poorer for the loss.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: As mentioned above, AMERICAN MADNESS/’32, another ‘bank run’ story that sees the bank manager save the day. And, unlike this interesting pleasantry, a masterpiece.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2011/03/american-madness-1932.html

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