A Successful Calamity

A Successful Calamity

A Successful Calamity

Share

A Successful Calamity

"WITH A SNAP OF HIS FINGERS HE THROWS MILLIONS AWAY BECAUSE HE WANTED LAUGHS! He turned from a human check book into a human being and taught his family to laugh!"

1932

1h 12m

5.6(7 votes)

Comedy

Drama

Overview

Henry Wilton is an elderly millionaire saddled with his selfish young second wife Emmy 'Sweetie' Wilton and a pair of spoiled grown children, Peggy and Eddie. To test his family's mettle, Henry pretends to have gone broke. Just as he suspected they would, his children rally to their father's side and change their ways: Peggy forsakes the fortune hunter George Struthers for the nice young man she's really in love with, the polo coach Larry Rivers, while Eddie applies for a demanding job and performs admirably. Only Sweetie seems to desert Henry.

Links & Resources

Social & External

Production Companies

The Vitaphone Corporation

Warner Bros. Pictures

The people behind it

Cast & crew

10 featured cast members

Starring

George Arliss

George Arliss

Henry Wilton

Mary Astor

Mary Astor

Emmy 'Sweetie' Wilton

Evalyn Knapp

Evalyn Knapp

Peggy Wilton

Grant Mitchell

Grant Mitchell

Connors

William Janney

William Janney

Eddie Wilton

David Torrence

David Torrence

Partington

Hardie Albright

Hardie Albright

George Struthers

Randolph Scott

Randolph Scott

Larry Rivers

Hale Hamilton

Hale Hamilton

John Belde

Fortunio Bonanova

Fortunio Bonanova

Pietro Rafaelo

Creative team

Directed by: John G. Adolfi
Written by: Clare Kummer
Maude T. Howell
Produced by: Lucien Hubbard

Similar Movies

The Thin Man

The Thin Man

A husband and wife detective team takes on the search for a missing inventor and almost get killed for their efforts.

Service for Ladies

Service for Ladies

Max Tracey is the head waiter at a London hotel. He falls in love at first sight with Sylvia Robertson, an aristocratic woman, and poses as a prince to win her love. In this venture, he is aided by Mr. Westlake, a Ruritanian monarch who owes him a favour. When Sylvia discovers Max's deception, she is appalled, but the situation is resolved when her father tells her that he was once a hotel dishwasher.

Storm at Daybreak

Storm at Daybreak

Sarajevo June 28, 1914. Dushan, the Serbian mayor of a Hungarian town, has come to see the parade of Archduke Ferdinand. While there he runs into Geza, an old friend in the Hungarian Army and invites him to come to his house and visit him and his new wife.

Six Cylinder Love

Six Cylinder Love

Troubles begin for the Sterlings when they buy an expensive car and friends start pressing them for rides.

Disorderly Conduct

Disorderly Conduct

When motorcycle cop Dick Fay gives a ticket to Phyllis Crawford, her father's graft-fed influence leads to his demotion to foot patrolman.

Shanghai Madness

Shanghai Madness

In the 1920s Pat Jackson destroys a Chinese post and is discharged from the Navy. Li Po Chang hires him to run a gunboat up the river. He drops Wildeth off at a mission for safety, but when his boat returns the mission is being attacked by communists.

One Way Passage

One Way Passage

A terminally ill woman and a debonair murderer facing execution meet and fall in love on a trans-Pacific crossing, each without knowing the other's secret.

My Man Godfrey

My Man Godfrey

Fifth Avenue socialite Irene Bullock needs a "forgotten man" to win a scavenger hunt, and no one is more forgotten than Godfrey Park, who resides in a dump by the East River. Irene hires Godfrey as a servant for her riotously unhinged family, to the chagrin of her spoiled sister, Cornelia, who tries her best to get Godfrey fired. As Irene falls for her new butler, Godfrey turns the tables and teaches the frivolous Bullocks a lesson or two.

Infernal Machine

Infernal Machine

This pre-Code comedy-thriller centers on Robert Holden, a broke and discouraged veteran, who meets fellow American Elinor Green at a cafe in Paris. After their first encounter, Holden's attempt to return Green's thought-to-be stolen purse ends up rendering him a stowaway on board a ship bound for America. Also aboard is a collection of characters, including Green's banker fiancé, a famed scientist, and an opera singer. Romance begins to blossom between Holden and Green, just as a radiogram claims that an “infernal machine,” or bomb, is aboard the ship. Quickly each passenger accuses the others of planting the bomb until eventually Holden, jealous of Green's attention to her undeserving fiancé, falsely admits to being the culprit. In his role as assumed perpetrator, Holden tests the group further.

Cha-Cha-Cha

Cha-Cha-Cha

Gruber is a normal 16-year-old growing up in Budapest in 1962, but he has a problem -- how does he get to know the opposite sex? At the Sunday afternoon dance classes the young "ladies and gentlemen" hold each other while dancing, and that makes the lessons worth something. Otherwise, the pianist's attention wanders and the orchestra does not exactly play with a single-minded dedication. In fact, everybody seems to have other things on their minds, except for the enthusiastic dance instructor and his ever-smiling assistant.

My Fair Lady

My Fair Lady

A snobbish phonetics professor agrees to a wager that he can take a flower girl and make her presentable in high society.

The Overcoat

The Overcoat

A lonely social outcast gets a glimpse of what life is like for someone popular, and cannot let it go, even in death.

Thunderbolt

Thunderbolt

A criminal known as Thunderbolt is imprisoned and facing execution. Into the next cell is placed Bob Moran, an innocent man who has been framed and who is in love with Thunderbolt's girl, without knowing of their relationship. Thunderbolt hopes to stave off the execution long enough to kill young Moran for romancing his girl.

Baby Face

Baby Face

A young woman uses her body and her sexuality to help her climb the social ladder, but soon begins to wonder if her new status will ever bring her happiness.

The Unholy Three

The Unholy Three

A trio of former sideshow performers double as the "Unholy Three" in a scam to nab some shiny rocks.

Valentin

Valentin

Valentin, an 8-year-old boy living with his grandmother in late-1960s Buenos Aires, is surrounded by problems in his family he finds only himself capable of solving.

Captain Thunder

Captain Thunder

A notorious Mexican bandit goes all soft and mushy when he falls for a beautiful senorita. Warner Bros.' Captain Thunder contains some of the darndest Mexican accents you've ever heard in your life. The star is Hungarian-born Victor Varconi, portraying a legendary south of the border outlaw who tries to force Canadian senorita Fay Wray to marry a rival rustler whom she despises. She pleads with the bandito so pathetically that he is moved to grant her a single wish. Without hesitation she chooses her poor but true love. The bandit king, being a somewhat honorable fellow grants the wish and without a twitch, guns down the wicked cattle thief. Fortunately the film was played for comedy, a wise decision since it probably would have garnered laughs as a straight drama anyway.

I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang

I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang

A World War I veteran’s dreams of becoming a master architect evaporate in the cold light of economic realities. Things get even worse when he’s falsely convicted of a crime and sent to work on a chain gang.

City Streets

City Streets

A mobster's daughter leads her boyfriend from the circus into bootlegging.

Blonde Venus

Blonde Venus

In an effort to be able to afford expensive treatment for her gravely ill American husband, a retired German entertainer returns to the cabaret as Blonde Venus and catches the eye of a wealthy politician.

Recommended Movies

Don't Think Twice

Don't Think Twice

An improv group deals with several crises, including the loss of their lease and one member hitting the big time.

Uptown Girls

Uptown Girls

Molly Gunn, the freewheeling daughter of a deceased rock legend, is forced to get a job when her manager steals her money. As nanny to Ray - the precocious, oft-ignored daughter of a music executive - she learns what it means to be an adult while teaching Ray how to be a child.

The Twelve Chairs

The Twelve Chairs

In 1920s Soviet Russia, a fallen aristocrat, a priest and a con artist search for a treasure of jewels hidden inside one of twelve dining chairs, lost during the revolution.

Feel the Beat

Feel the Beat

After failing to make it on Broadway, April returns to her hometown and reluctantly begins training a misfit group of young dancers for a competition.

Fun with Dick and Jane

Fun with Dick and Jane

When an upwardly mobile couple find themselves unemployed and in debt, they turn to armed robbery in desperation.

Madea Goes to Jail - The Play

Madea Goes to Jail - The Play

Madea returns in another hilarious story in which she gets sent to the big house. But regardless of the circumstances, she gives her trademark advice and wisdom to her friends and family as they learn the importance of letting go, moving on, and forgiveness.

Wild Oats

Wild Oats

Everything changes for Eva when she receives an insurance settlement check accidentally made out for $5,000,000 instead of the expected $50,000. She and her best friend take the money and head out for the adventure of a lifetime.

Auntie Mame

Auntie Mame

Mame Dennis, a progressive and independent woman of the 1920s, is left to care for her nephew Patrick after his wealthy father dies. Conflict ensues when the executor of the father's estate objects to the aunt's lifestyle and tries to force her to send Patrick to prep school.

Educating Rita

Educating Rita

Rita, a witty 26-year-old hairdresser, wants to 'discover' herself, so she joins the Open University where she meets the disillusioned professor of literature, Dr. Frank Bryant. His marriage has failed, his new girlfriend is having an affair with his best friend and he can't get through the day without downing a bottle or two of whisky. What Frank needs is a challenge... and along comes Rita.

Class Act

Class Act

Duncan is a genius straight A student, Blade is ajuvenile delinquent. But because of a mix up with their school records, everyone thinks each is the other one. Now, Duncan kind of likes the attention from being thought of as a real bad dude, if only the school bully would stop trying to rough him up. And Blade definitely likes being thought of as important instead of as trouble.

A King in New York

A King in New York

A recently-deposed "Estrovian" monarch seeks shelter in New York City, where he becomes an accidental television celebrity. Later, he's wrongly accused of being a Communist and gets caught up in subsequent HUAC hearings.

Footlight Parade

Footlight Parade

A fledgling producer finds himself at odds with his workers, financiers and his greedy ex-wife when he tries to produce live musicals for movie-going audiences.

Where the Money Is

Where the Money Is

Henry Manning has come up with a new way to break out of prison: fake a stroke and get transferred to a nursing home. It's a perfect plan, except for one thing: the woman assigned to take care of him at the nursing home, Carol Ann McKay, has a plan of her own.

Afterlife of the Party

Afterlife of the Party

A social butterfly who dies during her birthday week is given a second chance to right her wrongs on Earth.

It Runs in the Family

It Runs in the Family

This is the story of a dysfunctional New York family, and their attempts to reconcile

Strike!

Strike!

In 1963 New England, a group of friends at an all-girls academy learn that they're going to be combined with a nearby all-boys institution. They concoct a plan to save their school while dealing with everyday problems along the way.

Monsieur Verdoux

Monsieur Verdoux

The film is about an unemployed banker, Henri Verdoux, and his sociopathic methods of attaining income. While being both loyal and competent in his work, Verdoux has been laid-off. To make money for his wife and child, he marries wealthy widows and then murders them. His crime spree eventually works against him when two particular widows break his normal routine.

Love Happy

Love Happy

The Marx Brothers help young Broadway hopefuls when they get mixed up with gangsters due to a tin of sardines containing Romanoff diamonds.

Sometimes Always Never

Sometimes Always Never

Alan is a stylish tailor with moves as sharp as his suits. He has spent years searching tirelessly for his missing son Michael who stormed out over a game of Scrabble. With a body to identify and his family torn apart, Alan must repair the relationship with his youngest son and solve the mystery of an online player who he thinks could be Michael, so he can finally move on and reunite his family.

Fast Girls

Fast Girls

A street smart runner develops an intense rivalry with an equally ambitious wealthy young athlete.