Mr. A’s family comedy, I call it a proto-type of “Father Knows Best,” is being broadcast tomorrow as part of TCM’s salute to Mary Astor. Long before Mary co-starred with Humphrey Bogart or Walter Huston, she played Mr. A’s wife in this May-September relationship. The age difference was not glossed over and, indeed, becomes an important story point as the plot develops.
Mr. A wondered in his autobiography, MY TEN YEARS IN THE STUDIOS, whether A SUCCESSFUL CALAMITY made any money for Warner Bros. but he needn’t have worried. Studio records show that this little film made a tidy profit during the depths of the Great Depression. Get your DVRs ready for this one although your blogmeister is happy to report that Warner Archive has offered this film on DVD for several years now!
Arliss Alert! A SUCCESSFUL CALAMITY (1932) is being aired in the US on Monday, August 26, 2019, at 12:30 PM EDT on TCM (Turner Classic Movies)
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ARLISS ARCHIVES 
I dvd-r’d this wonderful film off TCM quite a few years back, & it is excellent. I love the bizarre art-deco makeover Ms, Astor as the young wife gives to hubby George’s sitting room, in which he is then unable to find even his favorite, comfortable, overstuffed chair, until the butler invites him to sit in it in his own room, where Ms. Astor has placed it to get rid of it! 😉
Somebody wrote a perceptive review of CALAMITY a few years ago when it came out on DVD. The reviewer noted that although the Arliss character is the richest man in town, everybody there loves him. This harkens back to the time when philanthropy was personal and not a governmental function and when a wealthy person could be admired rather than envied because he or she was generous to others. Some viewers of the film today are puzzled by this.