Ringside Maisie

When Robert Sterling heavyweight contender confides to Ann Sothern that he really hates boxing all I could think of was the film Twins where Arnold Schwarzenegger confesses to Danny DeVito that he really hates violence. To which DeVito replies, 'but you're so good at it.'

That is the underlying plot premise for Ringside Maisie where our Brooklyn showgirl is stranded on a road and she's offered a lift by Sterling who is out doing road work under the watchful eye of manager George Murphy and trainer Maxie Rosenbloom. These guys prove useful after dancer Jack LaRue won't settle for just a professional relationship.

When Sterling says he wants out of the fight racket, two fights away from a title shot despite what Sothern tells Murphy about being a heel, my sympathies were completely with him. He did invest years of time and money in Sterling and was right to want a return on his investment. And from what I saw looked out for him pretty good.

Sterling is also saddled with Natalie Thompson a real peach of a girl friend who does nothing but eat and get carsick and won't be at his side at the climax. Later for her.

But more than anything else Ringside Maisie shows the weakness of using this kind of plot for a series film. At times she shows interest in both Murphy and Sterling and you know because there will be another film that she won't wind up with either. In real life she did show some interest in Bob Sterling because Ann Sothern took him as her second husband.

On the plus side there is a nice specialty number from Virginia O'Brien. But Ringside Maisie goes down as one of the weaker films in the series.