Maisie Gets Her Man

Maisie Ravier (Ann Sothern) is the assistant in a knife-throwing act with Professor Orco. He's angry at losing a woman and takes it out on Maisie. She barely escapes from a knife thrown directly at her. She encounters wacky comedian Hap Hixby (Red Skelton) and gets entangled with various criminal types.

I like the start with Professor Orco. It's a great launching point. Red Skelton is doing all kinds of pranks. His film career is on the rise. The most obvious move is for Maisie to partner up with Red Skelton in a comedy act. They just need to work on the act until it gets good. The movie can get rid of everything else. It's a bit of a missed opportunity.

Ann Sothern again plays Maisie in "Maisie Gets Her Man," a 1942 film featuring Red Skelton, Leo Gorcey, Allen Jenkins, Donald Meek and Lloyd Corrigan. Maisie's hired by a comedian, Hap Hixby (Skelton) who gets horrible stage fright, so her job is gone before she even gets to do it. However, the building owner (Jenkins) is impressed with Hap and gives him a job managing the building, and Maisie becomes his assistant. Hap and Maisie fall in love, but when Hap's fiancée shows up, Hap can't tell her the truth. Maisie leaves and gets a job in a show. But when she finds out Hap is in trouble, she decides she has to do something.

This is a lively movie, in part because of Jenkins and Gorcey, who are very funny. I can't say I've ever been a Red Skelton fan, but MGM stuck him in every B movie as they attempted to build him up. Here he's nice-looking and plays it straight except when he's on stage. Sothern of course is a delight as the fast-thinking Maisie. Like most serials, the quality varies from film to film. This was one of the better ones, with a little more plot and a strong supporting cast.

This is Ann Sothern's sixth film of 10 that MGM made, in which she stars as Maisie Ravier. Following the formula for all of these openings, Maisie loses her job with a knife-thrower who loses his bearings after his girlfriend runs off with "a pig piccolo player."

After she leaves Professor Orco (played by Fritz Feld), she happens into a down-and-out office building being run by Pappy Goodring, played by Allen Jenkins. She also has an encounter with Red Skelton's Hap Hixby.

The plot for this one is different and goofy, but not in a humorous way for good comedy. Maisie Ravier's character seems to have undergone something of a change as well. She's more cynical and less upbeat and rebounding.

"Maisie Gets Her Man" has a first rate cast with several prominent supporting actors of the day. Besides Jenkins and Skelton, there's Donald Meek, Walter Catlett, Rags Ragland and Willie Best. Leo Gorcey, Esther Dale and some other familiar faces fill out the screen.

Die hard Ann Sothern fans and just a few others are likely to enjoy this movie. For most film fans in the 21st century, this will be a forgetful, silly and even boring flick after a while. Here are the best of the few funny lines in this film.

Hap Hixby, "Would you like me if I was stupid? Maisie, "Well, don't I?"

Maisie, "Well, here I am again. No job, no dough, no prospects. Stagehand, "Tough luck, miss." Maisie, "Yeah. They must've repealed the law of averages the day I was born."

In this movie, down-on-her-luck actress Maisie teams up with an annoying comic. In an unlikely twist, this leads them to work for a bottled water company.

Skelton starts the movie being more annoying than funny, and Maisie's decision to team up with him seems unpersuasive. But then, pretty much everything in this movie seems unpersuasive, and the whole thing feels a little disjointed.

For the most part the humor is pretty mild, although there is a terrific moment when Skelton discovers he has severe stage fright. A little over halfway through I stopped watching.

As usual, Maisie is out of work. However, HOW this occurs at the beginning of the film you'll just have to see for yourself! Following this debacle, Maisie is broke and is taken in by a nice guy 'Pappy' Goodring (Allen Jenkings) and allowed to stay as his apartment building. Unfortunately, Maisie is yet another non-paying tenant and Goodring is in jeopardy of losing the place because he can't pay the mortgage. However, when another tenant, Marshall Denningham, moves in, things begin to look up. And, the more successful Denningham is selling his 'Sapphire Water', the better things get between Goodring and the guy who keeps threatening to take the building (Donald Meek). Another huge plot involves an obnoxiously bad comic, 'Hap' Hixby, with stage fright (Red Skelton). Maisie first becomes Hap's stage partner and soon things start to heat up between them off-stage as well. So why's it called "Maisie Gets Her Man"? See the film and find out for yourself.

Like the rest of the films in the series, this one is entertaining and well made. Now I am NOT saying it's deep or will change your life--it is just light entertainment. But it's enjoyable and a worth addition to the series.

By the way, although his role was small, it was sure nice to see Willie Best playing a non-offensive and non-stereotypical sort of role. Fans of old-time movies often would remember him for playing Stepin' Fetchit-type roles in many films--the sort of characters that make most folks uncomfortable today. In fact, his character was pretty smart here!