Swing Shift Maisie

Once again Maisie is out of a job. This time due to a test pilot named Breezy (James Craig, the poor man's Clark Gable). Of course, because she has crappy taste in men, Maisie falls for him. He gets her a job at a defense plant and a room at a boardinghouse, where she befriends a conniving woman named Iris (radiant Jean Rogers). Soon Iris is working at the plant as well and steals Breezy from Maisie. It gets even messier from there but you get the general idea.

This is a strange entry in the Maisie series, mainly due to the weird combination of the wartime elements and the love triangle with the traitorous friend. But still it's entertaining. Ann Sothern is as adorable and sympathetic as ever. Jean Rogers is positively gorgeous. The camera is in love with her. In every shot she seems to glow. Too bad her character is such a bitch. Some of the highlights in this one include Maisie swishing her way through the factory and turning heads, Iris being thrown around by Maisie's acrobat friends and getting her hair caught in machinery, and pretty much every scene involving a character named Judd ("Hello, curvaceous"). It's an enjoyable enough movie, even if it meanders a bit and the ending stinks.