Up Goes Maisie

Another enjoyable Maisie movie starring the delightful and lovely Ann Sothern. Maisie has just graduated from business school and wants to get a job as a secretary. However, everywhere she goes the men who interview her are only interested in her looks. So Maisie puts on some glasses, pins her hair up, and tries to dress like a woman with her mind on nothing but business. In the movie this is supposed to make her less appealing. But it's pretty hard to buy as Sothern is so adorable you could put her in a potato sack and she would still be attractive. Anyway, Maisie gets a job with Joe Morton (George Murphy). When Morton learns who she really is and that she used to work assembling airplanes, he invites her into his secret helicopter project. It's always fun to watch Ann Sothern in these Maisie films. They're cute, funny, lightweight entertainment. This isn't my favorite in the series, but it's a good one.

The casting for "Up Goes Maisie" is rather strange. After all, a few years earlier George Murphy was cast as Maisie's boyfriend in "Ringside Maisie" and here he is again as Maisie's boyfriend--and Murphy is NOT playing the same guy in both films! This must have been a bit confusing to audience members who went to both movies--especially since she becomes engaged to both guys!

Maisie has just graduated from Business School and her prospects are quite good. However, inexplicably, she has trouble getting work because every time she goes to apply for a job she is sexually harassed. It's all very silly, as they portray Ann Sothern as if she's hotter than Rita Hayworth and Lana Turner put together. The bottom line is that they lay this angle on way too thick and it seemed like sloppy writing to have the 37 year-old actress playing such a sexual magnet.

Eventually, Maisie gets a job with Mr. Morton and his team of workers who are trying to build a prototype helicopter. She not only is the secretary but does some of the welding and checks the books. And, since she is a sexual magnet, soon Mr. Morton (Murphy) is head-over-heels for her and asks her to marry him. However, neither is aware that a very manipulative woman (Hillary Brooke) and her rich daddy will do anything to ensure that the project fails--so that the evil woman can catch Morton on the rebound--as well as steal his helicopter plans. So, they need to discredit Maisie and make sure that the 'copter is a dud. Can Maisie and the gang spot the ruse? And, will Maisie FINALLY get her happy ending?

So is this film any good? Well, it does have its problems. As I mentioned above, making Maisie so sexually appealing was pretty dumb and was handled poorly. Additionally, Stephen McNally's character was obviously evil he first time the camera hit him. He was just too obvious and made you wonder why the characters didn't recognize this. The same could be said for Hillary Brooke. There is also a sequence near the end where Maisie is supposedly flying the helicopter--and you can pretty clearly see the string on the model! Despite all this, it's still a cute film and is quite watchable--as are all the Maisie films. But it does suffer from a few problems which should have been ironed out first. It's just not up to the usual higher standards for the series.

These MAISIE films were churned out with alarming regularity by MGM, obviously intended to amuse post-war audiences as the second feature on a double bill. They passed the time pleasantly enough, but it's hard to review them by today's standards since much of the material is as dated as can be.

Let's just say that ANN SOTHERN dispenses her usual charm and breezy style in the role of Maisie Revere, a gal who gets a job with an inventor (GEORGE MURPHY) who is trying to get his automatic helicopter on the market. Needless to say, Maisie and the inventor, played in his usual bland way by Murphy, soon find they have romance on their minds but little else in this silly script. Of course, she ends up saving the day by solo piloting the helicopter over downtown Los Angeles and landing in the Pasadena Rose Bowl for a grand touchdown.

It's as silly as all the other Maisie movies, but not as hard to take as some of them. STEPHEN McNALLY and HILLARY BROOKE are capable at playing the villains, but Maisie getting the wolf whistle routine from every other male in the cast is a bit much.

Trivia note: Watch for DON TAYLOR in soldier's uniform in an uncredited bit.

The Maisie series at its best found our heroine, a showgirl, stranded in some atmospheric spot, like a dude ranch out west, where she had to rely on her wits to find some kind of employment. In the course of the proceedings, she often united lovers, reconciled parents and children, told off snobs, and fell in love with some good-looking guy.

The Maisie pictures were always enjoyable due to Ann Sothern's great performance as a regular gal who could take care of herself, and the sharp writing that had a healthy dose of common sense and understanding of human nature. A good egg who often let her niceness get the better of her, until she woke up and told off some stupid or selfish individual who should have known better, Maisie was a terrific person whose adventures were very popular.

This one came late in the series. It starts out enjoyably, but gets bogged down in a lot of plot. It winds up with Maisie (who has no flying experience) piloting a helicopter that figures centrally in the story. She even manages to take a call from a land-line phone handed out a window to her while the craft is hovering in the middle of downtown Los Angeles!

Unfortunately the bad guy is obvious to the audience from his first appearance, but not to the characters. Which strains credibility to the breaking point. And it's hard to believe that George Murphy (no spring chicken, at this point) could portray a grown man who is so naïve in so many ways.

I guess I prefer the Maisie pictures where she stays on the ground and deals with more or less believable problems, though this one is pretty well done overall.

Maisie Ravier (Ann Sothern) has just graduated from business school. She has to constantly rebuff men's advances. She changes her looks and gets hired by Joseph Morton (George Murphy) who invented a new helicopter.

This starts with an interesting premise of sexual harassment. It's downright modern and possibly feminist. It does transition into the standard Maisie story where the bad guys trick her and she has to fix everything. I can see that part as becoming tired as this is Maisie's ninth movie. They really should modify the formula a bit to freshen up the franchise. The big evil trick isn't so great and it seems easier to steal the plans instead. The story is not the best and this formula is getting old.