Swing Shift Maisie

It's the middle of World War II for the U. S., and Maisie Ravier is doing her part. Besides being a factory worker and helping build planes like Rosie the Riveter, Ann Sothern's Ravier is making another movie to help lift the spirits of people on the home front. This is the seventh in the series of Maisie films by MGM, and the studio and cast make a good anti-Nazi propaganda film as well.

There isn't much to the plot in this one. Maisie starts out in a dog act that folds over a squabble she is part of. A little oddity is that Maisie doesn't have a birth certificate for an ID to be able to get the war-time factory job. So, she gets the dog act guy, Horatio Curley, to vouch as having known her since childhood. That would do in lieu of a birth certificate.

This is another good romantic comedy in which Maisie has to convince the company test pilot, Breezy McLaughlin, that she's the gal for him. And it takes some time before Breezy wakes up to the conniving Iris Reed.

There's a bad taste left after viewing this supposedly amusing Maisie film, the seventh in the series, which has Maisie and the other femme lead (JEAN ROGERS) making a lot of bad choices and doing a lot of foolish and sometimes mean-spirited things.

We get the idea that Maisie is supposed to be a "breezy" character and ANN SOTHERN is adept at getting this facet of Maisie's personality across. But the script has her making a chump of herself over befriending the wrong-headed JEAN ROGERS, who turns out to be a conniving idiot, and both in love with the equally addle-brained JAMES CRAIG, who plays a wartime test pilot in love with both girls working at a munitions factory.

The script calls for one foolish scene after another, finally ending with Craig dumping Rogers for Sothern and finally seeing the light.

Only die-hard fans of Ann Sothern will enjoy this one. The script needed to be totally revamped and is actually quite obnoxious at times.

It's the war years and Maisie Ravier (Ann Sothern) gets a job at an airplane assembly plant after getting fired from a dog act. 'Breezy' McLaughlin (James Craig) is the dare-devil test pilot at the plant. He wants to join the war, but the boss is preventing him. Maisie helps struggling actress Iris Reed (Jean Rogers) get a job at the plant. It backfires when Breezy falls for Iris.

This got real dark for a second. It doesn't need to go that dark. I would prefer not to go there even with the later reveal. It's uncomfortable. This is the seventh in the series. It's wartime Maisie. The last one did tack on a wartime propaganda. In this one, she's jumping from her showbiz job right into Rosie the Riveter. I don't really like Breezy leaving. It makes the love triangle very wonky. The Hitler joke is a little surprising, but I guess a lot of movies were doing that. The drill press accident is actually very scary. All in all, it would be more compelling if Breezy is around. The tension just isn't there. The movie has one note and it keeps playing over and over again. It gets a bit tiring.

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.

The first half is almost delightful, thanks to a light touch and some snappy dialog. Then too, Sothern and Craig act out the lines with bounce and sass. And to spice things up, we don't just wonder which girl Breezy (Craig) will end up with, there are even hints that it might be both! (Pretty naughty for the time.)

But then the screenplay turns gradually somber as the troubled Iris (Rogers) takes over and the breezy Breezy drops out of sight. The transition is rather skillfully managed; still, the movie loses its bouncy strong point, becoming almost melodramatic instead. Too bad, but then it seems good comedy scripts are harder to do than good melodrama-- maybe that's why.

One reason I watch these wartime programmers is to catch some flavor of the times. I figured a swing shift at a defense plant might provide insight. Well, the movie does, partially. There's some Rosie the Riveter feminism as expected.

But what I picked up was that each segment of the airplane assembly line was sealed off by guards from the others. Just why wasn't explained, but I surmise it was to make possible espionage more difficult. Also, the little episode with Iris's long locks explains why the iconic Rosie is always pictured with bundled hair. Still, I wish the rather lengthy run-time (87-min.) spent more time with how the women were adjusting to their new roles, which might also have made good comedy.

Anyway, despite the questionable change in tone, it's a decent enough programmer, especially the bouncy first half.