Maisie Gets Her Man

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 They must've repealed the law of averages the day I was born."

Red plays the clown on vaudeville trying to get an act together when he meets up with Maisie who just lost her booking. They team up and flop miserably.

They then run across a man who offers to set them up in his business only to get them into the business far enough to get them indicted while he takes off. Maisie and Red fall for each other, but Red already has a fiancé back home. He can't get the nerve up to tell his old flame it's over with so Maisie hits the road also, right before the cops show up.

She accidentally runs into the nice man who helped them out and gets suspicious.

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.

Two television icons of the Fifties team up in Maisie Gets Her Man. But as we know she never keeps any man lest she not be available to be down on her luck for the next film.

After nearly getting killed as the victim in Fritz Feld's knife throwing act our Brooklyn show girl Ann Sothern is once again on her uppers and looking for some kind of work. She rooms at a building that Allen Jenkins manages and he offers to put her to work assisting him. But then a rather obnoxious man who wants to break into show business played by Red Skelton kind of grows on Sothern and she helps him. Skelton falls for her even though back in Indiana he's got a sweetheart.

The plot moves through a few situations, but it's Skelton and Sothern you remember. A great scene is when the brash Skelton discovers he has stage fright and Sothern sees how vulnerable he is. After that Skelton and she go to work for conman Lloyd Corrigan who is selling shares in a mineral water company. You know he'll come to justice before the film ends.

Another great scene allows Skelton to do his drunk act substituting gin for the mineral water and softening skinflint Donald Meek. Red and Ann make quite a pair of tipplers.

Fans of Susie McNamara and Freddie the Freeloader will like Maisie Gets Her Man.

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.