Peripécias de Maisie

Back in the old big studio days MGM didn't send their expensive cast and crews out on location if they could possibly keep them back home on the Culver City lot, especially if the story was set in the Arizona desert as this one is. This 1940 studio-bound production is a curiosity: full of phony sound-stage sets pretending to be exteriors, obvious painted backdrops and fuzzy process shots. Ann Southern and Virginia Weilder even have a big sister-little sister talk while walking on a treadmill as a process-shot desert background is projected in the background. No production shot today could get away with all this fakery. On the plus side, the good-hearted screenplay co-written by Mary C. McCall, Jr, president of the Screen Writer's Guild, is one of the few scripts, other than "The Grapes of Wrath," to have dealt sympathetically with the plight of Dust-bowl farm families who moved west in search of a better life.

These Maisie B-programmers were all based on a tough-as-nails (yet tea-totaling) 30-ish Brooklyn dame who finds herself in some oddball situation where she's broke &/or stranded and manages to get herself out of the jam and help &/or enlighten nearly everyone she comes into contact with (usually landing a $25/week job in the process). Here she's finds herself STRANDED in the middle of Arizona in a broken down Model A (the thing's just 9 years old and had the snot beat out of it) 100-miles late for a singing job in some dive. She meets an anti-social Lee Bowman and his inexplicable sidekick Slim Summerville (imagine Tom Poston's role on Newhart without the humor) and encounters a family of displaced Arkansas sharecroppers traveling to a gold strike (imagine Grapes of Wrath) after her job falls through. The gold strike is back near Bowman's property. This is one of the most meandering and dull Maisies ever made (remember the production was plagued by a change in directors). Absolutely no drama--- the only mildly curious aspect is why Bowman is the way he is (did he discover gold and is hidin' it?). Whatever buildup there is in the plot is deflated at the end, except for the 'Gold is where you find it' theme. It's also got the tragic Scotty Beckett in the role of the sharecropper's kid. Ann's still quite cute and makes with the snappy comebacks, but this entry amounts to nothing much more worthy than a rainy day time waster. Yawn...

The Quick Pitch: On her way to a gig in Phoenix, Maisie's car breaks down in the middle of the desert. She finds herself stranded in an old mining town. When gold is rediscovered, Maisie helps a dirt poor family in their attempt to strike it rich.

I've got to agree with what a lot of others have written on the internet - Gold Rush Maisie definitely has a Grapes of Wrath feel to it. For me, that's one of the films biggest flaws. I enjoy these Maisie films for their comedy and ridiculousness. And while Ann Sothern gets in a good one-liner here and there, the overall tone is terribly somber. When you're dealing with dirt farmers who have no idea where their next meal is going to come from, laughing at Maisie's hijinks just doesn't feel right. Gold Rush Maisie wasn't the kind of entertainment I was expecting or looking for.

My other big complaint is with the ranch owner, Bill Anders, played by Lee Bowman. My problem Isn't with Bowman (in fact, there's something about him that I like more than any of the other male leads Southern played opposite in the first three Maisie films). Instead, my problem is with the character, Lee Anders. One minute, he's in love with Maisie - the next, he can't stand her. One minute, he wants to help the farmers - the next, he wants to throw them off his land. The wild swings the character goes through make no sense at all. It's a pretty poor job of writing.

So far, all I've talked about are the negatives. Based on my rating, it should be obvious that I didn't find Gold Rush Maisie a total wash-out. When the script allows Maisie to be Maisie, those moments really shine. Southern is such a joy to watch as Maisie with her perfect comedic timing and infectious nature. Maisie is always a treat.

5/10

Gold Rush Maisie finds Ann Sothern as the good hearted show girl from Brooklyn going out west with a family that looks remarkably like Joads of Oklahoma. All that was missing was Henry Fonda.

In fact the subject matter was just like The Grapes Of Wrath. Uprooted farmers moving about the country looking for odd jobs in crop picking. Only here rumors of a gold strike are sending a bunch of them west to the Arizona desert. After a bit of kindness on Maisie's part, she hooks up with the Davis family which consists of parents John F. Hamilton, Mary Nash and kid Virginia Weidler, Scotty Beckett and an infant.

All the same problems that John Ford so graphically illustrated and John Steinbeck so graphically wrote about are present in Gold Rush Maisie. Pity that no one with a head as level as Maisie's was around in The Grapes Of Wrath. Many social problems would be solved.

Who'd have thought a film of social significance would have come from the Maisie series, but it did.

Maisie (Ann Sothern) heads west where she helps a poor family trying to strike it rich as prospectors. Sothern is as delightful as ever. Lee Bowman is fine in yet another crappy male lead role in this series. For some reason they always paired Maisie up with jerks. Maybe so people wouldn't complain when she moved on to another guy in the next movie. Slim Summerville is great as Bowman's friend. He does some classic double takes. Virginia Weidler is likable as the little girl who takes a shine to Maisie. Rest of the cast includes Scotty Beckett, Mary Nash, Irving Bacon, John F. Hamilton, and Eddy Waller.

Another enjoyable Maisie movie. Not the best but solid. The Maisie-meets-the-Joads element is nice. One odd moment that stood out to me was when Maisie told the family she's helping that she took a swing at a guy once for daring to call her a gold digger, followed by awkward nervous laughter from the family. Such a weird scene.