Undercover Maisie

The final of 10 films in the Maisie Ravier series by MGM has one of the most far-out plots. Maisie's no longer in the entertainment field, but gets taken to the cleaners by an older woman who drives off with her jewelry and luggage. A police lieutenant likes her looks, and her keen sense of noticing details. He convinces her to become a cop, and he sends her off to the Los Angeles Police Academy.

In her first big case, she gets entangled with a fraud operation headed by Willis Farnes and Gus Canford and huis wife. Maisie gets discovered and tied up while the crooks try to make a break. When they plan to knock her off, she leaves clues for the police to follow to her eventual rescue that also leads to the capture of the bad guys.

By this final film, Ann Sothern's girl had changed her persona some, and the plots were getting quite thin. Had it not been for the war and her roles on the war-time Homefront, this series might have ended two or three films earlier. Oh, yeah, and Maisie finds romance in the end of this one too - with her boss, Lt. Paul Scott.

Here are a couple of lines from this film.

Maisie Ravier, "Do everybody's wings stick out like this, or, or, am I dislocated?" Chip Dolan, "No, no, you're all right." Maisie, "Oh, I'm not so sure. Let me look at yours."

Captain Mead, "Now, whatever you do don't let this star-gazer twinkle that you're a cop. Keep your head." Maisie Ravier, "My head?" Captain Mead, "Don't tip your hand." Maisie, "My hand?" Captain Mead, "What's the matter?" Maisie, "My knees."

Final Maisie film sees Maisie (Ann Sothern) ripped off by a con artist. She files a report with the police and mustachioed police lieutenant Barry Nelson thinks she's a natural detective. So he talks her into joining the police academy and learning to be a cop. This leads to one of the more amusing segments of the movie, where Maisie learns self defense. After becoming a cop, Maisie goes undercover to help stop a phony psychic (Leon Ames).

The Maisie series comes to an end with a pleasant, enjoyable episode. Sothern is great as usual. Dependable Leon Ames is good as the fake psychic. Barry Nelson, here sporting a risible mustache, is OK. Maisie's love interests in these movies never seemed to match her charisma and Nelson is no exception. I enjoyed the Maisie series a lot. They're simple, fun stories with the adorable Ann Sothern at her most lovable.

The Maisie series came to an end with Undercover Maisie and strictly on a minor key. In this last film, Ann Sothern joins the police force and without proper training gets into a dangerous situation.

Barry Nelson who plays her immediate supervisor figures that Sothern being from Brooklyn has street smarts and can deal with trying to catch some con artists so she's assigned to the Bunco Squad.

Here's where this picture has a problem. For all the previous films Maisie is quite the shrewd woman. But even the smartest of us need training and she would never be put in the situation she was in for this film.

In fact the gang which consists of Leon Ames, Clinton Sundberg and Gloria Holden make quite a chump of her. But that's all Sothern needs, she's going to catch these people if it's the last thing she ever does. And it nearly is.

Far from the best of this series.

Barry Nelson, 27 years old at the time but looking about 18 has a wispy mustache that needs to be seen to be believed. The idea seemed to be to try and make him look older as he plays a lieutenant detective on the bunco squad. Ann Sothern does her usual good job as Maisie although at one point her characters age is mentioned as 25. That is stretching it a bit. It's a shame this film was the last in the Maisie series. They were starting to look and feel like Bowery Boys or Abbott & Costello movies by this time. Cheap with a lot of good character actors.

Having got hold of the complete collection (volume 1 and 2), I found the swansong of the series is undoubtedly the worst. All others, even thought technically B movie, were almost as entertaining as any other. But this one - well stinks. And for no error of Ms Sothern or even the future first James Bond (Barry Nelson). It was not even the basic plot - but the error lay in extremely amateur conceptualization / direction. With that spoiled, it would be almost impossible for any one to overcome - and even Ms Sothern couldn't really make it watchable since at every drop of hat, incongruities cropped up.

In fact the director lost the plot and his sense, immediately after Maisie was assigned to the case, much before she bungled it. The way she inveigled into Amor's den, her behavior there - a conman of that caliber should have immediately sensed rat. And the way the rat was identified was even more ridiculous - from the embroidered name on under-cloth ? That name was itself nom-de-plume of Maisie- and on the same token, it could have been assumed to be so (after all she told them that she had come to a fortune through the will of some deceased person, and isn't a person with silver spoon birth). With the judo training, how was she so easily overpowered at the hotel? She didn't even struggle, and no guns were pointed at her. In fact she could even had her presence known, even though tied up. She was able to make some sound, except at the time when the audience could hear. It all became a pure mess, so much so that the coefficient of enjoyment that was in half of it was totally negated and more. Verdict ? Even if it is procured as a part of the series, don't watch.