Gold Rush Maisie

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

Showgirl Maisie Ravier (Ann Sothern) gets stranded after her rundown car breaks down. She is forced to stay with local dirt farmer Bill Anders and his help Fred Gubbins. He claims the abandoned town nearby is haunted by ghosts. She heads off to the next town to find work and is told about the ghost town with gold. She joins the Depression era Davis family on their search for the gold.

I like the Maisie character after watching the first three movies. There is no need to overplay her jokes. The termite driving a beer truck joke is fine but there is no need to point and laugh. It steps on the joke. What I like most is that she is the lead of her own franchise. She is finally not defined by her romantic male lead. I like that she is the hero of that downtrodden family. The writing is a bit clunky like her $25 car but it still has its fun.

"Gold Rush Maisie" has Maisie (Ann Sothern) prospecting in this 1940 entry into the series.

Maisie's car breaks down, and she becomes stranded and has to ask for help from an isolated, nasty rancher (Lee Bowman) who shares his house with another sourpuss (Slim Somerville).

These films all followed the same formula - Maisie's charm, no-nonsense attitude and warmth melt the icebergs she meets. Later on, she meets a family of farmers who have lost their farm and become migrant workers.

Now they're on their way to prospect for gold. Maisie is stunned at how little they have and sets out to help them.

The atmosphere of "Gold Rush Maisie" is a little more down than usual, and the actions of the rancher played by Lee Bowman are inexplicable. First he's nasty, then he abruptly puts the moves on Maisie, becomes nasty again, and later, after she tells him off, he becomes nice.

Bowman was Sothern's leading man in the series more than once, as was James Craig - I prefer James Craig, who had more energy and variety in his acting.

One does really feel for the family, and that helps to hold one's interest. Sothern does her usual bang-up job.

Another reviewer has it right - Sothern would have been a bigger star in an earlier era. But if huge movie stardom eluded her, she still played some wonderful roles, and her two series are a treasure, as is the actress herself.

As usual, Ann Sothern is the excite-able "Maisie", stranded again, SOMEWHERE. They show joshua trees, so she must have been somewhere in the mojave desert. Although that was probably just a backlot with a backdrop. When her car breaks down, she bumps into Bill (Lee Bowman) and Fred ( Slim Summerville), who get her car going again, but success is short lived. Now Maisie bumps into the Davis family, scratching for gold. Virginia Weidler is the daughter... you may recognize her from "The Women", where she was over-the-top, saccharin sweet and emotional. Here, she's just a normal kid. This one has a pretty thin plot... they had a couple ideas, and put lots of talking in between. Takes a while to get going, but does get better in the second half. Just my opinion. Could be wrong. It DOES have the moral lesson, as Maisie films usually do. See what you think. It's on Turner Classics now and then. Writer C.W. Collison had come up with "Maisie", but then he croaked young in 1941. Collison's death didn't stop them from making movies about Maisie... they were still making them in 1960! Collison had also written the Oscar nominated "Mogambo", with Clark Gable. This Maisie chapter directed by several different folks, apparently due to illness.

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.