Undercover Maisie (1947)

Very well executed

To me, this movie is perfection.

Purely Joyful Movie!

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

In all her Maisie films, Maisie Ravier ends up trying some new career and meets and falls in love....and the viewer is left assuming she'll marry finally and settle down with him. But, when the next film came out, any mention of the old boyfriend and career is gone...and she's on to new career and romantic adventures. This final Maisie film starring Ann Southern is no different...and the viewer can only hope that FINALLY Maisie got her happily ever after.Early in the story, Maisie has hitched a ride with a nice old woman...or so she thinks. But the old lady turns out to be a crook and robs her. When Maisie reports this to the police, the Lieutenant (Barry Nelson) is impressed with her ability to recall the woman, her car and other details. So, he has an idea....to hire Maisie and get her to join his Bunco unit. During the course of this, Maisie is wooed by both the Lieutenant and another officer named Chip.Her first assignment involves a fake psychic. Little does she know that he has other criminal enterprises AND his partners are rather bloodthirsty and want to kill her when they discover Maisie is a cop! Can help come in time and will they recognize the clues Maisie's left along the way?Entertaining but far from perfect. The biggest thing against the film is modern sensibilities which make the cops look like first class sexual harassers! Still worth seeing and fun.

The Maisie movies, starring Ann Sothern, were B films, light fun, enlivened by their effervescent star. This is the last one. Though a series, each film was separate. Maisie would fall in love with one guy and in the next film, he'd be gone. She worked a variety of jobs, sometimes getting work as a performer.Here, Maisie volunteers herself to an older woman who is driving her husband's car to California. Maisie offers to help with the driving. When she goes into the store, the woman, a con artist, takes off, taking Maisie's money and jewels with her. The next time we see Maisie, she is blowing her stack at a police detective (Barry Nelson) who is very impressed with her powers of observation. He offers her a job on the police force, and after some training, she goes undercover.Actually, I thought this was pretty good, even though Maisie wasn't suspicious enough of some people she met along the way. Ann Sothern is terrific as always, full of energy and flirtatiousness, and an upbeat attitude. In this film, her character is described as 25; try 37. And I give her a lot of credit. She played a much younger woman in her two television series, when she was well into her forties.Barry Nelson looked for years like he had a portrait aging in his closet - it was always hard to believe he was in these early films, as he remained youthful for many years. Here he sports a mustache, probably because at 30, he looked 20. His main career was on Broadway, where he was very prolific and worked into his '70s. And few remember that he was the first James Bond, on television."Undercover Maisie" moves quickly and is entertaining.

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.

I noticed in the opening credits that "Undercover Maisie" was written by a woman (Thelma Robinson), which probably accounts for the strong feminist stance of the movie: even at the end, when the conventions of the genre demand that Maisie get kidnapped and imprisoned by the villains, she fights them - ultimately successfully - all by herself, putting her self-defense training to practical use. But while this aspect of the film is fun to watch, the film itself is plodding and, at a full 90 minutes, too long (this kind of programmer usually works better at around an hour). Maisie has a few (too few!) memorable lines ("My head....my hand....my knees!"), but the best line in the film, and a quite suggestive one at that, is by far the last one, belonging to Barry Nelson, which is worth sitting around for. ** out of 4.