Ringside Maisie (1941)

Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Best movie ever!

Absolutely Fantastic

This was my first 'Maisie' movie with Ann Sothern, actually I chose to DVR the film off of Turner Classics because of the boxing theme. There's not a whole lot of ring action but it anchors the story after Terry Dolan O'Hara (Robert Sterling) interrupts his workout to offer Maisie a ride to her hotel. From there, Maisie seems to see-saw her way in a relationship between Dolan and his fight manager Skeets Maguire (George Murphy). I was betting on Sterling's character right from the start, but after reading some other reviewers here, it appears that Maisie finding and not keeping a man was built into the series as a regular story line.This was my first look at actress Virginia O'Brien, appearing as herself and doing that bizarrely executed night club number, which had me baffled until I read that it was part of her schtick. It was so different and unique I had to go back and watch it a couple more times. Now I'll be on the lookout for more of her singing appearances.Say, what exactly do you think Skeets got a ticket for on the George Washington Bridge? It was the middle of the night, no traffic, and he was pulled over to the side of the road. You'd think the cop would be a little more understanding and send him off with a warning and a slap on the wrist. Now if it happened today, well all bets are off.As far as the boxing goes, Sterling as well as all of his opponents didn't look like heavyweight fighters to me, but that's probably a trivial point. Skeets Maguire looked like a gangster in his broad pin stripes but turned out to be a class guy when all was said and done. If anyone turned out to be a heel here it would have been Terry Dolan's fiancé, Cecilia Reardon (Natalie Thompson) after it looked like Terry's career was through and facing permanent blindness following his last match. I wouldn't have minded seeing her get KO'd by Maisie along the way.

More dramatic than ever, this entry in the popular Ann Sothern series takes on the world of providing. Maybe hook up with boxing manager George Murphy who pushes his prize client Robert Sterling to the breaking point as he strives to win big money to help out Hus mother. Murphy's law isn't coddling his clients, and any attempts Sterling makes to get out of his contract is met with legal threats. It's up to Maisie to fix things, and like the good tenderhearted (if rough around the edges) angel she is, she takes it on with her usual verve.Supporting Sothern, Murphy and Sterling are Natalie Thompson as Sterling's not so loyal girlfriend and Margaret Moffatt as Sterling's wheelchair bound mother. A character actress I'd never heard of before, I was impressed with Miss Moffatt's acting, although I wanted her to give Murphy a huge slap when she gently called him over in a dramatic final scene.A particular delight is the presence of Virginia O'Brien in a nightclub sequence as herself, singing an if course deadpan version of "A Bird in a Gilded Cage" as only she can. It lightens up the seriousness of this entry, reminding me that just because Sothern's lighthearted image made this assumed to be a comedy series that she couldn't go dramatic every now and then.

This chapter of the "Maisie" adventures, starring Ann Sothern, opens at a Danceland dance hall. Ed Marin directed four of these, so he was familiar with Sothern and the usual suspects. Maisie (Sothern) gets canned from the dance hall, and calls her agent Vic (Rags Ragland) to see what else she can do for work. She meets up with the boxing mug Terry Dolan (Robert Sterling), and stirs things up. ( Sothern was married to Sterling from 1943 to 1949, and it appears this was the only film they made together. Sothern has an interesting family history, for those who have the time to read her bio....) "Maisie" butts heads with the boxer's manager "Skeets", who is sure she wants to distract Dolan from his boxing. For me, its all about Virginia OBrien - she sings Bird in a Gilded Cage at the night club, and she does her usual deadpan face with small, fun, facial expressions that say so much with so little movement. Written by Wilson Collison & Mary McCall, it appears Collison died young at 47. Sothern would also make six films with Gene Raymond; for those looking for other good Ann Sothern films, my favorites are Smartest Girl in Town, and Walking on Air - tons of fun if you can catch em on Turner Classics.

This is a enjoyable, fun, moving movie. Ann Sothern is one of my favorite actresses, she could do anything, sing, dance, act, and be funny. She should of became a bigger star, she should of made it in the 1930s, she had the screen image of women who were in the movies at the time, she could of been up with Jean Harlow, Kay Francis, Constance Bennett, Carole Lombard, Myrna Loy, Norma Shearer, Glenda Farrell, Joan Blondell. She had their kind of talent and screen presence which was popular in the 1930s, but they had too many women like that and besides Ann Sothern became popular around the mid-1930s, when movies and women were changing on screen, and that kind of acting style women did in the 1930s wasn't popular in the 1940s. Maybe if Ann would of came around and became popular in the early 1930s, maybe she would of been a bigger star. But who cares she made it. But Ann Sothern remain well-known and popular in the 1940s, and is very watchable. MGM should of made her a bigger star. She's beautiful in this movie. The funniest, memorable scene is the beginning of the movie, Ann Sothern is dancing with a guy, their doing the dances of the time, Ann is really getting down, its actually funny how the guy spins and kicks around her while their fast dancing. You have to see it. She switches from comedy to drama beautifully. Ann really takes your breath away in this movie right along with dashing George Murphy and Robert Sterling. Seeing Robert discover that he's blind will make tears come in your eyes. Beautiful Virigina O'Brien is always a delight. like Turner Classic Movies shows it from time to time. Try to catch it.