Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

Freaktana A Major Disappointment

SanEat A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Tobias Burrows It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

utgard14 Another enjoyable Maisie movie starring Ann Sothern. This time around Maisie tries to help a young boxer (Robert Sterling, Sothern's future husband) and winds up falling for his jerk of a manager (George Murphy). Why does Maisie always seem attracted to pigs? The old cliché of the guy who is rude to everyone around him and has very particular opinions about women but, gosh darn it, he's "all man" and our heroine just can't help but go weak in the knees when he gives her the slightest bit of attention. One of my pet peeves with this series is that guys like this are always treating Maisie like she's garbage and she always falls for them.Anyway, it's a decent entry in the series. The subplot about the boxer wanting to open a grocery store amused me. Virginia O'Brien has one of her weird comedy singing numbers. Natalie Thompson makes the most of a minor part as Sterling's girlfriend who has a healthy appetite. Sterling does fine, even in the more challenging dramatic parts. Sothern is perfect, as always. The biggest flaw in the cast is charmless George Murphy, whose lack of charisma makes it impossible to find anything likable about his ogre of a character.

marcslope And the first one's better, a typical Maisie entry where Sothern cracks wise, plays tough, and gets stuck in upstate New York, romancing both prizefighter Robert Sterling (whom she married in real life) and his promoter, a not very likable George Murphy. Sterling's engaged to a weakly written dame who overeats and gets carsick, and the always welcome Virginia O'Brien, given fourth billing, shows up to do a deadpan "Bird in a Gilded Cage" and exits. Then it takes a dark turn as Sterling's blinded in the ring, and the comedy completely vanishes. Maisie and melodrama don't mix, and we're not really rooting for her to end up with either leading man, least of all the one she does end up with. We love Annie, and she does her usual good work here, but the screenplay lets her down.

Robert Gold I have seen many of the Maisie films, and this one was another pleasant entry into the series.When I watched the first Maisie film, I felt like I was watching Jean Harlow. I later learned that the Maisie character was intended for Jean; however I enjoyed Ann Sothern's performance as the sassy character.Ann does a great job showing that a woman could handle herself in every situation and always land on her feet. She is smart, sexy, and savvy.I am so grateful to TCM for showing these films, so that I can get the chance to see them for the first time.

blanche-2 Ann Sothern is Maisie again in "Ringside Maisie," a 1941 film also starring Robert Sterling and George Murphy. It's possible that this film is where Ms. Sothern met Sterling, her first husband.The Maisie plots had certain similarities and have to be taken as separate stories, which has always bothered me. It would seem at the end of one film that Maisie had found the man of her dreams, yet in the next film, there would be someone else. Maisie was always the same - a flashy, down in her luck entertainer on her way to a job somewhere, getting stranded, meeting some guy that she hates at first, and then love blooms.In this entry, the man is George Murphy as Francis, who handles gifted prize fighter Terry Dolan (Sterling). Maisie has a job performing and loses it the same night because she won't sleep with her partner (although obviously that isn't stated). She winds up being a companion to the boxer's mother. Over time, she learns that Dolan wants only to buy a grocery store - he hates fighting and is frightened every time he goes into the ring. With Maisie's encouragement, he confronts Francis, who is also a friend, only to have Francis demand he live up to his contract, with disastrous results.These movies were, for the most part, very entertaining. Sothern never did anything she didn't shine in, definitely one of the most likable actresses ever - beautiful, warm, funny, always convincing. When her leading woman days were over, she continued her career as a character actress. She was a wonderful star, even if she didn't reach the heights of Jean Harlow or Carole Lombard. She has good support here from the handsome Sterling and the versatile George Murphy.Good entry into the series.