MAISIE WAS A LADY

US, 1941, 79 minutes. Black and white.
Ann Sothern, Lew Ayres, Maureen O’ Sullivan, C. Aubrey Smith, Joan Perry, Paul Cavanagh, Edward Ashley.
Directed by Edward L. Marin.

Maisie Was a Lady is the fourth in a series of ten films featuring the showgirl from the wrong side of the tracks, Maisie Ravier (though she explains to everyone that her real name is Mary Anastasia O’ Connor).

In this film, Maisie is in show business but appearing at a carnival as the Headless Woman. Alcoholic playboy, Lew Ayres, upsets her routine and she is fired. When she is pulled over by the police for driving his car which he lent her to get her home, the judge insists that he give Maisie two months’ employment in his house.

The film shows Maisie as the maid, summing up the idle rich young people who have gathered for an engagement announcement. However, she finds the butler of thirty years (C. Aubrey Smith in a sympathetic role) a good friend and warms to the alcoholic playboy’s younger sister, played by Maureen O’ Sullivan as a plain jane who is delighted to be engaged to a great catch – but who is actually a cad (played by Australian-born Edward Ashley).

The film shows the party, Maisie making a number of faux pas, Maisie summing up the situation, falling in love with the playboy – although giving him a few lessons. She also discovers the truth about the absent father, the fact that Abby had been persecuted when she was at school, that Bob had no support when he had a brilliant university career and has consoled himself by drinking.

There is a good scene where, after the younger sister has tried to commit suicide, her absentee father turns up and gets a rip-roaring rebuke from Maisie.

In fact, the screenplay is particularly critical of the young idle rich of the time, taking the side of working-class Maisie.

Ann Sothern fits the role perfectly – something like Joan Blondell in many films at the same time.