By Violet LeVoit
Up Goes Maisie
Brief Synopsis
A showgirl working for an inventor battles crooks out to steal his ideas.
Cast & Crew
Read More
Harry Beaumont
Director
Ann Sothern
Maisie Ravier
George Murphy
Joseph Morton
Hillary Brooke
Barbara Nuboult
Horace Mcnally
Tim Kingby
Ray Collins
Mr. [Floyd] Hendrickson
Film Details
Genre
Comedy
Release Date
Jan
1946
Premiere Information
New York opening: 24 Jan 1946
Production Company
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp.
Distribution Company
Loew's Inc.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on characters created by Wilson Collison.
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 29m
Sound
Mono (Western Electric Sound System)
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
8,000ft
Synopsis
After graduating from the Benson Business School in Los Angeles, Maisie Ravier is ready to begin her search for work as a secretary. Though she is immediately offered a job by Mr. Benson, the head of the school, Maisie declines because she knows that Benson is only interested in her for her good looks. When Benson tries to pressure Maisie into accepting the job and makes a pass at her, she knocks him to the ground and storms out of his office. After attending a series of disappointing job interviews, all of which end abruptly when she is made to feel like an object of sexual desire, Maisie decides to alter her wardrobe and hair to appear more studious and less attractive. The disguise proves successful as Maisie wins a job as a secretary to Joseph Morton, an inventor working on a secret design for a high-speed helicopter. Soon after Joseph hires Maisie, he learns that she used to work at an aircraft manufacturing company, and thus knows a great deal about the technical aspects of aviation. Once he is certain that Maisie can be trusted, Joseph takes her to the secret plant where he and his pals, Mitch O'Hara, Tim Kingby and Bill Stuart, are working on the helicopter. Unknown to Joseph, Kingby is spying on the operation for J. G. Nuboult, the financier of the project. Nuboult, his daughter Barbara and others are secretly building a copy of Joseph's helicopter at another location. Because Joseph is uncomfortable accepting Nuboult's money and feels beholden to Barbara for the arrangement, he tries to get new financing from Seattle tycoon Floyd Hendrickson. Hendrickson agrees to visit Los Angeles in a week's time to inspect the helicopter, and Joseph rushes to complete the project. When Kingby and Barbara learn about Hendrickson's visit, they work on a plan to sabotage Joseph's demonstration. At the same time, Joseph and Maisie, who have sparked a romance, announce their engagement. Fearing that Maisie's nosiness could threaten their plans, Kingby and Barbara conjure up a plan to humiliate her in public and cause a rift in her relationship with Joseph. As part of the plan, Barbara invites Maisie to a high society function and slips a drug into her drink. The drug makes Maisie appear extremely drunk, and she jumps into a pool with her clothes on, just as a photographer snaps her picture. When Maisie sees the picture in the newspaper the following day, she decides to go into hiding. After assigning a private detective to find Maisie, Joseph forges ahead with his plans to demonstrate the helicopter at the Pasadena Rose Bowl. The night before the demonstration, however, Joseph goes to Seattle to get Hendrickson, and Kingby sets fire to the plant. Maisie hears about the fire on a police radio, and when she arrives at the plant, she finds evidence that Nuboult and Kingby have been building a second helicopter. Maisie, Bill and Mitch secretly follow Kingby to the warehouse at which the second helicopter was manufactured, and overhear Kingby and Nuboult's plan to demonstrate the duplicate helicopter for their own investor. Late that night, Maisie, Bill and Mitch sneak into the warehouse and steal the helicopter. Maisie flies the helicopter to the Rose Bowl, and arrives just in time to show it to Hendrickson, who offers to back Joseph's project. Joseph and Maisie celebrate with a kiss, and resume their plans to marry.
Director
Harry Beaumont
Director
Cast
Ann Sothern
Maisie Ravier
George Murphy
Joseph Morton
Hillary Brooke
Barbara Nuboult
Horace Mcnally
Tim Kingby
Ray Collins
Mr. [Floyd] Hendrickson
Jeff York
Elmer Sauders
Paul Harvey
Mr. J. G. Nuboult
Murray Alper
"Mitch" [O'Hara]
Lewis Howard
Bill Stuart
Jack Davis
Jonathan Marbey
Gloria Grafton
Miss Wolfe
John Eldredge
Benson
Garry Owen
Operator
Jack Shutta
Waiter
Nolan Leary
Clerk
Edgar Dearing
Motorcycle cop
Celia Travers
Marcia
Mary Jane French
Janie
Katharine Booth
Lois
Barbara Billingsley
Shar
Tim Murdock
Cameraman
Dorothy Vaughn
Landlady
Robert E. O'connor
Guard
Charles Murray Jr.
Counterman
Lee Phelps
Cop
Glen Strange
Cop
Ernie Adams
Fireman
Pat Davis
Aircraft worker
Edith Clinton
Aircraft worker
Gwen Crawford
Aircraft worker
Louise Lang
Stout woman
Roy Butler
Businessman
Cameron Grant
Businessman
James Davis
Businessman
Ben Moselle
Rubber
Marjorie Davies
Connie Weiler
Sondra Rodgers
John Vosper
Ethel Tobin
Ted Jacques
Bob Duncan
Florence Stevens
Howard Mitchell
Crew
Richard Duce
Art Director
James Z. Flaster
Re-rec and Effects mixer
Cedric Gibbons
Art Director
A. Arnold Gillespie
Special Effects
Irving Glassberg
2nd Camera
George Haight
Producer
Irene
Costume Supervisor
Lowell S. Kinsall
Unit mixer
Standish J. Lambert
Re-rec and Effects mixer
Leo Linder
Assistant research Director
M. J. Maclaughlin
Music mixer
Ralph A. Pender
Re-rec and Effects mixer
Robert Planck
Director of Photography
George Richelavie
Research Director
Thelma Robinson
Story and Screenplay
Arthur Rose
Unit Manager
Douglas Shearer
Recording Director
Robert W. Shirley
Re-rec and Effects mixer
David Snell
Music Score
Newell Sparks
Re-rec and Effects mixer
Herbert Stahlberg
Music mixer
William Steinkamp
Re-rec and Effects mixer
Michael Steinore
Re-rec and Effects mixer
Irvine Warburton
Film Editor
Herman Webber
Assistant Director
Don T. Whitmer
Re-rec and Effects mixer
John A. Williams
Re-rec and Effects mixer
Edwin B. Willis
Set Decoration
Film Details
Genre
Comedy
Release Date
Jan
1946
Premiere Information
New York opening: 24 Jan 1946
Production Company
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp.
Distribution Company
Loew's Inc.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on characters created by Wilson Collison.
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 29m
Sound
Mono (Western Electric Sound System)
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
8,000ft
Articles
Up Goes Maisie
By 1946, the character Maisie, billed as "that double trouble doll with the sassy chassis" was so closely connected with Ann Sothern that the actress was able to parlay her success into the CBS radio program "The Adventures of Maisie". But her bosses at MGM still found time to put Sothern onscreen. In this, the ninth Maisie movie, our Brooklyn showgirl heroine is looking for work outside of show business as a secretary. Tired of unwanted attention from men, Maisie disguises herself in office drag, complete with dowdy wardrobe and black-framed glasses. But she doesn't fool inventor Joseph Morton (George Murphy, also her co-star in Ringside Maisie (1941)), who suspects she's a spy hungering after his prototype for a new, easy-to-fly helicopter. But it's Maisie who eventually earns his gratitude by uncovering a plot to steal his closely guarded plans. Sothern, looking weary in this go-round (she was nearly forty years old), would have just one more Maisie movie to go before moving on to an equally iconic career in radio and television.
By Violet LeVoit
By Violet LeVoit
Up Goes Maisie
By 1946, the character Maisie, billed as "that double trouble doll with the sassy chassis" was so closely connected with Ann Sothern that the actress was able to parlay her success into the CBS radio program "The Adventures of Maisie". But her bosses at MGM still found time to put Sothern onscreen. In this, the ninth Maisie movie, our Brooklyn showgirl heroine is looking for work outside of show business as a secretary. Tired of unwanted attention from men, Maisie disguises herself in office drag, complete with dowdy wardrobe and black-framed glasses. But she doesn't fool inventor Joseph Morton (George Murphy, also her co-star in Ringside Maisie (1941)), who suspects she's a spy hungering after his prototype for a new, easy-to-fly helicopter. But it's Maisie who eventually earns his gratitude by uncovering a plot to steal his closely guarded plans. Sothern, looking weary in this go-round (she was nearly forty years old), would have just one more Maisie movie to go before moving on to an equally iconic career in radio and television.
By Violet LeVoit
TCM Remembers - Ann Sothern
TCM Remembers - Ann Sothern
Actress Ann Sothern passed away on March 15th at the age of 89. Her film career spanned sixty years and included a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for The Whales of August (1987) and several Emmy nominations for her roles in the TV shows Private Secretary (1953) and The Ann Sothern Show (1958). Sothern was born as Harriette Lake in North Dakota. She made her first film appearance in 1927 in small roles (so small, in fact, that some sources omit any films before 1929) before deciding to work on Broadway instead. Shortly afterwards she signed with Columbia Pictures where studio head Harry Cohn insisted she change her name because there were already too many actors with the last name of Lake. So "Ann" came from her mother's name Annette and "Sothern" from Shakespearean actor E.H. Sothern. For most of the 1930s she appeared in light comedies working with Eddie Cantor, Maurice Chevalier, Mickey Rooney and Fredric March. However, it wasn't until she switched to MGM (after a brief period with RKO) and made the film Maisie (1939) that Sothern hit pay dirt. It proved enormously popular and led to a series of nine more films through 1947 when she moved into dramas and musicals. During the 50s, Sothern made a mark with her TV series but returned to mostly second tier movies in the 1960s and 1970s. Finally she earned an Oscar nomination for her work in 1987's The Whales of August (in which, incidentally, her daughter Tisha Sterling played her at an earlier age). Turner Classic Movies plans to host a retrospective film tribute to her in July. Check back for details in June.
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
This was one of many films in M-G-M's "Maisie" series. For more information on the series, consult the Series Index and the entry for Maisie in AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1931-40; F3.2662.
