Ringside Maisie (1941)

You won't be disappointed!

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

When Robert Sterling heavyweight contender confides to Ann Sothern that he really hates boxing all I could think of was the film Twins where Arnold Schwarzenegger confesses to Danny DeVito that he really hates violence. To which DeVito replies, 'but you're so good at it.'That is the underlying plot premise for Ringside Maisie where our Brooklyn showgirl is stranded on a road and she's offered a lift by Sterling who is out doing road work under the watchful eye of manager George Murphy and trainer Maxie Rosenbloom. These guys prove useful after dancer Jack LaRue won't settle for just a professional relationship.When Sterling says he wants out of the fight racket, two fights away from a title shot despite what Sothern tells Murphy about being a heel, my sympathies were completely with him. He did invest years of time and money in Sterling and was right to want a return on his investment. And from what I saw looked out for him pretty good.Sterling is also saddled with Natalie Thompson a real peach of a girl friend who does nothing but eat and get carsick and won't be at his side at the climax. Later for her.But more than anything else Ringside Maisie shows the weakness of using this kind of plot for a series film. At times she shows interest in both Murphy and Sterling and you know because there will be another film that she won't wind up with either. In real life she did show some interest in Bob Sterling because Ann Sothern took him as her second husband.On the plus side there is a nice specialty number from Virginia O'Brien. But Ringside Maisie goes down as one of the weaker films in the series.

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.

An intelligent script and very likable characters played by superb actors, including especially the adorable Ann Sothern, combine to make this an excellent movie.Even if it's not perfect, it's excellent.Maisie gets a chance to demonstrate her own character, her strength, her determination. One speech to a certain cynic gives us a chance to cheer -- literally cheer -- this gutsy and decent young woman who gets knocked down because she is decent.But, like a champion boxer, she keeps getting up.Hollywood had an unfortunate tendency to cast flabby or, well, let's say "underdeveloped" men as "heavyweight" boxers, such as Stu Irwin or, in this case, Robert Sterling, an otherwise good actor, and a good-looking leading man.But he's no Sylvester Stallone.In this boxing movie, Hollywood didn't make the mistake it did in "Cinderella Man," in which a real-life boxer's character was slimed in order to make a dramatic point.Of course there's conflict, or it wouldn't be drama, but there are no two-dimensional straw-man villains.Instead there are real people, with their own goals and dreams, trying to fit into the real world, trying to get ahead within the context of what seemed possible, and to do it while remaining decent and true to themselves.Ann Sothern just outdid herself in this, a role that gave her a chance to show strength as well as charm.The rest of the cast, from "Slapsie Maxie" Rosenbloom, in one of his best roles, to Margaret Moffatt and John Indrisano, the latter two pretty unknown today, to the great George Murphy, were just super.Honest: You ought to see this one.

This was a predictable plot, but fun to watch because of the beautiful Ann Sothern and real-life boxing characters who played small roles. I particularly enjoyed seeing Eddie Simms (played Jackie-Boy Duffy) who was a journeyman fighter with a great heart. He fought about 8 rounds with Joe Louis before being knocked out in 1935 (I think these figures are about right), and asked the referee to go for a walk on the roof with him after being knocked down. There was another fighter I recognize but can't remember, whom the hero "knocked out" early on. I wish I could remember the name, because he was a great left-hook artist who would devastate the division today.