Dotsthavesp I wanted to but couldn't!

TaryBiggBall It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

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.

classicsoncall 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.

bkoganbing 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.

ksf-2 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.