In all honesty, any of the ten Maisie movies Ann Sothern did for MGM could be titled "Maisie Gets Her Man" -- but in this sixth installment, the man in question gets special attention, maybe because he's the incomparable Red Skelton. This time Maisie's in Chicago, having narrowly escaped being skewered onstage by a knife-throwing act gone wrong, when she meets hyuk-hyuk funnyman Hap Hixby (Skelton). Even though he initially gets under her skin, the duo team up to create a boffo new act and expose a bottled water scam. Sothern weathered another four Maisie movies, but Skelton's upswing in movies (including other features like I Dood It (1943) and the first of the "Whistling" series of comedies Whistling in Dixie (1942)) was curtailed by a divorce and, consequently, his loss of deferment for the military draft. His career only regained momentum after his return from a rough stint in the Army (he suffered a nervous breakdown), returning to the screen with Ziegfeld Follies (1945).

By Violet LeVoit