It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Sothern's sparkly Maisie is always a treat. Looks like MGM was injecting a bigger budget and longer runtime into the series. That's okay, but here it means more plot and fewer Maisie spotlights. The first part is typical our gal. She's trying to get a job, but every office in town has a guy with more than a job in mind. Nevertheless, the tricky antics are amusingly handled. Then the job she does get is with a no-nonsense experimental lab, where Murphy's developed a cutting-edge helicopter. Trouble is one of his crew, McNally, is conspiring with a rival outfit to hijack the secret project. Anyway, turns out that it's a good thing Maisie knows how to pull levers. Sothern gets to show more moods than usual, while Murphy makes a convincing idea man. The second half features special effects that are pretty well done, along with a look at Pasadena's empty Rose Bowl. To me, the brief highlight is Maisie's catfight with the formidable Hillary Brooke. Brooke can be so snooty, it's fun to see her get a humiliating comeuppance. Too bad, however, we don't see more of that post-war phenomenon, the drive-in café. The brief look of the one here appears lavish, with its array of comely car-hops that includes Maisie. And, oh yeah, dish me up a burger while you're at it.Overall, it's a rather suspenseful entry with a sprightly first part that, depending on viewer taste, soon turns plot-heavy.

World War II is over and Maisie Ravier is now finished her Rosie the Riveteer thing and is looking for more traditional employment for women. She's even enrolled in a business school and got her diploma. But when she goes job hunting all the potential bosses see a former showgirl and a quick roll in the hay. In order to get a job and keep the wolves at bay Ann Sothern dresses down and gets a job working for George Murphy.Where to her complete surprise she finds her past experience in a war plant a real asset. Murphy is designing a brand helicopter and it's a hush hush project. But he doesn't know that tycoon Paul Harvey and his daughter Hillary Brooke are looking to steal it for themselves. Murphy's even got a Quisling in his own ranks.This is one of the best of the Maisie series with Sothern given some really good comic bits to work with. She gets slipped a Mickey Finn and does a great drunk act with tips no doubt from Red Skelton until she plunges into a swimming pool. The climax of the film is having Sothern fly Murphy's helicopter. It must be a good machine if a flying novice can handle it.One of the problems of the Maisie series is that she's gotten involved with some man in each of the films. But this is the first one where Sothern actually got a formal marriage proposal. And you know it once again didn't take because there was one more in the series that was so popular at MGM.But as Maisie Sothern is at the top of her game in Up Goes Maisie.

The casting for "Up Goes Maisie" is rather strange. After all, a few years earlier George Murphy was cast as Maisie's boyfriend in "Ringside Maisie" and here he is again as Maisie's boyfriend--and Murphy is NOT playing the same guy in both films! This must have been a bit confusing to audience members who went to both movies--especially since she becomes engaged to both guys! Maisie has just graduated from Business School and her prospects are quite good. However, inexplicably, she has trouble getting work because every time she goes to apply for a job she is sexually harassed. It's all very silly, as they portray Ann Sothern as if she's hotter than Rita Hayworth and Lana Turner put together. The bottom line is that they lay this angle on way too thick and it seemed like sloppy writing to have the 37 year-old actress playing such a sexual magnet.Eventually, Maisie gets a job with Mr. Morton and his team of workers who are trying to build a prototype helicopter. She not only is the secretary but does some of the welding and checks the books. And, since she is a sexual magnet, soon Mr. Morton (Murphy) is head-over-heels for her and asks her to marry him. However, neither is aware that a very manipulative woman (Hillary Brooke) and her rich daddy will do anything to ensure that the project fails--so that the evil woman can catch Morton on the rebound--as well as steal his helicopter plans. So, they need to discredit Maisie and make sure that the 'copter is a dud. Can Maisie and the gang spot the ruse? And, will Maisie FINALLY get her happy ending? So is this film any good? Well, it does have its problems. As I mentioned above, making Maisie so sexually appealing was pretty dumb and was handled poorly. Additionally, Stephen McNally's character was obviously evil he first time the camera hit him. He was just too obvious and made you wonder why the characters didn't recognize this. The same could be said for Hillary Brooke. There is also a sequence near the end where Maisie is supposedly flying the helicopter--and you can pretty clearly see the string on the model! Despite all this, it's still a cute film and is quite watchable--as are all the Maisie films. But it does suffer from a few problems which should have been ironed out first. It's just not up to the usual higher standards for the series.

"Up Goes Maisie" has an interesting start, which makes a social statement on how hard it was for a woman to find a decent steady job in post-WWII America without having to compromise for the unwanted advances of dirty-minded middle-aged bosses who don't understand the meaning of the word "no"; things haven't changed so much over the years, I guess, though the men (usually) go at it more discreetly these days. The climax is also pretty crazy, with Maisie flying a helicopter all on her own. But the rest of the movie is almost determinedly average. Did we really have to know exactly who the bad guys / two-timers are all along? How can Maisie fall in such deep love with a man so quickly? And why was a big catfight between Maisie and Hillary Brooke's character set up so carefully and then never followed through? (Maisie hits her once with her knee and it's all over). Rhetorical questions. ** out of 4.