Hottoceame The Age of Commercialism

VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

MartinHafer During the late 30s and through the 40s, Ann Sothern made ten Maisie films. They were clearly B-movies--short, relatively low budget (for MGM) and meant as second films in a double-feature. Yet, despite this, they also were very polished and entertaining. Clearly, MGM made nice looking B-films.In this second installment, Maisie is inexplicably in central Africa! Why is never really explained well and seeing the blonde Sothern traipsing about what is supposed to be African jungle is rather surreal. As far as the plot goes, it's a reworking of "Red Dust" but due to the Production Code, the sexiness of the remake is much more subdued than the original. In the original, Jean Harlow was a tramp--a nice tramp but clearly a tramp. Here, Maisie is a nice girl--a show girl but a NICE show girl.When the film begins, Maisie stows away on a boat. Instead of heading down river to Lagos, it heads up river to disease-ridden and superstition-filled jungle. Along the way, she teams up with a grumpy ex-doctor, Dr. Shane (John Carrol), and they head to a jungle hospital--where the "Red Dust"-like plot ensues. There, another doctor's wife is bored and lonely and immediately falls for Dr. Shane. But, Maisie being a good girl, she does what she can to help the lady realize her problems WON'T be solved with an affair. How all this works out you'll just have to see for yourself.Aside from stealing a few clips from "Trader Horn", the film looks pretty good for a stage-bound B-movie set in the jungle. And, the acting and story work well. Overall, it's an agreeable little film and a decent remake since the story is more a reworking than a direct remake. Worth your time even if it is a bit patronizing in how it depicts many of the Africans.

blanche-2 This time, just call Maisie "Congo Maisie" in this 1940 second entry into the "Maisie" series. Each episode of Maisie's fabulous life is done as a separate entity as if the previous one never happened. So don't get too attached to anyone.Maisie, stranded as usual, stows away on a ship that doesn't go the way she wants and, in fact, breaks down. She tags along with a rubber plantation manager (John Carroll) when he hikes to his old house where he worked as a doctor (he's since forsaken the Hippocratic oath). Now it's the home of a doctor who does research (Sheppard Strudwick) and his wife (Rita Johnson)."Congo Maisie" is chock full of adventure, with Maisie assisting in an emergency operation and, wearing a gown and a Carmen Miranda headpiece from her club act, fends off witch doctors. It's quite funny but as my sister yelled out to me hearing some of it, "Is that a politically incorrect movie you're watching in there?" Uh, yeah.John Carroll is the new object of Maisie's affections. He talks a lot and uses a monotone that becomes grating real fast. I recall a photo of him where he was presented as a Gable wannabe. Forget it. Rita Johnson is absolutely lovely, and Sheppard Strudwick is very good. Fun.

Greenster Quick-witted, fast-talking, wise-cracking and often penniless, Miss Mary Anastasia O'Connor undauntedly takes her nightclub act on the road--usually the very long road--persevering, and performing by the stage name of Maisie Ravier.Chapter Two of the resulting ten-film series bearing her name, and recounting her saga, finds her itinerary set in the wilderness of the Congo, hence "Congo Maisie" (MGM 1940).While much of its cast (including J.M. Kerrigan, E.E. Clive, Everett Brown, Tom Fadden, Lionel Pape and Nathan Curry) appears in its story's periphery, the lion's share of this jungle tale concentrates upon its second leads (Rita Johnson, as Kay McWade, and Shepperd Strudwick, as Doctor John 'Jock' McWade), its leading man (John Carroll, as Doctor Michael Shane) and, especially, its ever-lovely leading lady (Ann Sothern, as Maisie Ravier).This time around, Maisie books her nightclub act at a remote village up river from a western African port. Again impoverished, she cleverly stows away upon a river barge to attempt to reach her destination but is soon discovered by its renter, Doctor Shane (John Carroll).Evicted from his quarters, but remaining on board, she pawns trinkets for morsels of breakfast, about which time it is learned that the barge must dock for several days because of rising waters.Stranded from the raft, Doctor Shane reluctantly "rescues" Maisie, by inviting her to accompany him on a three- or four-mile hike through the uninviting wilderness to the nearby fortified medical research station, which he once managed.Here, Maisie is welcomed by its current operators, Kay and Doctor John McWade (the pretty Rita Johnson and the kind and gentlemanly Shepperd Strudwick). Miss Johnson is often cast as a "foresaken first wife" or "a possessive and haughty other woman." Here, she combines the types in gentle fashion, forlorn from her station in life, and seeking the advances of a handsome suitor.And Maisie, with her present bag of resources and presence-of-mind perception to figure the score, suddenly finds herself with her hands full, facing the breaking down of her hosts' marriage, a patient in need of emergency surgery, treacherous weather conditions, an impending attack on the fort by tribal natives, simultaneously, while trying to resolve her feud and feelings for Doctor Shane, before the raft sets sail again.

Arthur Hausner Ann Sothern does what she can with the material in this far-fetched story set in the jungles of West Africa, but the film never really makes an impact. Although the acting is fine throughout, the fast-talking Sothern is the only character I really liked. And the only sequence I truly enjoyed was the one-minute crash course Sothern gets from John Carroll on how to assist in an appendectomy. I think even I could do it now.The film has been called a "loose" remake of Red Dust (1932), but it is actually based on a different book, "Congo Landing," which was written by the same author after Red Dust was released. It is similar in plot to it as well as to Torrid Zone (1940).