In the 1930s, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer purchased the rights to a novel written by author Wilson Collison entitled Dark Dame, which they had planned to film with their platinum blonde glamour gal, Jean Harlow. But Harlow’s untimely death put the kibosh on that project, and Collison’s work didn’t reach the silver screen until 1939 when it was refashioned for MGM’s new beauty queen (newly acquired from RKO), Ann Sothern, into a romantic comedy entitled Maisie.
Sothern played a character named Maisie Revere (her show business name—her real moniker was Mary Anastasia O’Connor) who falls hard for a dude ranch manager (played by a pre–Father Knows Best Robert Young), Charles “Slim” Martin, when she finds herself stranded in Wyoming after a job offer falls through. The ending of the film—which suggests that Maisie and Slim are heading down the wedding aisle—would also seem to suggest that MGM had planned the movie as a one shot but, the following year, Sothern was back on screen with Congo Maisie (1940).
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