BrianRxm Coins in Movies 200/387
Maisie - Up Goes Maisie (1946)
Lucky coin and aviation wings identify stolen helicopter prototype
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The 1946 film "Up Goes Maisie" features a dollar-sized Los Angeles Rubber Stamp Company President Monroe prop coin.
 
The "Maisie" films were a popular film series of ten romantic comedies made from 1939 to 1947. Ann Sothern played Maisie Ravier, a good-looking amateur showgirl who constantly gets into adventures and romances with men.
 
This film was the ninth in the series and featured the then-new helicopter aircraft.
 
Maisie joins a crew of four men who are building an experimental helicopter. The men are being financed by a crooked businessman who plans to steal their invention.
 
At one point Maisie welds three military aviation insignia and a "lucky piece" inside the helicopter as good luck charms. Later these items identify the helicopter when it is stolen.
 
Up Goes Maisie
1. Title
World War II is over and Maisie Ravier's airplane production plant job has ended. She takes a secretarial class, graduates, and rejects a proposition from the school's manager. She applies at two offices and has to fight off more propositions.
 
She finally interviews Joseph Morton who owns a small firm. When she tells him that she worked for an aircraft plant at several jobs he hires her and takes her to his plant where he and three friends are producing an experimental helicopter.
 
Three of the men, Joseph, Mitch O'Hara, and Bill Stuart were all members of a US Army Air Force, bomber crew and the fourth man, Tim Kingby, was a civilian who went to school with Joseph.
 
Up Goes Maisie
2. Mitch, Joseph, Maisie, Bill
Joseph is wearing an Honorable Service Lapel Pin or "Ruptured Duck" pin as he is a veteran.
 
Joseph hopes to sell the helicopter to Seattle industrialist Mr. Hendrickson. He tells Hendrickson that the helicopter has automatic controls which will allow an ordinary person to fly it and that it can go 150 miles per hour.
 
The work is being financed by a J. G. Nuboult whose daughter Barbara is Tim's girlfriend. Unknown to the crew, Tim, Nuboult, and Barbara actually plan to steal the invention and sell it to Hendrickson as their own creation.
 
By this time Maisie and Joseph are seeing each other romantically.
 
Their helicopter is ready and the three veterans contribute their aviation insignia "wings."
 
Tim, who was rejected by the Army for unstated reasons, contributes a "lucky piece" or "good luck coin."
 
Up Goes Maisie
3. Tim holds his lucky piece
Tim hands the coin to Maisie.
 
Up Goes Maisie
4. Maisie welding the aviation wings
Maisie welds the three aviation wings to the helicopter engine casing along with the coin.
 
Up Goes Maisie
5. Three wings and a lucky piece
The wings are Army Air Force (top) Pilot, (left) Aerial gunner, and (right) Navigator.
 
The coin is a Los Angeles Rubber Stamp Company President Monroe Motion Picture prop coin.
 
President Monroe prop coin
6. Los Angeles Rubber Stamp Company - President Monroe and Bird of Paradise Coin
White metal, 38 mm, 20.68 gm
 
Obverse: President James Monroe facing half left, no text
Reverse: Bird of Paradise and man kneeling in temple surrounded by eight-pointed star, no text
 
For more information on these prop coins please visit: Los Angeles Rubber Stamp Coins
 
Back to the film:
 
Maisie notices that some invoices have twice the items listed as received and asks Tim about it. He evades her questions and leaves to contact Barbara.
 
Barbara comes to the plant and suggests that everyone drink to celebrate. Maisie refuses anything alcoholic and explains that her father was a drinker.
 
Maisie and Joseph have become engaged and Barbara invites her to a country club for a party.
 
Up Goes Maisie
7. Barbara hosts Maisie at country club party
Barbara gives Maisie a drugged drink which causes Maisie to stagger around and pass out. When she wakes up, Barbara tells her that she drank a lot of liquor and caused a scene.
 
Ashamed, Maisie leaves the helicopter project and takes a job as a waitress at a drive-in restaurant.
 
The men take their helicopter to the Pasadena Rose Bowl football stadium for a test flight.
 
Up Goes Maisie
8. Helicopter at the Rose Bowl
The helicopter flies and handles correctly.
 
Maisie, at her job, overhears a police radio state that there is a fire at the helicopter plant. In her waitress uniform, she runs over to the burning plant.
 
Up Goes Maisie
9. Helicotper plant fire
Tim blames Mitch for the fire claiming that Mitch left a welding torch on.
 
They examine the burned helicopter and look for the welded wings.
 
Up Goes Maisie
10. Maisie searches for the wings
She and the men can not find the wings and conclude that the burned helicopter is a duplicate.
 
Tim makes an excuse, leaves, and Maisie and the men follow him to another plant.
 
Up Goes Maisie
11. Maisie finds the real helicopter
They hear the conspirators discussing their scheme and Barbara brags about drugging Maisie. The men move the helicopter outside and then fight with the crooks.
 
Maisie gets to fight with Barbara and pushes her into a vat of oil. While the men are fighting, Maisie takes the helicopter up.
 
Up Goes Maisie
12. Maisie takes off
Joseph and Mr. Hendrickson are at the Rose Bowl to see a demonstration of the helicopter. Mitch and Bill arrive and tell Joseph that Maisie is flying the aircraft over.
 
She is familiar with the machine from her work on it and flies it around Los Angeles.
 
Up Goes Maisie
13. Flying over Los Angeles
Finally she is able to get to the Rose Bowl and land the helicopter.
 
Up Goes Maisie
14. Happy landing
Joseph explains that the controls he designed allow ordinary people to fly a helicopter and Mr. Hendrickson agrees to buy and produce the machines.
 
Up Goes Maisie
15. The End
Cast, Directors, Writers:
 
Ann Sothern as Maisie Ravier
George Murphy as Joseph Morton
Hillary Brooke as Barbara Nuboult
Horace (Stephen) McNally as Tim Kingby
Murray Alper as Mitch O'Hara
Lewis Howard as Bill Stuart
 
Director: Harry Beaumont
Writers: Thelma Robinson, Wilson Collison
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