Dark Dame/Maisie

Wilson Collison is dead. He died in 1941 at the age of 47. He was a high school dropout who managed to leave his job as a drugstore clerk upon the success of a farce he cowrote with Otto Harbach. He seems to have tended toward sex comedies. However, it is now impossible to say without spending enormous sums of money. From what I can tell, the entirety of his work, including his play Red Dust, is out of print. What’s more, it’s not on the Internet Archive, either. Collison was divorced and had no children. No one, from what I can tell, was depending on him for their livelihood, but his orphaned copyright lives on.

The novel Dark Dame was sold to MGM as a vehicle for Jean Harlow. Unfortunately, she died before a shooting script was even completed. From what I’m able to find out, the original novel involved two women, one married, fighting over the same man. It’s the sort of story that had to be altered for the Code era, the sort of story that made Harlow a risky proposition simply as an actress under the Code. Joe Breen never did trust Jean Harlow.

Ann Sothern took over the role of Maisie Ravier. She’s a performer who has been hired to join a show in Big Horn, Wyoming. Travel expenses to be reimbursed when she arrives. Unfortunately, the show has closed by the time she got there, and she’s stranded with fifteen cents to her name. She gets a job working a shooting gallery in a carnival and persuades Slim (Robert Young) to take a chance. However, he drops his wallet while paying. Rico (George Tobias), who runs the shooting gallery, takes it and runs; Slim accuses Maisie of having stolen it. It’s sorted out, but Maisie has to leave town by midnight or be arrested for being indigent.

Maisie stows away in the truck to the ranch where Slim works. He’s the manager for Clifford Ames (Ian Hunter), who is on his way into town with his wife, Sybil (Ruth Hussey). Their marriage is on the rocks due to her relationship with Richard Raymond (John Hubbard). Maisie finagles her way into a job as Sybil’s maid. She befriends Mr. Ames, and gets on well with ranch hand “Shorty” Miller (Cliff Edwards), but Slim is a harder nut to crack. Maisie deeply wants to.

It is frankly a charming movie that is unavailable streaming unless you plan to, say, utilize certain sketchy Russian websites. So okay, the character of Lee (Willie Fung) ages extremely poorly. But he’s only in it for a few minutes, and the rest of the movie is a lot of fun. You get a song or two where you become certain that, yes, you recognize that ranch hand’s voice, and Maisie is a great character. There’s a reason she spun out the role for ten movies. I’ve already put the first box set on my Amazon list, because I would definitely watch it again and would rather not do so after, you know, sketchy Russian websites.

And none of this should be so hard to find. That box set is out of print, too, because of course it is. It’s fairly cheap, because there’s not a ton of demand, but because there isn’t a ton of demand, why not make it more easily available? It would take very little effort and expense to dump it on, say, Tubi or something, but it’s not there. Sure, it may not create a ton of revenue, but how much revenue is it creating now?

As for the book, I firmly believe its copyright should be considered null. I’m a big fan of copyright as a concept, goodness knows. It would be awfully nice to make a proper living on my writing, and copyright is the only way that’s possible. But who’s profiting from keeping Dark Dame out of the public domain? If there’s an easy way to look up who holds copyright on a work, I don’t know it, so I can’t find out who would theoretically be making that money. Not that there’s a ton of money to be made.

Ann Sothern is no Jean Harlow, but she’s still a joy in the role. She’s fun to watch, and I hope to track down a few more in the series or just get that box set. I don’t know how the character will go over more movies, but she’s a lot of fun here. She’s clever and brave and affectionate. She’s caring to Mr. Ames and doesn’t care who knows it, and I like that she’s caring with absolutely no romance between them. Other people see one there, but that’s out of that old belief that men and women can’t be friends. She likes Mr. Ames. She isn’t in love with him. If she were, she’d let people know.

Is it worth risking sketchy Russian websites? Well, if you’re inclined. The high seas might be available to you, too. But it’s a crying shame that you can’t even rent this movie to stream anywhere. A few of the sequels, but not the original. There’s no reason for that in this day and age, and if it’s going to be held unavailable, that should be the end of things. No more copyright if you’re not using it.

Next month, the book of Monte Walsh will be available to us (on the Internet Archive), and it’s probably possible to find the original movie as well!