Maisie Was a Lady

About the movie

While streetwise but kindhearted showgirl Maisie Ravier is working performing in a carnival, wealthy but irresponsible Bob Ralston, who is drunk most of the time, is the direct cause of her losing her job. A series of events leads to Maisie and Bob facing each other in court. Although Maisie is the one charged, the judge orders Bob to offer Maisie a job to make up for her predicament, that job to be $25/week for two months, the conditions of that lost carnival job. With nothing else to offer her, Bob brings her home to the sprawling Ralston mansion for Maisie to be one of the domestics under the direction of head manservant, Walpole, who has been employed by the Ralstons for thirty years. Maisie's arrival at the mansion coincides with Bob's sister, Abby Ralston, holding a weekend long party to announce her engagement to Link Phillips. Abby is a sweet but naive girl, who doesn't seem to match in behavior, attitude or temperament to her mansion full of pretentious friends. Abby also longs for the attention of her and Bob's father, the largely absent Cap Ralston, who believes that lavishing his children with money and gifts is an adequate replacement for not being a direct, active and present part of their lives. Maisie can see that Phillips is a cad who doesn't really love Abby. Maisie, who is already walking a fine line in this new position being a fish out of water both with respect to not knowing the finer details of being a domestic and how to interact with the jet set, has to decide what part she will or can play in making things seem right in her own eyes within the Ralston family.—Huggo