Congo Maisie

Unable to pay her bill at a West African hotel, Maisie slips out of town by stowing away on a steamer and sailing upriver into unexpected adventure. Ann Sothern plays Maisie the second of 10 times the actress would bring the resourceful, free-spirited showgirl (a role originally intended for Jean Harlow) to movie screens. Red Dust playwright and Maisie books author Wilson Collison provides the novelistic source for this jungle tale that underscores the heroine's heart and courage as she assists in an emergency appendectomy, keeps the lonely wife (Rita Johnson) of a remote-outpost doctor from straying and relies on show-biz razzmatazz and her knack for performing magic tricks to quell a tribal uprising. There's romance for Maisie too, in the person of a disillusioned doctor (John Carroll) whose dedication to healing is restored by a good -- no, great -- woman.