Keep Your Powder Dry

I recently saw this on TCM and had never seen it before. Director Edward Buzzell had a career in 30's and 40's films that were mostly actress driven romantic comedies before he made the leap to television in the early 50's. He also directed a couple of Marx Brothers movies. Here he is in his element directing three talented actress. Lana Turner is Val Parks, a playgirl heiress who is being forced to join the Women's Army Corp by her family before she can get her hands on any more of the family fortune. Larraine Day is Napoleon Rand, an army brat who knows the military rules book by heart and becomes a WAC to carry on a family tradition. Susan Peters is Annie Darrison, the wife of an army officer fighting in WWII. Parks and Rand instantly develop a dislike for each other and Darrison becomes the mediator as all three are assigned as mechanics in the same unit. What makes for believable on-screen tension between the Turner and Day characters is that they couldn't stand each other in real life. Day had billing over Turner in the only other film they appeared in, 1939's Calling Dr. Kildare when Turner was an upcoming starlet. By the time filming started on this movie in August of 1944 Turner was an established star and had billing above Day. Day was icy to Turner in 1939 and Turner returned the cold shoulder in 1944. Susan Peters is one of Hollywood's tragic figures. She lost her father in an accident as a young girl and never got over it. Her acting career got off to a rocky start and was dropped by Warner Brothers but MGM saw something promising and she had earned an Academy Award nomination for Random Harvest. A miscarriage kept her off the screen just when her career was at it's brightest and she returned to the screen for this film but less than two months after filming she was shot in a hunting accident and paralyzed from the waist down. She made an attempt in limited roles to keep acting on screen, stage and television but depression led to her divorcing her husband and becoming recluse and anorexia nervosa led to her death at age 31. The Cedric Gibbins MGM art direction team on this film features 8 time Oscar winner Edwin Willis as set director. Proliffic cinematographer Ray June is the films photographer but the soft focus closeups are so overboard they are almost laughable. Some corny, silly dialog and situations but actually it isn't too bad of a movie. A female version of a WWII buddy movie. Agnes Moorehead, Natalie Schafer and June Lockhart in supporting roles. It's worth a look and I would give it a 6.5 out of 10.

Socialite Valerie Parks (Lana Turner) has trouble accessing her trust fund. She is informed that she should join the Women's Army Corps (WAC) to show her maturity in exercising responsibility. Other ladies are joining for different reasons. Leigh Rand (Laraine Day) is honoring her military general father. Housewife Ann Darrison (Susan Peters) is following her husband who is deploying overseas. Lt. Col. Spottiswoode (Agnes Moorehead) is their commander.

It takes awhile before there is some drama. I do like the drama and the idea of these women trying to change who they are. It's one of the basic selling point of the military. The young people go in with issues and they come out having figured it out. It's "An Officer and a Gentleman". This does come with some over-acting from that era. The ending is a little abrupt. Ann has her tragedy but it's almost forgotten with the other two's story. I like this even without the real war influence.

This is a great little movie with plenty of laughs and tears. Lana Turner is in stunning form as Val, for some reason she really reminds me of Marylin Munroe a lot in this movie. The rest of the cast is great too, especially Laraine Day and Susan Peters. The story is based around the idea of three women from different social circumstances joining the WAC. The combination of Laraine Day with her army family background and Lana Turner as a model, creates for some incredible tension and electric scenes between the two. These two actresses really spark off each other wonderfully and they have some really dynamic exchanges. All the while with Susan Peters trying to play peace maker and remain neutral. A really heartbreaking ending really adds good balance to this movie also. I feel some of the other reviews were a little harsh on this film, treating it rather whimsically, this film has great dialogue and some very whitty exchanges, the likes of which you won't find on celluloid these days. I find it so hard to believe people can pass off a great little gem like this as boring and uninteresting. Anyway at least it has me here to champion it. :)

Before Goldie Hawn in Private Benjamin, before Rosalind Russell Waved At A WAC. there was Lana Turner in Keep Your Powder Dry. Ironically all three of these women played women of some social standing who for similar reasons join the Women's Army Corps.

Turner is a rather flighty nightclub loving trust fund baby who in the opinion of her guardians is just to irresponsible to control her own money. To show them her sense of responsibility Lana joins the WACs and this is also an act of patriotism as well. What could impress trustees more than being a patriot during World War II.

Her fellow WAC trainees are Laraine Day who is an army brat , daughter of General Henry O'Neill who is following a family tradition. The third is Susan Peters who reminds one a lot of Jennifer Jones in her role in Since You Went Away., the girl everyone wants to come home to. She has a husband in the service already and she feels this is the best way to support him.

Turner and Day are instant rivals, Peters is a good soul who is friend to both. Keep Your Powder Dry is essentially the story of their relationship dynamic and the changes in it.

Some others in the cast are Agnes Moorehead as a severe but understanding post commandant, Lee Patrick as a former vaudeville entertainer who becomes an army cook, and Jess Barker as one of Turner's idiot nightclub companions.

Another nightclub companion is Natalie Schaefer and you can see how in the next generation she could become Mrs. Thurston Howell IV. A really spot on performance.

Keep Your Powder Dry may have started as WW2 flag waver, but it holds up very well over the generations both as comedy and drama.

"Keep your powder dry" is Major General Rand's advice to his daughter Leigh when he learns that she has just enlisted in the Women's Army Corps (or WAC's) toward the end of The Second World War. This 1945 release was the first "Private Benjamin" and you know that the events are contemporary with the year of production (1944) because prior to 1944 it was Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (or WAAC). The name change was quite an achievement because it conferred regular army status on the female soldiers and their officers; an acknowledgment that the women auxiliaries had demonstrated more than enough commitment and resourcefulness to earn the grudging admiration of most of their former detractors.

The actual Private Benjamin role went to Lana Turner who plays rich and immature party girl Valerie Parks. Valarie becomes a WAC to improve her playgirl image with the trustees of her inheritance.

But "Keep Your Powder Dry" is actually the story of three Private Benjamin, as it seeks to be as inclusive in its characters as the corps was in its enlistees.

Susan Peters plays Annie Darrison, a young wife in a traditional marriage to an Army officer on his way overseas. She enlists with his concurrence but is uncertain of her ability to function effectively in his absence. Finally there is Leigh Rand (Laraine Day), an Army brat and martinet, who enlists to please dear old dad and because she likes military order and discipline.

So you start with three women who each lack something. Valarie lacks focus, Annie lacks confidence, and Leigh lacks humanity. The three recruits meet at the start of their basic training at the 1st WAC Training Center in Des Moines, Iowa. Free spirit and fun loving Val clashes with mega-dedicated Leigh throughout basic; with Ann doing her best to defuse the conflicts. But the desire to show up her nemesis causes Val to take training seriously and she becomes a pretty good soldier.

Both secretly apply for motor transport school, in part to be with Annie but mostly to get as far away from each other as possible. There is a fun sequence when they get they assignments and realize the strategy has backfired. All three are sent to The Third WAC Training Center at Ft. Oglethorpe, GA for motor transport training.

Val and Leigh eventually become friends and work together to bolster Ann's self-confidence. They are successful and all three are accepted into Officers' Candidate School (OCS).

But some misunderstandings cause the old resentments to return and Leigh schemes to have Val dismissed from training.

"Keep Your Powder Dry" is a relatively low-keyed look at the social changes that resulted from wartime mobilization, as unprecedented opportunities suddenly became available to women. The early WAC's came from wide range of backgrounds and quickly became aware of both the uniqueness of their situation and the significance of the changes in which they were involved.

All three performances are excellent, the early characterizations are quite believable and it looks like Day in particular had a lot of fun with her character. The growth and transformation process is less convincing but it is easy enough to suspend disbelief and just enjoy the film on its historical merits.

The Ft. Oglethorpe parade ground and many of the surrounding buildings that were used for the location shots still exist and are worth a stop if you are in the area.

Susan Peters was probably Hollywood's most tragic figure, even more so than Elizabeth Hartman, Marilyn Monroe, or Pier Anglei. Peters looked a lot like Anne Shirley, who had just opted out of the movie business, Peters was her obvious successor. An especially promising young actress (with an Oscar Nomination for "Random Harvest"), Peters was paralyzed in a hunting accident shortly after filming "Keep Your Powder Dry". The film had not yet been released. Failing in several attempts to sustain her career and with chronic pain, she literally starved herself to death a few years later.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.