Éramos Três Mulheres

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.

Loaded with lovely classic Lana WWII scenarios.

I wonder how many young women went off to join the W.A.C. thinking Sydney Guilaroff would be doing their hair and Irene (I) their uniform wardrobe.

We look at films like this as objects through which we can watch a moment in Hollywood time. Lana is simply delightful.

I watch a film like this just for a glimpse of wartime America through the eyes of jaded and spoiled Hollywood elites who are piping this 'dream' to a still highly naïve wartime America.

Watch for Mercury Theatre's -- also the character of Endora on Bewitched (1964)] -- Agnes Moorehead. I reckon that some would say that this glimpse of Moorehead is as fun as that of Lana Turner.

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.

-- but Natalie Schafer plays a wealthy, mindless socialite!

If the ending doesn't draw at least a couple tears from your eye, especially these days, then you're heartless. Bah.

If you like this sort of movie (as do I), you will definitely enjoy this particular example of it. Very well done.

My only regret is that they didn't show enough of the training. Having gone through OCS myself, it's such an overwhelming, life-changing experience (though I don't know about the WACs' OCS) that it was a bit of a cheat that we didn't get to see how it changed the girls, only that it did. I suspect the writer was more concerned about the dynamic between the three main characters, rather than the interaction between each of them and the demands of officer candidate school.

Dafydd ab Hugh

Tidy little drama with some comic overtones. Lana, looking lovely in her first turn after giving birth to daughter Cheryl the year before, is a playgirl who the corps teaches the value of hard work and focus. Laraine the army brat who has to learn to lighten up and actually relate to people and Susan Peters, in her last role before the shooting accident that crippled her and more or less ended her career, the spunky young bride who plays peacemaker between them. All three give good performances in what is basically a recruitment poster for the war effort with a little soap mixed in, and a highly enjoyable one at that.

The three girls are basically the whole show but they are supported by some fine performers. Agnes Moorehead is all stiff upper lip in her small role as the commanding officer although she manages to mix in some warmth too. Natalie Schafer is very chic as one of Lana's fair weather friends in civilian life and in a small role as another sycophant is Jess Barker, who at the time was Susan Hayward's husband. The real standout is Lee Patrick as a former showgirl, she's sassy and brassy who adds a light touch to her scenes which is most welcome.