Never Wave at a WAC

The plot of this movie is more than a little similar to "Private Benjamin." It's fun to see Rosalind Russell as a sort of WASP version of Goldie Hawn, indignant at the treatment she's being given in the WACs. The first half of this film is nearly a laugh a minute, but it bogs down in the second half when it does duty as a propaganda film and tries to put a button on the story line.

I found a DVD copy of this included on one of those discs that cram several movies on to one disc and cost very little. The title of the disc is "Comedy Classics" and includes (along with "Never Wave At a WAC") "New Faces," "Hazel Flagg," "The Smallest Show on Earth," and five others.

This movie is well worth the effort to locate, if only to see the scene in the doctor's office, Miss Russell with cigarette in hand.

Never Wave At A WAC is the apparently weird combination of Buck Privates and Woman of the Year. The odd thing about it is that it actually works and still will get a few laughs from today's audience.

This might have been a script offered to Katharine Hepburn, but Hepburn never really got as physical in her comedy films as Rosalind Russell does here. Still the part of socialite daughter of a United States Senator would normally have been something Hepburn might have done. Yet Russell makes the part all her own.

Russell's a bit of a snob and her father Charles Dingle well knows it. During a party where her ex-husband, Paul Douglas, crashes she meets another socialite friend who has just got a commission in the Woman's Army Corps. Russell's current boyfriend is another commissioned officer from public relations, William Ching, borrowed from an Ad agency. He's been assigned to NATO headquarters in Paris.

Of course dear old dad will pull some strings and make her an officer and a lady. Except Charles Dingle doesn't want to do it. He says let her in as a buck private and it takes a bit of getting used to before Russell realizes she's not a VIP on the base. And when Douglas who is a scientist doing work for the army arrives on her base the fun really starts.

Roz has some good physical scenes, check out the one where she and other WACS are part of a Douglas experiment in arctic conditions. They're not as physical as the ones in Private Benjamin, still Russell gets ample opportunity to display her comic timing.

There's also a nice subplot involving Marie Wilson, a stripper who joins the WACs and falls for Sergeant Leif Erickson.

Charles Dingle is always one of my favorite character actors and it was really nice to see him as a good guy for a change. He's either a nasty villain like in Edge of Darkness or he's a pompous horse's rear like in Welcome Stranger. He's neither in this film, just a nice down to earth man who happens to be a United States Senator and not pleased with the snobbish ways of his daughter.

Obviously because he believed in getting more women in the Armed Services, the then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Omar N. Bradley made a guest appearance as himself. He has a moment when calls about Russell's status reach his ears and he refers them to his good friend Senator Dingle who's on a fishing trip.

Never Wave At A WAC though eclipsed somewhat for the current past two generations by Private Benjamin still has a lot of laughs. And it's a great introduction to one of the best and most versatile stars from the age of studio Hollywood, Rosalind Russell.

When ROSALIND RUSSELL wasn't doing heavy emoting in films like MOURNING BECOMES ELECTRA, she was doing wacky comedies like NEVER WAVE AT A WAC and proving that she had comic flair even in sub-standard material.

This is a forerunner of the "Private Benjamin" type of service story--or the "See Here Private Hargrove" type of thing, where a disgruntled serviceman (or woman) finds life in the Army rough going when given some deliberately hectic chores to do. MARIE Wilson is another unlikely recruit who's fighting off advances from an overeager sergeant, LEIF ERICKSON.

The gags are fast and furious but not too original as Russell is given some challenging assignments by PAUL DOUGLAS, as the man who eventually wins her heart. None of it is very convincing and Russell certainly had better opportunities in other smarter comedies during the '30s and '40s.

Passes the time, but not really worth watching unless you're a Russell fan.

This comparatively little known film, with the extremely unlikely storyline is, nevertheless a joy to watch. It is pure escapism with more than a hint of nostalgia for those of us of a certain age. The script is good with some nice one-liners, but because the plot itself is obviously rather weak things become a little laboured. I doubt it would come over as successfully as it does, where it not for the one and only Rosalind Russell - ever able to combine excellent dramatic and comedic acting with the epitome of Hollywood glamour. And where oh where would it have been without that stalwart, always believable, and I think much underrated actor, Paul Douglas as Russell's long suffering ex husband.

If you feel like some light hearted 1950s entertainment you could do a lot worse.

This light comedy has some entertaining characters and a few good scenes that make up for a rather slim plot. The story itself is rather silly - Rosalind Russell stars as a divorced socialite who joins the Army solely in order to be closer to her officer boyfriend. She quickly finds out that the Army plans to do a little more with her than simply give her passes whenever she wants to see him. Meanwhile, her scientific ex-husband (Paul Douglas) is working for the Army, and requests her for his project so that he can disrupt her planned romantic meetings. Since there's not a whole lot to work with, it starts to run out of steam after a while, but remains mostly pleasant to watch. While it's nothing to take seriously, it's just meant as light-hearted entertainment, and as such most of it works pretty well.