Keep Your Powder Dry

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.

-- 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

The unlikely prospect of anyone who looks like Lana Turner giving up her comfy civilian life to wear an army uniform is the hardest thing to swallow about this service film about three women from different walks of life who learn to become army buddies. Turner, of course, is given the glamour treatment and must have made hundreds of girls think they would look terrific in khaki.

Nevertheless, it's an enjoyable enough item sparked by some very competent performances by the mostly female cast. It's the feminine prototype of countless serviceman films produced during the war years of World War II, given non-serious treatment with a story centering on three new WAC recruits. Laraine Day plays an army brat, a girl who constantly flaunts her superiority over the other recruits and for most of the film engages in a tug of war with Turner. While Turner was given the full glamour treatment, Laraine Day succeeded in playing her unsympathetic role to the hilt, for the first time showing a harder edge to her screen personality. The film is enjoyable fluff, with good work by Susan Peters and Agnes Moorehead.

My article on Laraine Day appears in the Spring 2001 issue of FILMS OF THE GOLDEN AGE--and one on Lana Turner is due for publication at a later date.

"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.

It seems that the film boards made a concerted effort to boost the image of women as tough and capable leading up to and continuing through World War II. "Keep Your Powder Dry" is an effort to display three women who overcome their disparate backgrounds, their petty differences, and their civilian prejudices to achieve a greater good by contributing to the war effort. A character in the film puts it this way, "...subordinate your personal feelings for the good of the corps."

This is a consistent theme in movies throughout this era. In John Ford's "Pearl Harbor" a German mocks the notion that the weak and decadent American women could take the place of men in industry to free them for service as soldiers. In "Cry Havoc" we witness the courage, trials, and sacrifices of women on Corregidor. Here in "Keep Your Powder Dry" we learn of the candidates' perseverance through the trials of boot camp, motor pool training, and OCS school (though the examples that they show are weak).

It is a little difficult to suspend reality far enough to buy the notion that Lana Turner could become dedicated to life in the WACs, having arrived by way of Park Avenue, but an effort is made by the screenwriter to show her recognition of the shallow and narcissistic lifestyle that she found there. It occurs rather late in the film, however.

Still, for WWII movie buffs, and fans for the movies of the forties, this one is a must see.