Keep Your Powder Dry (1945)

Too many fans seem to be blown away

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

"Keep Your Powder Dry" is an excellent wartime propaganda film. Now when I call it propaganda, that is not an insult--propaganda can be evil but it can also be very good. And, this is a good film in many ways because it draws attention to a group seldom talked about in pictures--the Women's Army Corps (WACS). In doing so, it bolsters the war effort and increases the public's support for these women in the military.When the film begins, you see some women joining the WACS. Valerie (Lana Turner) initially joins for selfish reasons...to enable her to get a hold of her inheritance. But soon Valerie buys into the WAC life and is a model soldier. Leigh (Laraine Day) is a daughter of a general and this is actually unfortunate because she thinks she knows everything...and, not surprisingly, she rubs her fellow recruits the wrong way...particularly Valerie. And then there is Ann (Susan Peters). Ann is friends with both of these women and tries her best throughout the film to bring them together for the good of the Army. The film follows them from boot camp, to their first assignment and then to Officer's Candidate School.I loved this film simply because it was so educational...yet also well written, interesting and quality production. One of the better wartime pictures...and one well worth seeing.

Lana Turner, Laraine Day, and Susan Peters star in "Keep Your Powder Dry," a 1945 film.The three women come into the WACS for different reasons: Day is carrying on the family tradition, Turner needs to live a decent life in order to get her inheritance, and Peters' husband is in the service, and she wants to help the effort. Turner and Day hate one another immediately, and a good part of the film is their struggle.I suppose this film was intended to be about girl power, but it has the typical sexist bend of the times. To be fair, I'm sure it was intended to glorify the work these women did during the war (it came out in 1945 when the war was almost over), but also it serves as a propaganda movie. Turner gives her bum friends a speech about their wasteful lives as people are fighting for them.Totally predictable. I am a fan of all three women, but this wasn't great material for any of them.

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.

It is meant to be a comedy, but is only mildly amusing.It gives a glimpse of Natalie Schafer who later played Mrs Howell on Gilligan's Island - for those who interested.