Keep Your Powder Dry (1945)

Director:

Edward Buzzell

Writers:

Mary C. McCall Jr. (screenplay) and
George Bruce (screenplay)

Release Date:

April 1945 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | War

Tagline:

Gals IN UNIFORM...IN ACTION...IN LOVE! They're strictly G.I.

Plot:

A disparate group of women try to adjust to their new lives after enlisting in the Womens Army Corps. |

Plot Keywords:

Women's Army Corps | Slap | Friendship | Transformation | Lawyer

Cast

Lana Turner	...	Valerie 'Val' Parks
Laraine Day	...	Leigh 'Napoleon' Rand
Susan Peters	...	Ann 'Annie' Darrison
Agnes Moorehead	...	Lt. Col. Spottiswoode
Bill Johnson	...	Capt. Bill Barclay
Natalie Schafer	...	Harriet Corwin
Lee Patrick	...	Gladys Hopkins
Jess Barker	...	Junior Vanderheusen
June Lockhart	...	Sarah Swanson
Marta Linden	...	Capt. Sanders
Tim Murdock	...	Capt. Joseph Mannering
Henry O'Neill	...	Maj. Gen. Lee Rand
Mary Lord	...	WAC Mary
Sondra Rodgers	...	WAC Hodgekiss
Marjorie Davies	...	WAC Polhemus

Also Known As:

There Were Three of Us (USA) (working title)
Women in Uniform (USA) (working title)
Womens Army (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Finland:S | USA:Approved (PCA #10596) | Sweden:Btl | Australia:G

Filming Locations:

Des Moines, Iowa, USA

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

Turner wrote in her 1982 biography that during pre-production she received a studio memo of reprimand about missing many of her wardrobe appointments - even though it was Irene who was not showing up. When the actress went to studio head Louis B. Mayer to defend herself, she was told that the memo was a face-saving device for Irene, who was an alcoholic but so valuable to MGM that the studio was willing to bear with her problems and delays.

Quotes:

Lt. Col. Spottiswoode: I'm sorry for you Rand, you've worked so hard to learn so many things so badly.

Soundtrack:

I'll See You in My Dreams

Women in World War Two

Wow! Lana Turner, Laraine Day, Susan Peters, Agnes Moorhead, and June Lockhart---all in the same movie. Does it ever get better than this? Unfortunately, how such a collection of talent can be given such a poor material to recite is puzzling. Witness the following lines: "Worked in Vaudeville with a trained duck. It got so bad I ate the act." "Rust proof,shock proof, self-winding, and will darn your socks, too." "Best soldier to ever wear a skirt." Despite lines like these, the acting is good enough to compensate. Yet, the film tends to demean the concept of the civilian army. Turner plays a model seemingly patriotic enough to gain her inheritance. Day is the army brat trying to maintain a family tradition. Peters is the intellectual always mediating the feud between the other two. Their acting saves the film. A major weakness in this film is the explicit sexism of the movie's theme. The powder is not gun powder but facial make-up. Men mechanics in World War Two movies don't get oil on their cute noses, but women mechanics do. Men do not cry if they fail to qualify for Officer's Candidate School, but women can fail and just have a good cry about it! The only thing to cry about is a movie with good talent squeezed into a plot better fitted the weak training films of 1942-42 than those of 1945 when social change played a part in a number of good movies. Perhaps Hollywood was not yet ready for change, or perhaps it was hoping old formula flicks which predated World War Two would prevail. Still, the film has merit and is worth seeing, especially with it's great ending.