Keep Your Powder Dry * (1945, Lana Turner, Laraine Day, Susan Peters, Agnes Moorehead, Bill Johnson, Natalie Schafer, June Lockhart, Lee Patrick) – Classic Movie Review 6715

‘Gals IN UNIFORM…IN ACTION…IN LOVE! They’re strictly G.I.’ Director Edward Buzzell’s well-meaning but seemingly hastily concocted 1945 movie tells the story of some plucky American women who do their bit for the war effort after enlisting in the US Women’s Army Corps. Apparently it is the story of Three Battling Beauties in a Man’s World.

Unfortunately, the MGM studio’s World War Two propaganda movie is highly forgettable, with some strained performances and a hard-pressed original screenplay by Mary C McCall Jr and George Bruce that does not really convince very much at all.

Buzzell directs slickly and the carefully powdered, preened and made-up stars (even in uniform!) Lana Turner, Laraine Day and Susan Peters do their attractive best to boost wartime morale. It is a pleasure to see them on screen, and their spunky performances save it, but they cannot disguise the cracks in this hollow and over-familiar tale. Naturally, the formidable Agnes Moorehead easily out-acts everybody else as Lieutenant Colonel Spottiswode.

Also in the cast are Bill Johnson, Natalie Schafer, June Lockhart, Lee Patrick, Jess Barker, Marta Linden, Tim Murdock, Henry O’Neill, Mary Lord, Sondra Rodgers, Marjorie Davies, Rex Evans, Pierre Watkin, Shirley Patterson, Michael Kirby, Dorothy Ackers, Marie Blake, Edith Leach, Ruth Lee, George Peters, Elizabeth Russell, Ray Teal and Claire Whitney.

Keep Your Powder Dry runs 93 minutes, is written by Mary C McCall Jr and George Bruce, shot by Ray June, produced by George Haight, scored by David Snell, and designed by Cedric Gibbons and Leonid Vasian.

With Lana Turner then on a roll, Keep Your Powder Dry was a hit, earning a profit of $464,000 for MGM.

The general’s car the women repair is a 1942 Chrysler Windsor convertible coupé, with rarity value as only 574 were made before World War Two halted production in January 1942.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6715

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