Keep Your Powder Dry – Agnes Moorehead Blogathon

Since I’m in a Lana Turner kick, I was excited to find a film that she and Agnes Moorehead were in together. Keep Your Powder Dry at first seemed a bit silly, but it packed an emotional punch toward the end that left me reeling. Agnes didn’t have a huge part in it. We see her during the last 20 minutes of the movie, but she plays an important part.

The phrase “keep your powder dry” basically means to be calm, take care, and be ready for any outcome. It originally meant the need to keep gunpowder dry so it would ignite, but that really doesn’t apply so much here. The thing is that the women in this movie are no where near calm. Valerie (Lana Turner) and Leigh (Laraine Day) are at each other and fighting almost the entire movie with poor Ann (Susan Peters) stuck in the middle, who ends up having real problems. The premise itself is a bit hard to watch at times, so let’s get into it!

If you choose to buy this film, I may earn a commission as an Amazon affiliate, check out the DVD!

Synopsis

Valerie enters the WAC, or Women’s Army Corps, in an effort to show how serious she is about life. She’s a party girl and can’t inherit her grandfather’s estate until she proves herself. Entering the WAC seems like a great way to do this, so she does. The plan is to only be in just long enough to prove this, but she ends up being a great soldier and actually enjoying what she’s doing. She finds a greater purpose than getting drunk and staying in bed until 2pm (which is what we see her do in the opening scene). The problem is she quickly finds another to fight with in Leigh, who has the army in her blood.

After Leigh learns why Valerie joined up, she makes her life literal Hell, riding her until she breaks basically and leaves her post during training. This would easily kick her out, which is what Leigh wanted, but she gets a rude awakening in learning from Lt. Col. Spottiswoode (Agnes) that her platoon does not find her fit to be a captain because she’s been so obsessed with making things harder on Valerie, and they noticed. The two finally make up at the end and everyone becomes officers! Hooray! Except for…

***SPOILER***

Ann’s (Susan Peters, who plays a friend to both and often stuck in the middle) husband was killed and no one even really seems to care that much. The scene where Spottiswoode tells her ripped my heart out. And then she has to go play referee again between her catty friends. Poor girl! It broke my heart.

The Players

Lana Turner

Having only seen Lana in a few movies (a situation I’m currently rectifying), I was not sure what to expect from her here. She was great though. Her acting is impressive and I actually liked this performance more than The Postman Always Rings Twice. She’s gorgeous as she always is, but the depth she gave her character here along with the character arc she goes through was convincing and I really enjoyed her performance.

Agnes Moorehead

Even though Agnes was not in most of the movie, the scenes she delivers at the end were great. She presented a strong character with a few difficult scenes in having to reprimand Leigh and Valerie as well as give the bad news to Ann.

Laraine Day

Leigh is super abrasive. I really kind of hated her toward the end especially. She was selfish and snotty and vindictive. That said, Laraine played her very well and I’m sure to seek out more movies with her because of her great performance.

Susan Peters

I hadn’t seen Susan before, but I really did love her here. I soon discovered the reason behind not seeing her. While she was on a duck hunting trip, one of the rifles discharged by accident and the bullet lodged in her spine, rendering her paralyzed from the waist down. This accident happened after filming on this movie wrapped, but before the release. Then, she was only 31 when she died, just seven years after this film release… from anorexia. What a tragic life for this poor woman. I can’t even imagine.

Background Trivia

The film was a success.

Despite my conflicted emotions over the film, it is important to note that it was a success, earning more than twice what it cost to make.

Val’s inheritence adjusted for inflation!

So we learn that Val inherited $639,000, which she doesn’t plan to do anything with because she wants to stay in the WAC. Adjusted for inflation, that’s $11,087,786 today! That’s so much money!

Laraine was bribed into accepting the role.

She was promised the lead opposite Robert Taylor in Undercurrent, but as it might surprise no one, MGM went back on their promises. Katharine Hepburn was cast instead, so Laraine left MGM and never looked back. She went and made Those Endearing Young Charms for RKO next, followed by The Locket. Another interesting tidbit… she was actually the first choice for Mary in It’s a Wonderful Life, but had to turn it down because she was working on The Locket.

What if…?

Agnes had a bigger part?

I think it would have been interesting if Agnes’ part had been expanded to see her in more of the movie. She could have been filtered in, but I’m not sure if it would have had the same impact that it did by bringing her in at the end.

Susan had been able to recover?

I really feel so bad for Susan here. I wonder what her career would have turned into if she hadn’t been paralyzed. She was a great actress, and I think she would have gone on to do great things.

If you like alternative history or biographical/historical fiction, I write that as well under the pen name Dottie Fray.

If you choose to buy this film, I may earn a commission as an Amazon affiliate, check out the DVD!

This post was originally posted for The Third Agnes Moorehead Blogathon by In the Good Old Days of Classic Hollywood! Check out all the entries!