June 4 Rosalind Russell

Happy Birthday Rosalind Russell and my friend Carol.

TCM celebrated Rosalind Russell’s birthday last month with a movie celebration. I watched Never Wave At A WAC. It is Korean War version of Private Benjamin. Rosalind played a divorced Washington DC socialite, who is also the daughter of a senator. She is involved with a military man stationed in France. She decides to join the WAC so she can be stationed their also. Her ex-husband played by Paul Douglas is an inventor who creates weather resistant clothing for the army. When he sees her on base he decides he needs her for his weather experiments. She is put in blizzard like environment several times to test coats, sleeping bags and walking. Then she is forced through rain during an obstacle course. Each time she is issued a 6 hour pass, but has it revoked due to the experiment. Her boyfriend is stateside and comes to visit her each time. Her ex-husband keeps her busy so she can’t take a leave. During the raining part she has a breakdown and decides to separate from the WAC. After a board decision she is approved to leave. As she is packing her items her group graduates and she is very proud of them. As she is leaving with her boyfriend a group of new WAC members are coming on base. She gets out of the car and gets on board with the new WAC members.

Rosalind Russell is the true star of the film, but the film is carried away by Marie Wilson. She plays a showgirl/model who is fed up with men pawing her and joins the WAC. She wants to work in intelligence. She wanted to be a girl spy. “Give my country what I’ve got”. She becomes friends with Rosalind and goes on the same experiments. A man chases her around and blackmails her into going out with him, he has copies of her calendar pin-ups. After she graduates she does get a job in intelligence and gets engaged to the man who pursued her.

Rosalind Russell is a TCM favorite. There are several days each year devoted to her films. The Front Page is on next week and last month they showed probably her most famous film “Auntie Mame”. A great film. My favorite part is when Mame has a role in a play.