It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Rosalind Russell became a star at 33 with "His Girl Friday" in 1940. Before that, she did mostly small parts. There's a big gap of nearly 20 years in her career before we see her is some of her best later career movies, like "Auntie Mame," "Gypsy," and the "Trouble with Angels" It is nice to see her in a mid-career piece like this from 1953. I watched it on 100 comedy classics from Mill Creek video.This is a reasonably funny piece about an aristocratic woman who joins the army expecting to be made an officer immediately because of her high social standing in society. She learns that the army is a democratic institution and goes through normal training as a WAC.Russell is reasonably delightful. She's given good support by Marie Wilson as a dizzy blond who wants to have a career in intelligence. Paul Douglas plays her husband, perhaps a little too somber and solemn for a piece like this. He's usually better in dramas and film noir.For those who have seen Abbott and Costello's "Buck Privates" or "Private Benjamin" or "Stripes," or other army comedies, there won't be too many surprises. Still, its a solidly amusing piece of work most of the time. It proves again that joining the army is just like going to summer camp, only with guns.

Rosalind Russell is a talented comedienne, but "Never Wave At A WAC" is a mediocre vehicle for her. It has a dependable fish-out-of-water premise, but not enough gags. I think it could have been improved by focusing more on the day-to-day struggle with, and gradual acceptance of, military life by Russell's character, and by drastically reducing the role of Paul Douglas, the vengeful but still loving ex-husband. Douglas not only looks too old for his role (hard to believe he was actually the same age as Russell!), but his character does some humiliating things to Russell's character that are more mean-spirited than funny. Although he's supposed, at least at the start, to be the "sensible" one while Russell is supposed to be the "spoiled" one, she is easily the more likable character of the two. And why waste Hillary Brooke in such a small part (she appears only in the opening party sequence)? **1/2 out of 4.

Never Wave At A WAC is the apparently weird combination of Buck Privates and Woman of the Year. The odd thing about it is that it actually works and still will get a few laughs from today's audience. This might have been a script offered to Katharine Hepburn, but Hepburn never really got as physical in her comedy films as Rosalind Russell does here. Still the part of socialite daughter of a United States Senator would normally have been something Hepburn might have done. Yet Russell makes the part all her own.Russell's a bit of a snob and her father Charles Dingle well knows it. During a party where her ex-husband, Paul Douglas, crashes she meets another socialite friend who has just got a commission in the Woman's Army Corps. Russell's current boyfriend is another commissioned officer from public relations, William Ching, borrowed from an Ad agency. He's been assigned to NATO headquarters in Paris. Of course dear old dad will pull some strings and make her an officer and a lady. Except Charles Dingle doesn't want to do it. He says let her in as a buck private and it takes a bit of getting used to before Russell realizes she's not a VIP on the base. And when Douglas who is a scientist doing work for the army arrives on her base the fun really starts.Roz has some good physical scenes, check out the one where she and other WACS are part of a Douglas experiment in arctic conditions. They're not as physical as the ones in Private Benjamin, still Russell gets ample opportunity to display her comic timing.There's also a nice subplot involving Marie Wilson, a stripper who joins the WACs and falls for Sergeant Leif Erickson. Charles Dingle is always one of my favorite character actors and it was really nice to see him as a good guy for a change. He's either a nasty villain like in Edge of Darkness or he's a pompous horse's rear like in Welcome Stranger. He's neither in this film, just a nice down to earth man who happens to be a United States Senator and not pleased with the snobbish ways of his daughter.Obviously because he believed in getting more women in the Armed Services, the then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Omar N. Bradley made a guest appearance as himself. He has a moment when calls about Russell's status reach his ears and he refers them to his good friend Senator Dingle who's on a fishing trip.Never Wave At A WAC though eclipsed somewhat for the current past two generations by Private Benjamin still has a lot of laughs. And it's a great introduction to one of the best and most versatile stars from the age of studio Hollywood, Rosalind Russell.

If you are a fan of Ms. Russell's, then this is one you must see. If you are looking for a nice little comedy to feel good with, then watch this. If you are a comedy snob, forget it pal.This is a silly but fun film. It starts out that Roz is the daughter of a Washington big wig. She is in love with this major in the army and he has to go overseas for a time. No way is she going to let him leave without her to fend off the chicks, so she enlist into the Army. Thinking her Dad can pull some strings in Washington, she thinks she will get a big rank and fly off with her love, but nooooooo. Her Dad wants to teach her a thing or two. He feels she is too big for her britches. So she ends up becoming just a private and staying in the US of A. She runs into her ex (Paul Douglas) who is working with the Army with some experiments. Trouble ensues....Throw in Marie Wilson (a Marilyn copy) and get set for a little fun. I have this. For a Roz Russell film it rates a 6 of 10.