Operation Petticoat (1959)

Director:

Blake Edwards

Writers:

Paul King (story) and
Joseph Stone (story) ...

Release Date:

18 December 1959 (Japan)

Genre:

Comedy | War

Tagline:

20,000 Laughs Under The Sea!

Plot:

World War 2 comedy about a submarine commander who finds himself stuck with a decrepit (and pink) sub, a con-man executive officer and a group of army nurses.

Plot Keywords:

Klutz | Nurse | Tattoo | Ship Sinking | War Comedy

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 2 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Cary Grant	...	Lt. Cmdr. Matt T. Sherman
Tony Curtis	...	Lt. JG Nicholas Holden
Joan O'Brien	...	Lt. Dolores Crandall RN
Dina Merrill	...	Lt. Barbara Duran RN
Gene Evans	...	Chief Molumphry
Dick Sargent	...	Ens. Stovall (as Richard Sargent)
Virginia Gregg	...	Maj. Edna Heywood RN
Robert F. Simon	...	Capt. J.B. Henderson
Robert Gist	...	Lt. Watson
Gavin MacLeod	...	Ernest Hunkle
George Dunn	...	The Prophet
Dick Crockett	...	Harmon
Madlyn Rhue	...	Lt. Reid RN
Marion Ross	...	Lt. Colfax RN
Clarence Lung	...	Sgt. Ramon Gillardo (as Clarence E. Lung)

Runtime:

124 min | Germany:100 min | Canada:120 min (Ontario)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #19345) | Iceland:L | Finland:K-12 | UK:U | West Germany:6 | Canada:PG (Ontario)

Filming Locations:

Key West, Florida Keys, Florida, USA

Company:

Granart Company

Trivia:

Some of the plot points of the movie were based on real-life incidents. Most notable were scenes set at the opening of WW II, based on the actual sinking of the submarine USS Sealion (SS-195), sunk at the pier at Cavite Navy Yard, the Philippines; Cmdr. Sherman's letter to the supply department on the inexplicable lack of toilet paper, based on an actual letter to the supply department of Mare Island Naval Shipyard by Lt. Cmdr. James Wiggin Coe of the submarine Skipjack (SS-184); and the need to paint a submarine pink, due to the lack of enough red lead or white lead undercoat paint.

Goofs:

Factual errors: When challenged by the Marine, Nick Holden tell him that he is violating an order of Admiral Nimitz. This is impossible as Nimitz didn't take command of the Pacific Fleet until 31 December 1941. Given the fact that Holden goes "shopping" on or about the 17-18th of December, according to the returned supply requisition.

Quotes:

Lt. Nicholas Holden: The scuttlebutt is that we're going to try to submerge at daybreak, and I figured if you've got to go, you might as well go big.
Lt. Cmdr. Matt T. Sherman: Mr. Holden, it's past daybreak, and we are submerged.
Lt. Nicholas Holden: We are?
Lt. Cmdr. Matt T. Sherman: We are.
Lt. Nicholas Holden: You mean, we're under?
Lt. Cmdr. Matt T. Sherman: Yes.
Lt. Nicholas Holden: Well, it isn't a permanent situation, er... What I'm trying to say is, I mean, we can come up if we like to.
Lt. Cmdr. Matt T. Sherman: Well, I like to think we can, but then, I'm an incurable optimist.
Lt. Nicholas Holden: What happens, sir, if we, er... What happens if we can't...?
[he motions upward]
[...]

Movie Connections:

Featured in The 76th Annual Academy Awards (2004) (TV)

I can't find enough good things to say about this movie

Directed by Blake Edwards (well-known for the "Pink Panther" series, Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Great Race, "10", Victor/Victoria, and many others), this is an expertly-executed comedy with plenty of visual humor as well a "boat-load" of dry wisecracks and suggestive innuendo for the veteran cast to exploit, seemingly presaging the early 1960's sex comedies. Apparently inspired by the real-life adventures of the American submarines SEALION, SEADRAGON, and SPEARFISH, as well as humorous anecdotes adopted from other submarines, and technically advised by retired wartime submarine commander Rear Admiral Lucius M. Chappel, in a "funny" and sometimes subtle way it may be the most realistic movie about US submarines in World War II ever made. Plot outline: immediately following Pearl Harbor the Japanese prepare to invade the American-occupied Philippine Islands, and during an air raid on the Cavite naval base there, sink the almost brand-new submarine SEA TIGER. Nevertheless, her aggressive and professional yet equally human commander, Matt Sherman - played with admirable credibility by Cary Grant - is not about to take this lying down. After persuading the squadron commodore to give him the go-ahead, he and the remnants of his ship's company - diminished due to transfers made because of the boat's sunken condition - succeed in raising her from the harbor bottom and commence getting her seaworthy enough to escape to Australia before the pending Japanese assault. Unfortunately their repair efforts, already daunting enough, are impossibly impeded by an apparently bureaucratically-based shortage of crucial spare parts and supplies - even toilet paper (a gag in the film rendered nearly verbatim from the true-life experience of the submarine SKIPJACK). At this point Tony Curtis enters as Lt. Nick Holden (the character's name calling to mind actor William Holden's patented self-indulgent bad-boy persona). Having grown up in a neighborhood called "Noah's Ark" ("you traveled in pairs or you just didn't travel"), our Lt. Holden is an accomplished back-alley maneuverer who joined the Navy for the prestige of the uniform and what it can get him (in particular, a certain Miss "Super Chief"). Alas, having secured for himself a cushy job as an admiral's aid sent ahead to Manila to prepare for his admiral's future arrival, when the sudden outbreak of the war results in the cancellation of the admiral's transfer all Mr. Holden's carefully manipulated plans are sent completely awry. Thus being at loose ends he finds himself assigned as a replacement officer to the SEA TIGER. Faced with the alternative of being stuck on Bataan to endure the oncoming Japanese conquest, he sees it is in his best interest to make up for the seagoing experience he has managed to avoid up to this point in his naval career by becoming the boat's Supply Officer and securing everything the captain needs to get "the . . . submarine" out of there and to someplace where he can get a better deal. Although thoroughly uncomfortable with this new addition to his ship, Captain Sherman is so solidly dedicated to his responsibilities as the boat's commander that he is willing to make "a pact with the Devil" to get her going again and so Lt. Holden, allied with his handpicked detail of "scavengers" - Seaman Hunkle (Gavin McLeod), a sailor only known as "The Prophet [of Doom]," and of course the trusty (or at least reliable and punctilious) marine Sergeant Ramon Gallardo ("there isn't a thief, pickpocket, or fence in the islands that doesn't know, love, and respect him") - commences a supply procurement program which might most charitably be characterized as unorthodox - or less charitably as just plain felonious. But he really hits his high point when he manages to "scavenge" five stranded Army nurses and convince the captain that he has to take them aboard. From then on the film becomes Cary Grant's battle to get his groaning, belching, backfiring, spit-and-bailing-wire-patched submarine safely to Australia while avoiding any "exchange of information" concerning "the facts of life" between the crew and their accidental guests. His struggle is complicated all the more by his continual personal encounters with almost terminally accident-prone but especially well-endowed young nurse Dolores Crandall (in the words of Chief Malumphry - "if you wanna know what you're fightin' for - there's your answer") who for all her blunders unintentionally winds up saving the boat and all aboard. As if to highlight the unconventionality of their situation along the way they manage to wind up with the vessel painted pink (don't ask me how - just try to believe I actually saw a performance nearly identical to Malumphry's in reaction to a similar problem aboard a real-life nuclear ballistic missile submarine around 1980), have to set up a maternity ward, complete with goat ("the children will need fresh milk"), and accomplish the unique induction of "Seaman Hornsby" into his brief but flavorful naval career. The plot is actually developed in the form of a flashback from about 1960 allowing it to end with a slightly sentimental and amusing bit of a twist. Clean and wholesome while still being thoroughly adult ("when a man is tired and irritable you can be sure there's one thing he's not getting enough of - vitamins and minerals"), you can watch this one with your kids - maybe even after they've reached their cynical adolescent years.