Operation Petticoat

Operation Petticoat is a 1959 American color comedy film from Universal-International, produced by Robert Arthur, directed by Blake Edwards, and starring Cary Grant and Tony Curtis. The film was the basis for a television series in 1977 starring John Astin in Grant's role. Other members of the cast include several actors who went on to become television stars in the 1960s and 1970s: Gavin MacLeod of The Love Boat and McHale's Navy, Marion Ross of Happy Days, and Dick Sargent of Bewitched.

Operation Petticoat tells in flashback the misadventures of the fictional US Navy submarine, USS Sea Tiger, during the opening days of World War II. Some elements of the screenplay were taken from actual incidents with some of the Pacific Fleet's submarines during the war.

Paul King, Joseph Stone, Stanley Shapiro, and Maurice Richlin were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Writing.

Plot

In 1959, United States Navy Rear Admiral Matt Sherman (Cary Grant), ComSubPac, boards the now obsolete submarine USS Sea Tiger prior to her departure for the scrapyard. Sherman, the first commanding officer of the Sea Tiger, begins reading his wartime personal logbook and recalling earlier events.

On 10 December 1941, a Japanese air raid sinks the Sea Tiger while she is docked at the Cavite Navy Yard in the Philippines. Then Lieutenant Commander Sherman and his crew begin repairs, hoping to sail for Darwin, Australia, before the Japanese overrun the port. Believing there is no chance of repairing the Sea Tiger, the commodore of the squadron transfers most of Sherman's crew to other boats, but promises him that he will have first call on any available replacements. Lieutenant (junior grade) Nick Holden (Tony Curtis), an admiral's aide, is reassigned to the Sea Tiger despite lacking any submarine training or experience. (Holden became a naval officer not out of patriotism, but to escape poverty and find a wealthy spouse.)

Holden demonstrates great skill as a scrounger and con artist after Sherman makes him the submarine's supply officer. Early on, he teams up with Marine Sergeant Ramon Gallardo, an escaped prisoner (he was caught misappropriating Navy property to operate his own restaurant in Manila), to obtain material for desperately needed repairs, persuading the captain to sign Ramon on as the ship's cook. What Holden and his raiders cannot find in warehouses, they "midnight requisition" from sources as varied as a civilian refrigeration plant and US Army barracks plumbing.

Restored to barely seaworthy condition, with only two of her four diesels operable and one of those balky and prone to backfiring, the Sea Tiger puts to sea and reaches Marinduque, where Sherman reluctantly agrees to evacuate five female Army nurses stranded there. Holden is attracted to Second Lieutenant Barbara Duran (Dina Merrill), while Sherman has a series of embarrassing encounters with the well-endowed and clumsy Second Lieutenant Dolores Crandall (Joan O'Brien). Later, when Sherman prepares to attack an enemy oiler moored to a pier, Crandall accidentally hits the "fire" button. The torpedo misses its target; Sherman is dismayed to discover that "We sunk a truck!"

USS Balao standing in for Operation Petticoat's fictional USS Sea Tiger. A belch of smoke from the No. 1 diesel engine can be seen off the starboard quarter.

Captain Sherman tries to put the nurses ashore at Cebu, but the Army refuses to accept them, as the Japanese are closing in. When Sherman is unable to obtain needed supplies from official sources, he allows Holden to set up a casino in order to acquire them. One item Chief Torpedoman Molumphry (the Chief of the Boat) has been asking for is paint. Holden manages to scrounge some red and white lead primer paint, but does not have enough of either color to prime the entire sub. The two have to be mixed together, resulting in a pale pink primer that the chief reluctantly orders be applied. A Japanese air raid forces a hasty departure before the crew can apply a top coat of navy gray.

Tokyo Rose mocks the mysterious pink submarine operating in the Celebes Sea; the United States Navy believes it to be a Japanese trick and orders it be sunk on sight. An American destroyer spots the surfaced Sea Tiger and opens fire, then launches depth charges when Sherman crash dives. Sherman tries to trick the destroyer by sending up oil and launching blankets, pillows, and life jackets, but the attacks continue. Finally, at Holden's suggestion, Sherman ejects the nurses' lingerie. Crandall's bra convinces the destroyer's captain that "the Japanese have nothing like this", and he ceases firing. The Sea Tiger, still pink, arrives at Darwin, battered, but still under her own power.

Returning to the present, the arrival of Commander Nick Holden, his wife (the former Lieutenant Duran), and their sons interrupts Sherman's reminiscences. Sherman promises Holden command of a new nuclear-powered submarine to be named the Sea Tiger. Sherman's wife (the former Lieutenant Crandall) arrives late with their daughters and rear-ends her husband's staff car, causing it to lock bumpers with a bus. When the bus drives away, it drags the car along. Sherman reassures his wife that it will be stopped at the main gate. Captain Holden takes the Sea Tiger out on her final run to be scrapped, the Number One diesel punctuating the occasion with one final belch of black smoke.

Cast

Production

Curtis took credit for the inception of Operation Petticoat. He had joined the Navy during World War II with the intent of entering the submarine service in part because his hero, Cary Grant, had appeared in Destination Tokyo (1943). After he became a star, Curtis suggested making a film in which Grant would stare into a periscope as he did in Destination Tokyo. Curtis very much enjoyed working with Grant.^[2]

Former Universal-International contract star Jeff Chandler was originally set to have played Matt Sherman, but pulled out to film The Jayhawkers (1959) instead.^[3] Tina Louise turned down the role of one of the nurses as she felt the film had too many sex jokes.^[4]

Operation Petticoat was produced with extensive support of the Department of Defense and the US Navy. Most of the filming was done in and around Naval Station Key West, now the Truman Annex of Naval Air Station Key West, Florida, which substituted for the Philippines and Australia. Filming for the period suggesting postwar 1959 was done at Naval Station San Diego, California.

USS Sea Tiger was portrayed by three different American World War II-era submarines:

• USS Queenfish, in the opening and closing scenes (circa 1959), in which the "393" on the conning tower is visible;
• USS Archerfish, for all the World War II scenes where the boat was painted the standard gray and black;
• USS Balao, for all the scenes in which Sea Tiger was painted pink.

Historical accuracy

Some of the plot points of Operation Petticoat were based on real-life incidents, such as:

• The evacuation of one Navy nurse and several Army nurses from Corregidor to Australia by the submarine USS Spearfish;^{[Note 2]}
• The sinking of the submarine USS Sealion at the pier at Cavite Navy Yard in the Philippines;^[5]
• The torpedoing of a bus by the USS Bowfin;^{[Note 3]}
• Captain 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 Lieutenant Commander James Wiggins "Red" Coe of the submarine USS Skipjack);^[6]
• The need to paint a submarine pink due to the lack of enough red or white lead undercoat paint. The heat from the burning Sealion also scorched off the black paint of the nearby USS Seadragon and for a time this submarine fought with only her red lead undercoat visible. This led Tokyo Rose to disparage American "red pirate submarines."^[7]

Reception

Operation Petticoat was a hit with audiences and critics. The review in Variety was typical. "Operation Petticoat has no more weight than a sackful of feathers, but it has a lot of laughs. Cary Grant and Tony Curtis are excellent, and the film is directed by Blake Edwards with a slam-bang pace."^[8] A much more restrained commentary came from Bosley Crowther of The New York Times, who noted in his December 8, 1959 review that the plot device of women aboard a wartime submarine was strained. "And that is the obvious complication upon which are pointedly based at least 60 per cent of the witticisms and sight gags in the film. How to berth the nurses in the exceedingly limited space, how to explain to them the functioning of the bathroom facilities, how to compel the sailors to keep their well-diverted minds on their work — these are the endless petty problems that vex Commander Grant."^[9]

Box office performance

Operation Petticoat was a huge box office hit, making it the #3 moneymaker of 1960, earning $6,800,000.^{[Note 4]} Operation Petticoat followed Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho ($8,500,000) while the #1 film of 1960 was Ben-Hur ($17,300,000).^[11] For Grant, through his contract, his residuals topped $3 million, making Operation Petticoat his most profitable film to date.^[12]

1977 television series

The television cast: back, from left: Doreen Thomson, Jamie Lee Curtis, Melinda Naud, Bond Gibson. Front, from left: Richard Gilliand, John Astin.

Operation Petticoat was adapted as an ABC-TV series which ran from September 17, 1977 to August 10, 1979.^[13] Initially starring John Astin in Grant's role of Lieutenant Commander Sherman, the TV series was probably most notable for the casting of Tony Curtis' daughter, Jamie Lee Curtis as Lieutenant Duran. Most of the cast was replaced for the show's second season, a decision that led to low ratings and cancellation.^[14] Only 32 episodes of the series (22 in season 1, 10 in season 2) were produced in total.^[15]

See also

• Operation Petticoat (TV) at the Internet Movie Database

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Operation Petticoat.

• Operation Petticoat at the TCM Movie Database
• Operation Petticoat (Film) at the Internet Movie Database
• Operation Petticoat (TV Series) at the Internet Movie Database
• Operation Petticoat at AllMovie
• Historic reviews, photo gallery at CaryGrant.net