| Comedy | MPAA:G |
I was going to review the following film with several other letterboxed films I have, sort of as a 'by the way, these films are letterboxed too' kind of thing (fwiw, it's not filmed in very wide format, so letterboxing doesn't make much difference here). Wrote the whole thing out too, 5 films, 5 paragraphs, ready to go. Then I reread the review and decided this film deserved better than a paragraph with 4 other films. Oh well, it gave me a good excuse to take it out , and give Operation Petticoat the review it deserves.
The bulk of this film is a flashback, it starts and ends with the first skipper (Cary Grant (not Alan Hale)) paying a visit to his old submarine, the Sea Tiger, just before she (the sub I mean) is to be scrapped. The flashback takes us to the first time Grant first takes his new command, which is sunk by a Japanese plane just before they set off. But, since it was still at dock, and didn't sink very far, Grant talks his commander into letting them pump her out, and start repairs. The problem is, the Navy is pulling out at the time (because of the air attacks), and spare parts are scarce - and most of his crew have been reassigned. He ends up with a dandy (Tony Curtis), formerly assigned to an admiral, as his supply officer. Curtis begs, borrows, and steals enough parts for them to get under way. They have to stop several times to make repairs, and find more parts, and at one stop, they end up picking up several Army nurses who are stranded on an island in the path of a enemy advance. One nurse is a terrible klutz who's always causing problems (such as causing them to torpedo a truck), one has attracted undue attention from Curtis (who wants to marry a rich girl, but is willing to have a fling with this one), and their chief nurse is also a mechanic who drives the chief engineer nuts. At one stop, they attempt to repaint the ship (salt water plays havoc with metal, and naval vessels are frequently repainted), but have trouble finding paint. They get enough grey, but can't find enough primer paint. They finally end up with enough red and white primer to do the job, but only if they mix it. They do. But, before they can cover the bright pink with the gray, along comes the Jap airforce, and there goes all the gray paint. So, while the Beatles plied the seas in a yellow submarine, Cary, Tony, and company do it in a pink sub. After nearly getting sunk by their own navy - which didn't know they had a pink sub at sea (they're saved when they come up with the bright idea of shooting the women's underwear out the torpedo tubes (to get the surface ships attention)), they make it home to America. So, at the end, Grant (now admiral) meets with Curtis (now captain of the sub), for one last look. Curtis marries the poor nurse after all, The Chief Engineer ends up with the Chief Nurse, and yes, Grant ends up with the klutz.
This movie is truly delightful. It's funny, whimsical, and contains nothing offensive to anyone. This could be one of the inspirations for George Bush's Kindler Gentler World. When I was in Navy boot camp there was a saying about bubbleheads (Navy for submarine personnel), 50 guys go down, 25 couples come up. So here we have a movie where several army nurses get stuck on a submarine, and all the guys are absolute gentleman (ha ha ha ha ha ha ha (move along... ed.)) This is family kind of fun, and reminds you why Cary Grant was so popular.