Operation Petticoat

Operation Petticoat is a 1959 American

The film tells in flashback the misadventures of a fictional U.S. Navy submarine, USS Sea Tiger, during the Battle of the Philippines in the opening days of the United States involvement in World War II. Some elements of the screenplay were taken from actual incidents that happened with some of the Pacific Fleet's submarines during the war. 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.

Paul King, Joseph Stone, Stanley Shapiro, and Maurice Richlin were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Writing for their work on Operation Petticoat. The film was the basis for a TV series in 1977 starring John Astin in Grant's role.

Plot

In 1959, U. S. Navy

Holden demonstrates great skill as a scrounger after Sherman makes him the supply officer. He teams up with Marine Sergeant Ramon Gallardo, an escaped prisoner (caught misappropriating Navy property to run his own restaurant), to obtain materials desperately needed for repairs. What Holden and his men cannot acquire from base warehouses, they steal.

Restored to barely seaworthy condition, Sea Tiger puts to sea after a native

Sherman tries to put the nurses ashore at

Tokyo Rose mocks the mysterious pink submarine, while the U.S. Navy believes it to be a Japanese deception and orders that it be sunk on sight. An American destroyer spots Sea Tiger and opens fire, then launches depth charges when the submarine crash dives. Sherman tries an oil slick and then launches blankets, pillows, and life jackets from his one working torpedo tube, but the deception fails. 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 fire. Sea Tiger, still painted pink, arrives at Darwin, battered and listing, but under her own power.

Sherman's reminiscence ends with the arrival of

Production

Curtis took credit for the inception of Operation Petticoat. He had joined the U.S. Navy during World War II intending to enter 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 actor

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

• USS Queenfish, in the opening and closing scenes (the "393" on the conning tower being visible)
• USS Archerfish, for all the scenes where the boat was painted the standard gray and black
• USS Balao, for all the scenes in which Sea Tiger was painted pink

The attacking destroyer and, during the arrival at Darwin, the destroyer visible in the background is the Fletcher-class destroyer USS Wren.

Historical accuracy

A plot error says that Sea Tiger is heading to Darwin to meet up with the

As noted above, the fictional Sea Tiger is played by three different Balao-class submarines. The action of the film begins on December 10, 1941, with the Sea Tiger obviously already in-service; however, the first Balao-class submarine would not be launched until late October 1942. (Based on her name, the Sea Tiger probably would have been a prewar, Sargo-class submarine.)

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, commanded by future Navy Cross recipient James C. Dempsey;^{[Note 2]}
• The evacuation of Filipino civilians to Australia may have been inspired by the USS Narwhal's evacuation of 32 civilians from Mindanao, including 8 women, 2 children, and an infant during her seventh war patrol on November 15, 1943.^[5]
• The sinking of the submarine
  Cavite Navy Yard in the Philippines;^[6]
• The torpedoing of a bus by the USS Bowfin;^{[Note 3]}
• Captain Sherman's letter to the supply department at Cavite 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);^[7][8]
• The need to paint a submarine pink because of a lack of enough red or white lead undercoat: Heat from the burning USS Sealion also scorched off the black paint on the nearby USS Seadragon; for a time, the submarine fought with only her red lead undercoat visible. This led Tokyo Rose to disparage American "red pirate submarines".^[9]
• Another possible source for the "pink" submarine is the decorated USS Harder, commanded by Samuel David Dealey. Under the belief that a pinkish tint would help with camouflage, especially near dawn and dusk, Dealey added pink to the light grey that was standard for the Navy's Measure 32 paint scheme.^{[citation needed]}

Reception

Operation Petticoat was a hit with audiences and critics. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 81% based on 21 reviews, with an average score of 6.60/10.^[10]

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".^[11] 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".^[12]

Box office performance

Operation Petticoat was a huge box office hit, earning over $9.3 million in

Operation Petticoat was adapted as an ABC-TV series which ran from September 17, 1977, to August 10, 1979.^[15] Initially starring John Astin in Grant's role of Lieutenant Commander Sherman, the TV series cast 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.^{[citation needed]} Only 32 episodes of the series (22 in season 1, 10 in season 2) were produced in total.

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

• Blair, Clay Jr. Silent Victory: The US Submarine War Against Japan.. New York: J.B. Lippincott, 1975.
  ISBN 978-1-5575-0217-9
  .
• Brooks, Tim and Earle Marsh. The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows: 1946-Present (Sixth ed.). New York: Ballantine Books, a Division of Random House, Inc., 1995, first edition 1979.
  ISBN 0-345-39736-3
  .
• Grider, George and Lydel Sims. War Fish. New York: Little, Brown & Company, 1958.
  ISBN 978-0-3450-3217-1
  .
• Lockwood, Charles A. Sink 'Em All: Submarine Warfare in the Pacific. New York: Bantam Books, 1987.
  ISBN 978-1-4960-2690-3
  .
• Roscoe, Theodore. United States Submarine Operations in World War II. Annapolis, Maryland: US Naval Institute Press, 1949.
  ISBN 978-0-87021-731-9
  .
• Steinberg, Cobbett. Film Facts. New York: Facts on File, Inc., 1980.
  ISBN 0-87196-313-2
  .

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Operation Petticoat.

• Operation Petticoat at the TCM Movie Database
• Operation Petticoat (film) at
  IMDb
• Operation Petticoat (TV series) at
  IMDb
• Operation Petticoat at Rotten Tomatoes
• Operation Petticoat at AllMovie
• Historic reviews, photo gallery at CaryGrant.net