Movies - Operation Petticoat

Home > Listing Index > Movies > Operation Petticoat

	Movies - Operation Petticoat

Operation Petticoat is a 1959 movie directed by Blake Edwards and starring Cary Grant and Tony Curtis, later adapted for television in 1977.

It tells the story of the World War II American submarine USS Sea Tiger, damaged during the opening days of the Pacific War, and the crazy adventures of the sub's skipper (Grant) and his crew, including Curtis as a less-than strait-laced Supply Officer, as they try to repair the sub and sail it to Australia for the refit necessary to re-enter the war. This includes picking up a contingent of female Army nurses on a Philippine island and being forced to paint the sub pink when not enough of either red or white undercoat paint is available at another.

Other members of the cast include three who became television stars in the 1960s and 1970s: a pre-Love-Boat Gavin MacLeod as Yeoman Hunkle, pre-Happy Days Marion Ross as Lt. Colfax, and pre-Bewitched Dick Sargent as Lt. Stovall.

The movie was written by Paul King & Joseph Stone (story) and Stanley Shapiro & Maurice Richlin (screenplay). It received an Academy Award Nomination for Best Screenplay.

The movie opens in 1959 when Grant's character, Admiral Matt Sherman, Commander Submarines Pacific, arrives to tour USS Sea Tiger. A discussion between the topside watch and the Chief of the Boat as Sherman boards lets the audience know that Sherman was the first commanding officer of this particular submarine and that Sea Tiger is scheduled to be scrapped later that day.

Sherman returns to the captain’s stateroom below and starts to read from the captain’s journal he himself wrote during World War II eighteen years earlier: "10 December 1941: Moored starboard side to Mechina Wharf, Cavite Navy Yard, Philippine Islands for provisions and fuel. Directive received from Commander Asiatic Fleet: You will sink or destroy all enemy shipping wherever encountered. Have advised Commander Submarine Force Asiatic Fleet that Sea Tiger will be ready for sea at 1900 – 10 December 1941." Suddenly Sherman’s reading is interrupted by the sound of an air-raid siren and Sea Tiger’s Chief of the Boat yelling, "Captain, enemy planes over!" The audience is now back in 1941 and the opening of World War II in the Pacific.

The crew of Sea Tiger, undergoing resupply at Cavite Navy Yard, try their best to defend their boat and get underway, but it is only a matter of time before the Japanese dive bombers zero in on the immobilized sub and she is sunk next to the pier. Lt. Commander Matt Sherman, the submarine’s commanding officer, pleads with the shipyard commander to let him try and raise Sea Tiger and sail her to the submarine tender Bushnell in Darwin, Australia, a distance of over 2000 miles through Japanese controlled waters, for the repairs necessary to put the submarine back in the war. Reluctantly, Captain Henderson (played by Robert Simon), allows Sherman two weeks to get his sub seaworthy and the crew of Sea Tiger set to work to refloat her and get her underway.

Since some of Sea Tigers crew had already been transferred, Captain Henderson arranges for replacements. Among those reporting to Commander Sherman are Lt Nick Holden (Tony Curtis), an Admiral's Aide sent to the Philippines to prepare for the admiral’s arrival just before the war broke out, stranding him without an assignment. Lt. Holden is also a wheeler-dealer, capable of getting whatever is needed by any means necessary, and is promptly made Sea Tigers 'Supply Officer' when Yeoman Ernest Hunkle receives a reply that Sea Tigers year-old requisition for toilet paper has been cancelled, "Cannot identify material required."

That night, Holden leads a team which includes Hunkle and another sailor known as The Prophet (played by George Dunn), on an unauthorized supply run to the Navy yard warehouse, gathering everything their submarine needs and loading it all onto a ‘borrowed’ Army truck after narrowly avoiding being caught as looters, Lt Holden convincing a Marine MP his blackened face and dark clothes are in compliance with an order for complete blackout conditions from Admiral Nimitz.

The next morning, Sherman is amazed and dumbfounded as he watches supplies like an oil pump shaft, a refrigeration compressor from an ice house and boxes of toilet paper being loaded aboard the boat. He is also dismayed to learn he has another new crew member, Sgt Ramon Gillardo, a Marine prisoner who escaped from the stockade when it was bombed by the Japanese and who comes with the glowing recommendation that, "...there isn’t a burglar, swindler, pickpocket or fence in the islands who doesn’t love, know and respect him." Sherman gives in to the addition of the Sergeant to his crew when Holden advises him Gillardo is also an informer and they do not have a sales slip for all their new supplies.
[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Operation Petticoat ]

Some related entries: Girl Happy | Madadayo | Atlantis, the Lost Continent | Jefferson in Paris | Denis Héroux | Steamboat Willie | Hillbilly Hare | Return of the Living Dead III | The Legend of the Roller Blade Seven | Public Enemy | Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome
This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Operation Petticoat; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Movies - Operation Petticoat

Searches on eBay

Related searches on eBay