Tuesday, January 20, 2015

OPERATION PETTICOAT (1959)

Mildly amusing tale of a WWII submarine captain who, due to some extraordinary circumstances, is forced to allow five Army nurses to catch a ride onboard his sub.  Naturally this causes chaos among the all-male crew and gives the writers reason to unleashes all kinds of G-rated sex jokes, like the ship's mechanic saying "A woman just shouldn't mess around with a man's machinery." or when a female who's climbing down a ladder asks "Am I going down alright?"  Hardy-har-har.

Innocent story, corny humor, Joan O'Brien stretching that shirt for everything it's got, a couple of tattoos on sailors in the background, numerous vintage military ships, airplanes and, of course, the sub.  Also, this is yet another movie where the singing of "Auld Lang Syne" is quickly followed by disaster.  It'd be interesting to see exactly how many movies feature a similar situation.  I'm pretty sure it also happened in THE APARTMENT and THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE.

Anyway, despite the dated humor, I still enjoyed OPERATION PETTICOAT.  It's not really funny at all, but both Cary Grant and Tony Curtis are a pleasure to watch together.  And audiences agreed because this was the number 10 biggest box office draw back in 1959.

If you need me, I'll be in my room watching MISTER ROBERTS.