Operation Petticoat (1959)
Film:
DVD:

Written by Maurice Richlin & Stanley Shapiro, based on a story by Paul King & Joseph Stone
Directed by Blake Edwards
Starring Cary Grant, Tony Curtis, Joan O'Brien, Dina Merrill, Richard Sargent

Released by Artisan
Rating: NR
Region: 1
Anamorphic: No.

My Advice: Fans should own. Everyone else should at least rent.

Cmdr. Matt T. Sherman (Grant) is having a tough time--and by that, I mean beyond the obvious that it's World War II, shortly after the Japanese had handed the Americans their asses in the Pacific theatre. The ship under his command, the submarine U.S.S. Sea Tiger, was sunk before it gets a chance to get a shot off. He convinces the powers that be to let him raise the sub and try to get it back in commission, but he's going to need parts. Enter the coddled Lt. Holden (Curtis), who joined the military to impress a girl and doesn't know much about following procedure...but he does know how to barter, beg and steal just about anything you might could need. The only question is whether or not they can get along long enough to save the sub--and then there's the problem about the nurses...

Ah, Blake Edwards back when he was still a good director. Wonderful stuff. Grant is fine comedic form, playing the comedy straight man surrounded by whackos--something he excelled at. Curtis is the perfect con man, able to flaunt massive rule breakage right under the noses of the authorities. You believe utterly that he is just that smooth. The backup cast supports well, although a special mention should be made of the pig.

The script is funny enough in that it builds the silliness in stages. It's on the front of the DVD case, you can't escape knowing it: the submarine becomes pink through a series of accidents and incidents of bad timing. This is just the icing on the cake, and Grant's character, extremely well written tries to cope as best he can. Sure, it's formulaic, and sure, it's also rather predictable too, but there's nothing to be done. It charms its way past any reservations you might have.

Sadly, there's nothing on the disc to help us out here. Edwards is still around, so a director's commentary would be superb. Hell, I didn't know until checking out the film on the IMDB that it had spawned a TV series in the 70s. A brief excerpt would have been nice or at least some text on screen bits to explain what they were thinking. Even a "skirt smoke" featurette would have been something, but for now we're just grateful that it's digital. What we need is for somebody to put out a Cary Grant Collection with some more oomph behind it--hopefully one day we'll get our wish. Grant fans will want this thing, but everyone esle should rent--it's worth seeing at least once.