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.