Operation Petticoat is a 1959 comedic film directed by Blake Edwards, and starring Cary Grant, Tony Curtis, and Dina Merrill, later adapted for television in 1977.
The film tells the story of a fictional World War II American submarine USS Sea Tiger, sunk in the Philippine Islands during the opening days of World War II. Operation Petticoat follows the adventures and tribulations of the sub's skipper (Grant) and his crew (including Curtis as a deviously mercenary supply officer), as they try to repair the sub and continue to Australia for the necessary refit. The voyage includes various detours along the way, including the acquisition of a group of stranded female Army nurses and a hurried stopover to overhaul and repaint the sub which quickly goes awry.
Other members of the cast include three actors who became television stars in the 1960s and 1970s: Gavin MacLeod of Love Boat and McHale's Navy as Yeoman Hunkle, Marion Ross of Happy Days as Lt. Colfax, and Dick Sargent, (later to star in the series Bewitched), 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.
A submarine newly commissioned is damaged in the opening days of WW II. A captain, looking for a command insists he can get it to a dockyard and captain it. Going slowly to this site, they find a stranded group of Army nurses and must take them aboard. How bad can it get? Trying to get a primer coat on the sub, they have to mix white and red in order to have enough. When forced to flee the dock during an air attack, they find themselves with the world's only Pink submarine, still with 5 women in the tight quarters of a submarine. Written by John Vogel
Tony Curtis, father of Jamie Lee Curtis, played Lt. (j.g.) Nicholas Holden in the 1959 original movie Operation Petticoat.
