Company petticoat
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Company petticoat |
| Original title | Operation petticoat |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1959 |
| length | 124 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Blake Edwards |
| script |
Stanley Shapiro , Maurice Richlin Story: Paul King , Joseph Stone |
| production | Robert Arthur |
| music |
David Rose Henry Mancini |
| camera | Russell Harlan |
| cut |
Frank Gross Ted J. Kent |
| occupation | |
| |
Company Petticoat is a Blake Edwards comedy film starring Cary Grant as submarine commander Sherman and Tony Curtis as supply officer Holden.
action
Matt Sherman, formerly in command of the American submarine Sea Tiger and now promoted to Rear Admiral, returns to his submarine long after the end of World War II, to see it one last time before leaving for scrapping . In his former commanders' chamber, he takes the log book to hand and looks back on the turbulent events at the turn of the year 1941/1942. This is where the actual film plot begins.
In a Japanese air raid on the Philippines , the Sea Tiger is badly hit and sunk on the pier of the Cavite naval base . The local commander Henderson wants to abandon the ship, but Lieutenant Commander Sherman insists on lifting it and making it fit again. Since part of his crew has already been transferred to other ships, the commander assigns him substitutes, including Lieutenant Holden.
But Holden is a party-goer and philanderer who has never been in combat and uses his position as an officer mainly to gain access to high society ; accordingly, Sherman and his crew are initially skeptical about his suitability as a submarine officer. However, Holden also turns out to be a cunning crook who uses unorthodox methods such as theft and fraud to procure the necessary spare parts for the damaged submarine. His daring forays earn him the respect of the team, but also the dislike of Sherman. The conflict between the unequal officers becomes one of the dominant comic elements of the film.
Another air strike forces the Sea Tiger to sail before repairs are complete. During a stopover on the island of Marinduque , Holden encounters a group of five US Army nurses who are trapped there. Without consulting the commanding officer, he promises to take them on board. Sherman, faced with a fait accompli, has no choice but to let the women travel with him.
The amorous tension between the women and the team brings with it more comical elements. For example, a number of team members report sick with flimsy complaints, only to receive medical care from the nurses. Sherman has his hands full to ensure a reasonably orderly military life on board.
In the port of Cebu , the repair of the submarine is completed; Spare parts are rare, and so, as always, improvisation has to be made, culminating in the submarine now being painted pink. Before the final - gray - paint job can be applied, Cebu is also bombed by Japanese planes and the Sea Tiger has to rush out again. She takes a group of refugees on board, whom Holden - again without consulting Sherman - has promised in exchange for food to save them from the Japanese attackers.
In the general confusion, both the Japanese and the allies open the hunt for the mysterious "pink submarine". When the Sea Tiger tries to identify itself to a destroyer of the US Navy, the destroyer opens fire. Only a renewed smarter incidence of Holden preserves the Sea Tiger before, to be sunk by his own people : through a torpedo tube it leaves the bra women deploy aboard. The crew of the destroyer fishes one of them out of the water and recognizes from the name tag that it belongs to a US officer. In the end, the boat manages to call at Port Darwin in Australia, to bring the mixed-up passengers to safety and to rejoin the allied fleet associations.
In the end, the film returns to the background story back and completes the impressions from the beginning: Holden remained in the Navy and now even submarine commander with the rank of commander . He has been entrusted with the transfer of the Sea Tiger for scrapping. Holden and Sherman, who are now on friendly terms, say goodbye to each other on the quay . Sherman has now married Dolores Crandall and Holden is in a relationship with Barbara Duran, two of the rescued nurses, with whom a liaison was already emerging on board .
backgrounds
The film plot is set in the initial phase of the Battle of the Philippines from late 1941 to early 1942. A series of events that actually happened were processed for the script. In the illustrated attack on the naval base Cavite on 10 December 1941 with the Sealion a submarine severely damaged with a similar name, as opposed to the film then no longer be repaired, but a few days later scuttled . The idea of a submarine painted in pink is also connected to this event: During the attack on Cavite, the Seadragon was lying alongside her sister ship Sealion , and the heat of the fires on the Sealion caused the dark gray paint to peel off on the Seadragon , so that partially the one underneath applied red paint came to light, which normally marks the waterline when the ride is surfaced . There is also a historical template for the letter of complaint about toilet paper that has not been delivered. An incident involving the USS Bowfin served as a template for the torpedoing of the truck. On August 9, 1944, when several Japanese ships were sunk in the port of Minami-daitō , a bus was also hit. The English-speaking women with whom the Japanese radio wanted to persuade American ship's crews to give up came to be known as the Tokyo Rose .
In summary, the film can be described as a satire on chaotic conditions on the Pacific front during World War II. The main motives are the shortage of spare parts and the bureaucratic hurdles to “protect” these scarce supplies from one's own people, but also the plight of the people in the war zone. To portray all of this in a humorous way, without sliding into clumsy slapstick or playing down the war, is one of the most brilliant achievements of the film team.
The United States Navy provided three similar submarines for the filming . The entry and exit sequence, recorded at Naval Station in San Diego , shows the Queenfish . For the main part set in the West Pacific, which was filmed in and around Naval Station Key West , the Archerfish in the normal gray color and the Balao , the lead ship of the ship class of the same name , were used as a pink submarine. The Balao was sunk as a target in 1963 after being decommissioned. Her tower is on display in the Washington Navy Yard . The ship attempting to sink the mysterious pink submarine towards the end of the film is the USS Wren , a Fletcher- class destroyer .
Cary Grant was so excited about Curtis' parody of him in Some Like It Hot (1959) that he co-starred him.
Reviews
“[...] Delicious comedy by Blake Edwards, who before the breakthrough with ' Breakfast at Tiffany 's' first directed stars like Cary Grant and Tony Curtis, who parodied Grant in ' Some Like It Hot '. The submarine comedy, co-produced by Grant, was a huge box office hit for Universal. [...] "
"A turbulent comedy with psychologically accurate humor and original ideas."
Awards
The film, which was nominated for an Oscar ( Best Original Screenplay ) and a Golden Globe in 1960 , earned first and second places at the Laurel Awards .
Television series - 1977 to 1979
In the late 1970s, the concept of the film became the basis for a television series that was also named Operation Petticoat . Actors included John Astin as LtCdr Sherman and Jamie Lee Curtis , the daughter of Tony Curtis, as Lt. Duran. After the first season with 23 episodes, with three exceptions, the full cast and the associated characters were replaced. The series was discontinued after the tenth episode of the second season.
Web links
- Operation Petticoat in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Company Petticoat (German version) in the Internet Archive (formats: .mp4 and .ogv )
- Collected reviews on a website about Cary Grant
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for company petticoat . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , June 2007 (PDF; test number: 21 013 V / DVD / UMD).
- ↑ Information about the shooting on a website about the Queenfish , accessed on November 12, 2012 (English)
- ^ Company petticoat. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed October 23, 2016 .
- ^ TV series Operation Petticoat. Internet Movie Database , accessed June 10, 2015 .