History Film / OperationPetticoat

* [[ImaDoctorNotaPlaceholder I'm a Doctor, Not a Placeholder]]: Shouted angrily, and helplessly, by Captain Sherman at Lt Holden as the casino dealers' families are brought aboard, with two expectant mothers with them. "I'm running a submarine, not a maternity ward!"

* I'm a Doctor, Not a Placeholder: Shouted angrily, and helplessly, by Captain Sherman at Lt Holden as the casino dealers' families are brought aboard, with two expectant mothers with them. "I'm running a submarine, not a maternity ward!"

The movie begins with Rear Admiral Matt Sherman (Grant) making a sentimental visit to his first command, which is due to be scrapped. He goes down to the empty Captain's cabin, opens the old log book and begins to read. Cue flashback to December 10th, 1941. ''Sea Tiger'', part of the Asiatic Fleet stationed at Cavite, is sunk at the dock by Japanese bombers. With the Japanese rapidly advancing across the island and the only alternative being to scuttle what's left of the boat and join the holdouts at Bataan, Lt. Commander Matt Sherman and his crew work frantically to jury-rig sufficient repairs to make the run from the Philippines to Darwin, Australia where the Asiatic Fleet is regrouping with Allied forces. LTJG Nick Holden (Curtis) is a reassigned Admiral's Aide with no sea experience (well, he was on a destroyer for a couple of days before they got it worked out) who proves unexpectedly useful as the new [[TheScrounger 'Supply Officer']] getting Sherman the parts he needs by humorously unscrupulous means.

The battered ''Sea Tiger'' sails under strict orders to avoid engaging any enemy craft - including lifeboats. Forced to drop anchor at Marinduque for more repairs Mr. Holden goes ashore and discovers five stranded Army Nurses. A submarine isn't intended to be co-educational but obviously, the women cannot be left where they are. Cue sexual tension between the predatory--and engaged--Lt. Holden and Lt. Barbara Duran (Dina Merrill); Captain Sherman and the buxom--and clumsy--Lt. Delores Crandall (Joan O'Brien); and the misogynistic Chief Motor Machinist's Mate Sam Tostin (Arthur O'Connell) and the mechanically-inclined Major Edna Heywood (Virginia Gregg), the nurses' Commanding Officer.

[[TemptingFate Sherman naturally assumes that things can't possibly get worse]] - then they do. TokyoRose mocks the bright pink submarine cruising the Celebes Sea. U.S. Naval Intelligence assumes it's deliberate disinformation, leading to orders to fire on the ''Sea Tiger'' when she attempts to make contact with a destroyer group. Sherman is forced to resort to most unconventional means to prove that he is 'friend' not 'foe'.

-->'''Henderson:''' "I'd say take your scavengers and these liars here and {{get out}}.

--> "Sighted tanker; [[EpicFail sank truck]]."

---> '''Sherman:''' Molumphry, will this boat go down?\\

* EmbarrassingTattoo: Poor Seaman Hunkle once got blackout drunk, and now he's got a naked woman tattooed on his chest and feels he can ''never'' go home and marry his fiancee. He is quite self-conscious about it and habitually keeps his shirt buttoned all the way up to the collar. His crew mates actually salute his tattoo whenever he reveals it, and Lt. Reid is so shocked by the sight when she accidentally walks in on Hunkle changing his shirt that she reflexively slaps him, much to her own embarrassment.

** The tables are turned when LT Crandall innocently asks Sherman to help her figure out how to operate the shower (earning him a blast of water to the face). Holden catches them both stepping out of the shower and let’s fly with the innuendo.
** Sherman later walks in on MMC Tostin and MAJ Heywood apparently spooning in the engine room. They're actually just taking measurements so they can improvise some repairs, but Sherman obviously has his doubts.
* ObstructiveBureaucrat: While it is understandable that the sudden outbreak of war would screw up supply lines, Hunkle points out that they've only been at war for a week, but the requisition he sent in for toilet paper hasn't been filled for ''six months''. This of course means that LT Holden's [[TheScrounger skills]] are in high demand.

* ResurrectTheWreck: The crew of the sunken ''Sea Tiger'' manage to raise her up and get her running enough to sail her to proper repair facilities. It’s also a RaceAgainstTheClock as the Japanese are invading the Philippines and will overrun Cavite Naval Station in a matter of days.

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: It was red rather than pink[[note]]the topcoat of USS ''Seadragon'' got melted off because another nearby sub was hit and caught fire; both were docked, and TokyoRose referenced the "red pirate sub" in a few broadcasts[[/note]], it was a bus, not a truck[[note]]the torpedo hit a dock and knocked the bus into the water[[/note]] and it didn't happen all to the same submarine in a single voyage, but surprising number of gags from the film (including the angry letter to the supply office about the toilet paper) had some basis in real history. There really ''was'' a goat however[[note]][[http://www.ussarcherfish.com/afishpic/goat.htm is was some crew on the Archerfish in 1961 having a laugh]][[/note]].

** USS ''Harder''‘s crew really did add some pink to the regulation gray paint, albeit as a tint rather than a solid color. Their captain thought it would be more effective camouflage at dawn and dusk.

* WrenchWench: Major Edna Heywood's father was chief engineer at a powerplant and as a result she knows her way around machinery. She decides to apply her background to help get the battered diesel engines into slightly better shape, much to the [[BelligerentSexualTension annoyance]] of HeManWomanHater Chief Tostin. By the end, the two have grown to like (possibly love) eachother because Tostin respects her skill as a mechanic.

* BilingualDialog: Between Sherman, who understands Tagalog but doesn’t speak it so well, and the pig farmer, who is the same way with English.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* BuxomIsBetter: Nurse Crandall is notably well-endowed, and it becomes something of a RunningGag when crewmen passing through the sub's narrow compartments "have to" (and probably intentionally) squeeze past her. It gets to the point that Sherman orders that Crandall is to be given right of way. Later, when they're forced to send out the women's undergarments as "wreckage" to convince the destroyer depth-charging them that they're an American sub, Crandall's is of course the one the crew haul aboard first.[[note]]Ironically, actress Joan O'Brien, who played Crandall, is actually rather modestly-endowed in RealLife.[[/note]]

%% * GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* HeManWomanHater: Chief Machinist’s Mate Tostin is a mild example. He subscribes to the old sailors's superstition that sailing with women aboard is bad luck, and when Sherman sarcastically asks if the nurses should be thrown overboard, replies [[FlatYes "It's something to think about!"]] It soon develops into BelligerentSexualTension with Major Haywood when she starts applying her own mechanical skills to help out.
->'''Tostin:''' Listen, lady. Congress might'a made you an officer, but God made ya a woman, and women don't belong in my engine room!

* HornySailors: The whole premise of the film is that a [=WW2=] submarine crew can be thrown into hormonal chaos just by adding a few female nurses. At one point the entire crew complement save the Captain decide to present for sick call in order to have the nurses treat them.

[[folder:Tropes N-Z]]

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: It was red rather than pink[[note]]the topcoat got melted off because another nearby sub was hit and caught fire; both were docked[[/note]], it was a bus, not a truck[[note]]the torpedo hit a dock and knocked the bus into the water[[/note]] and it didn't happen all to the same submarine in a single voyage, but surprising number of gags from the film had some basis in real history. There really ''was'' a goat however[[note]][[http://www.ussarcherfish.com/afishpic/goat.htm is was some crew on the Archerfish in 1961 having a laugh]][[/note]].

* StockFootage: The finale makes use of some period stock footage of depth-charging US Navy destroyers.

* ResurrectTheWreck: The crew of the sunken ''Sea Tiger'' manage to raise her up and get her running enough to sail her to proper repair facilities.

!!Tropes featured :

[[folder:Tropes A-M]]
* [[TheAllegedCar The Alleged Submarine]]: USS ''Sea Tiger'' is brand-new (commissioned in 1940, according to Sherman), but is badly damaged (''sunk'', if you want to be specific) by the air raid on Cavite. For the rest of the movie she is literally held together with duct tape, using scavenged drain pipes, car parts, and [[ItMakesSenseInContext women's underwear]] to jury-rig temporary repairs until such time as they can get her back to a shipyard.

-->'''Henderson''': "I'd say take your scavengers and these liars here and [[GetOut get out]]."

** As they are trying to get under way, one of the diesel engines keeps backfiring, making sounds like explosions accompanied by thick, black smoke. The problem does not occur again while they are at sea (or at least, the smoke doesn't. The engine can be frequently heard gurgling throughout the movie while running on the surface). At the end, as ''Sea Tiger'' is getting under way, there is a sudden sound like an explosion and black smoke, causing Sherman to remark that they never did get that engine fixed.

* TheCaptain: The bemused and put upon Matt Sherman.

-->"I think we've been victims of [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar Sherman's]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherman%27s_March_to_the_Sea march to the sea."]]
* DoubleMeaning: When Sherman is trying to convince Captain Henderson that his sub is seaworthy so they can leave harbor.
--> '''Sherman:''' Molumphry, will this boat go down?\\

--> '''Lt. Cmdr. Sherman''' ''(friendly)'': Yeah, they're drafting anyone these days.

* EpicFail: The ''Sea Tiger'' sights a Japanese tanker in a harbor and is trying to lay in a torpedo strike against the easiest target imaginable. One of the nurses ([[TheKlutz Lt. Crandall]] accidentally hits the launch button before the torpedo's guidance system can be programmed with its firing solution, and the torpedo not only misses the tanker but somehow manages to cruise straight up the beach to blow up a truck. In 1942 dollars that Japanese truck cost less than $1,000 new, while Mark 14 torpedoes cost over $20,000 ''each''.

* ExactWords: See above under DoubleMeaning.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.
* GoodLuckGesture: After diving again for the first time since repairs at the start of the movie, the [=XO=] has his fingers crossed behind his back the whole time. Once they are at dive depth the Captain reaches out and grabs his hand and forcibly uncrosses his fingers.

* IndyPloy: Holden's specialty. When Captain Sherman asks what he did on the admiral's staff, he describes his job as "Idea Man."

** About midway through the movie, Sherman is forced to lift Lieutenant Holden's restriction to send him back out to scrounge. He gives a speech in which he refuses to explain the burdens of command to Holden because he doubts that Holden will ever take on that kind of responsibility. [[spoiler: In the present day, it is revealed that the ''Sea Tiger'''s final commanding officer is none other than Commander Nick Holden.]]

* LadykillerInLove: Lt. Holden becomes this after meeting Lt. Duran, genuinely falling in love with her. Unfortunately, he's engaged to a woman that he seduced just for her financial standing. It is implied that his fiancee is not the first rich woman he has bedded just to get his hands on her financials.

* {{Sexophone}}: A bit of sultry saxophone jazz plays when ''Sea Tiger'' fires the nurse's undergarments from her torpedo tubes to convince the American destroyer depth-charging them that they ''are'' an American boat (ItMakesSenseInContext).

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: It was red rather than pink[[note]]the topcoat got melted off because another nearby sub was hit and caught fire; both were docked[[/note]], it was a bus, not a truck[[note]]the torpedo hit a dock and knocked the bus into the water[[/note]] and it didn't happen all to the same submarine in a single voyage, but surprising number of gags from the film had some basis in real history.
** There really ''was'' a goat however[[note]][[http://www.ussarcherfish.com/afishpic/goat.htm is was some crew on the Archerfish in 1961 having a laugh]][[/note]].

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Hollywood censorship of 1959 forbade the depiction or discussion of any kind of toilet, which the movie circumvented by using naval jargon (the "head") and not showing the actual toilet itself, despite a couple of rather obvious discussions.

The battered ''Sea Tiger'' sails under strict orders to avoid engaging any enemy craft - including lifeboats. Forced to drop anchor at Marinduque for still more repairs Mr. Holden goes ashore and discovers five stranded Army Nurses. A submarine isn't intended to be co-educational but obviously, the women cannot be left where they are. Cue sexual tension between the predatory--and engaged--Lt. Holden and Lt. Barbara Duran (Dina Merrill); Captain Sherman and the buxom--and clumsy--Lt. Delores Crandall (Joan O'Brien); and the misogynistic Chief Motor Machinist's Mate Sam Tostin (Arthur O'Connell) and the mechanically-inclined (and talented) Major Edna Heywood (Virginia Gregg), the nurses' Commanding Officer.

Sherman intends to unload the nurses at Cebu but the Army officer in Command refuses to take responsibility for them as he is expecting to be overrun and engage in guerilla operations, possibly for years. Nor can he help Sherman obtain the parts he needs as ''everything'' has been taken up into the hills. Lt. Holden comes up with a solution; he establishes a 'casino' up in the hills which accepts machine parts in exchange for chips, leading Sherman to write that Mr. Holden is the only man he knows who will be probably be awarded the Navy Cross at his court-martial.

As the submarine was sunk for several weeks and refloated, she desperately needs a new coat of paint to stave off rust. So one of the more important items Holden obtains is lead primer paint for the submarine's undercoat. Unfortunately, they come up slightly short of the total amount needed and have to mix red and white lead, slightly watered down, resulting in a bright ''pink'' submarine. The nurses find this amusing, while the submariners pray to God that nobody sees them on it. They have regulation haze-gray paint to go over it but predictably are forced to make a quick departure under fire before this can be done. They also have a dozen or so more passengers, the wives and children of the dealers at Mr. Holden's casino and a goat to provide milk for the children. Even better two of the women are in the last stages of pregnancy.

[[TemptingFate Sherman naturally assumes that things can't possibly get worse]] - then they do. TokyoRose mocks the bright pink submarine cruising the Celebes Sea and U.S. Naval Intelligence assumes it's deliberate disinformation leading to orders to fire on the ''Sea Tiger'' when she attempts to make contact with a destroyer group. Sherman is forced to resort to most unconventional means to prove that he is 'friend' not 'foe'.

The flashback ends with a color photo of the pink ''Sea Tiger'' steaming into Darwin Harbor. Smiling Admiral Sherman closes the log book and goes on deck to encounter ''Commander'' Nick Holden, now captain of the ''Sea Tiger'' who has just said good-bye to his wife, the former Lt. Duran, and their two sons. A few moments later the Admiral's wife, the former Lt. Crandall, arrives with their four lovely daughters rear-ending his staff car and sending it into a bus which then pulls out dragging the Admiral's car behind it by the locked fenders.

He assures her it won't go far, then turn to watch as ''Sea Tiger'' shoves off for the last time, punctuated by an explosion from the No. 1 engine. Sherman shakes his head, remarking, "I guess we never did get that fixed."

* [[TheAllegedCar The Alleged Submarine]]: USS ''Sea Tiger'' is brand-new (commissioned in 1940, according to Sherman), but is badly damaged (''sunk'', if you want to be specific) by the air raid on Cavite. For the rest of the movie, she is literally held together with duct tape, using scavenged drain pipes, car parts, and [[ItMakesSenseInContext women's underwear]] to jury-rig temporary repairs until such time as they can get her back to a shipyard.
* ArmedFarces: Albeit a somewhat unusual take on this trope. Sherman and most of his crew (minus Holden and Ramone) are competent professionals who are thrust into a very unusual situation and keep getting increasingly-absurd complications piled on.

%%* TheEeyore: Seaman Broom; 'You can't win, my friend...'
* EmbarrassingTattoo: Poor Seaman Hunkle once got blackout drunk, and now he's got a naked woman tattooed on his chest and feels he can ''never'' go home and marry his fiancee. He is quite self-conscious about it and habitually keeps his dungaree shirt buttoned all the way up to the collar. His crew mates actually salute his tattoo whenever he reveals it, and Lt. Reid is so shocked by the sight when she accidentally walks in on Hunkle changing his shirt that she reflexively slaps him, much to her own embarrassment.

* EpicFail: The ''Sea Tiger'' sights a Japanese tanker in a harbor and is trying to lay in a torpedo strike against the easiest target imaginable. One of the nurses ([[TheKlutz Lt. Crandall]], of course) missteps, accidentally hitting the launch button before the torpedo's guidance system can be programmed with its firing solution, and the torpedo not only misses the tanker but somehow manages to cruise straight up the beach to blow up a truck, in 1942 dollars that Japanese truck cost less than $1,000 new, while Mark 14 torpedoes cost over $20,000 ''each''.

** About midway through the movie, Sherman is forced to lift Lieutenant Holden's restriction to send him back out to scrounge. He gives a speech in which he refuses to explain the burdens of command to Holden because he doubts that Holden will ever take on that kind of responsibility. [[spoiler: Jumping back to present day, it is revealed that the ''Sea Tiger'''s final commanding officer is none other than Commander Nick Holden.]]
** A bit of RealLife irony: After spotting a Japanese tanker, Sherman decides to order an attack in spite of their circumstances to get into the War. Unfortunately, [[TheKlutz Lt. Crandall]] enters the con at precisely the wrong moment, and accidentally launches the torpedo before it can be fully programmed. It subsequently misses wide, slides up the beach, and into a nearby ''truck''. The Mark 14 torpedoes used by American submarines at the beginning of the war were ''notoriously'' unreliable. They frequently ran too deep or too shallow, failed to follow their programmed course, (and in the cases of USS ''Tang'' and ''Tullibee'' circled back to strike ''themselves'') and even if they ''did'' hit the fuses didn't always detonate. There's a very good probability that even had ''Sea Tiger'' successfully launched her torpedo, it would have missed ''anyway''!

* BuxomIsBetter: Nurse Crandall is notably well-endowed, and it becomes something of a RunningGag when crewmen passing through the sub's narrow compartments "have to" (and probably intentionally) squeeze past her. It gets to the point that Sherman orders that Crandall is to be given right of way. Later, when they're forced to send out the women's undergarments as "wreckage" to convince the destroyer depth-charging them that they're an American sub, Crandall's is of course the one the crew haul aboard first.

* {{Irony}}: After the ''Sea Tiger'' is forced to flee Cebu, the crew hears Tokyo Rose's broadcast. Sherman comments that, while their being painted pink is no longer secret, the U.S. Navy now knows about it and will probably be out looking for them. That's precisely what a group of Navy officers decide to do in the following scene, but not with the intention of ''aiding'' the ''Sea Tiger'' like Sherman's tone suggests; they instead resolve to sink it. This nearly gets them killed when they try to contact a friendly destroyer.