Operation Petticoat is a 1959 American World War II submarine comedy film in Eastmancolor from Universal-International , produced by Robert Arthur , directed by Blake Edwards , and starring Cary Grant and Tony Curtis .
61-708: The film tells in flashback the misadventures of a fictional U.S. Navy submarine , USS Sea Tiger , during the Battle of the Philippines in the opening days of the United States involvement in World War II . Some elements of the screenplay were taken from actual incidents that happened with some of the Pacific Fleet 's submarines during the war. Members of the cast include several actors who went on to become television stars in
122-688: A Utopian India. Satyajit Ray experimented with flashbacks in The Adversary (Pratidwandi, 1972), pioneering the technique of photo-negative flashbacks. He also uses flashbacks in other films such as Nayak (1966), Kapurush- O – Mahapurush ( 1965), Aranyer Din Ratri (1970), Jalsaghar(1959). In fact, in Nayak, the entire film proceeds in a non linear narrative which explores the Hero (Arindam's) past through seven flashbacks and two dreams. He also uses extensive flashbacks in
183-549: A character, or add structure to the narrative. In literature, internal analepsis is a flashback to an earlier point in the narrative; external analepsis is a flashback to a time before the narrative started. In film, flashbacks depict the subjective experience of a character by showing a memory of a previous event and they are often used to "resolve an enigma". Flashbacks are important in film noir and melodrama films. In films and television, several camera techniques, editing approaches and special effects have evolved to alert
244-544: A flashback from the main character is used to provide a confession to his fraudulent and criminal activities. Fish & Cat is the first single-shot movie with several flashbacks. In John Brahm 's film noir " The Locket " (1946) a unique hat trick is used (a flashback within a flashback within a flashback) to give psychological depth to the story of a woman who was allegedly a kleptomaniac, inveterate liar, and murderess but had never been punished for any of her crimes. A good example of both flashback and flashforward
305-476: A narrator (who is often, but not always, the character who is experiencing the memory). An early example of analepsis is in the Ramayana and Mahabharata , where the main story is narrated through a frame story set at a later time. Another early use of this device in a murder mystery was in " The Three Apples ", an Arabian Nights tale. The story begins with the discovery of a young woman's dead body. After
366-411: A native witch doctor casts a protection spell on her. Sea Tiger reaches Marinduque , where Sherman reluctantly agrees to evacuate five stranded Army nurses . Holden is attracted to Second Lieutenant Barbara Duran, while Sherman has a series of embarrassing encounters with the well-endowed and clumsy Second Lieutenant Dolores Crandall. Later, when Sherman prepares to attack an enemy oiler moored to
427-485: A periscope as he did in Destination Tokyo . Curtis very much enjoyed working with Grant. Former Universal-International contract actor Jeff Chandler was originally set to have played Matt Sherman, but pulled out to film The Jayhawkers (1959) instead. Tina Louise turned down the role of one of the nurses as she felt the film had too many sex jokes . Operation Petticoat was produced with extensive support of
488-685: A pier, Crandall accidentally fires a torpedo prematurely. It misses the tanker and instead "sinks" a truck ashore. Sherman tries to put the nurses ashore at Cebu , but an Army officer tells him the Japanese are closing in. Unable to obtain needed supplies from official sources, Sherman allows Holden to set up a casino to acquire them from the troops. Chief Torpedoman Molumphry, the Chief of the Boat, has been asking for paint. Holden manages to get some red and white lead primer paint , but does not have enough of either for
549-455: A predominant feature of the television shows Lost , Arrow , Phineas and Ferb , Orange Is the New Black , 13 Reasons Why , Elite and Quicksand . Many detective shows routinely use flashback in the last act to illustrate the detective's reconstruction of the culprit's plot, e.g. Murder, She Wrote , Banacek , Columbo . The television show Leverage uses a flashback at
610-402: A scrounger and fixer after Sherman makes him the supply officer. He teams up with Marine Sergeant Ramon Gallardo, an escaped prisoner (caught misappropriating Navy property to run his own restaurant), to obtain materials desperately needed for repairs. What Holden and his men cannot acquire from base warehouses, they steal. Restored to barely seaworthy condition, Sea Tiger puts to sea after
671-424: A way to explain his past. A gag in the episode "Doof Dynasty" notes that, when a character explains his or her past, their body ripples (referencing the "ripple effect" which starts a flashback in other media). The whole episode "Act Your Age" is a flash-forward of the characters as teenagers. Several other episodes also feature flashbacks of the main characters' ancestors who, as a running gag, always seem to look like
SECTION 10
#1732873656344732-414: Is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point in the story . Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story's primary sequence of events to fill in crucial backstory . In the opposite direction, a flashforward (or prolepsis) reveals events that will occur in the future. Both flashback and flashforward are used to cohere a story, develop
793-476: Is the first scene of La Jetée (1962). As we learn a few minutes later, what we are seeing in that scene is a flashback to the past, since the present of the film's diegesis is a time directly following World War III . However, as we learn at the very end of the film, that scene also doubles as a prolepsis, since the dying man the boy is seeing is, in fact, himself. In other words, he is proleptically seeing his own death. We thus have an analepsis and prolepsis in
854-538: Is the progenitor of the modern disaster epic in literature and film-making, where a single disaster intertwines the victims, whose lives are then explored by means of flashbacks of events leading up to the disaster. Analepsis is also used in Night by Elie Wiesel . If flashbacks are extensive and in chronological order, one can say that these form the present of the story, while the rest of the story consists of flash forwards. If flashbacks are presented in non-chronological order,
915-410: Is when they were leaving Portugal . The Harry Potter series employs a magical device called a Pensieve , which changes the nature of flashbacks from a mere narrative device to an event directly experienced by the characters, who are thus able to provide commentary. The creator of the flashback technique in cinema was Histoire d'un crime directed by Ferdinand Zecca in 1901. An early use of
976-603: The American Legion lobbied relentlessly for a trial, prompting the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to renew its investigation of Toguri's wartime activities. Her 1949 trial resulted in a conviction on one of eight counts of treason. In 1974, investigative journalists found that important witnesses had asserted that they were forced to lie during testimony. They stated that FBI and US occupation police had coached them for more than two months about what they should say on
1037-622: The Department of Defense and the US Navy. Most of the filming was done in and around Naval Station Key West, now the Truman Annex of Naval Air Station Key West , Florida, which substituted for the Philippines and Australia. Filming for the period suggesting postwar 1959 was done at Naval Station San Diego , California. USS Sea Tiger was portrayed by three different American World War II Balao -class submarines : The attacking destroyer and, during
1098-629: The 1960s and 1970s: Gavin MacLeod of The Love Boat and McHale's Navy , Marion Ross of Happy Days , and Dick Sargent of Bewitched . Paul King , Joseph Stone, Stanley Shapiro , and Maurice Richlin were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Writing for their work on Operation Petticoat . The film was the basis for a TV series in 1977 starring John Astin in Grant's role. In 1959, U. S. Navy Rear Admiral Matt Sherman, ComSubPac , boards
1159-614: The Black Pearl at the border of the Afterlife for fourteen long years. Some months later, flashbacks that are memories belonging to Jaken ("The Silver-Scale Curse") and Hachimon ("Battle of the Moon, Part 1") eventually come. In the Disney Channel series Phineas and Ferb , flashbacks and flash forwards often appear. In several episodes, the main antagonist Dr. Doofenshmirtz uses flashbacks as
1220-694: The Japanese Empire. In the years soon after the war, the character "Tokyo Rose" – whom the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) now avers to be "mythical" – became an important symbol of Japanese villainy for the United States . American cartoons, movies, and propaganda videos between 1945 and 1960 tend to portray her as sexualized, manipulative, and deadly to American interests in the South Pacific, particularly by revealing intelligence of American losses in radio broadcasts. Similar accusations concern
1281-424: The Japanese overrun the port. Believing there is no chance of repairing the submarine, the squadron commodore transfers most of Sherman's crew to other boats, but promises Sherman that he will have first call on any available replacements. Lieutenant (junior grade) Nick Holden, an admiral's aide, is reassigned to Sea Tiger despite a total lack of submarine training or experience. Holden demonstrates great skill as
SECTION 20
#17328736563441342-519: The Kanchenjunga (1962). Quentin Tarantino makes extensive use of the flashback and flashforward in many of his films. In Reservoir Dogs (1992), for example, scenes of the story present are intercut with various flashbacks to give each character's backstory and motivation additional context. In Pulp Fiction (1994), which uses a highly nonlinear narrative, traditional flashback is also used in
1403-573: The Phantom from a freak show. An extremely convoluted story may contain flashbacks within flashbacks within flashbacks, as in Six Degrees of Separation , Passage to Marseille , and The Locket . This technique is a hallmark of Kannada movie director Upendra . He has employed this technique in his movies – Om (1995), A (1998) and the futuristic flick Super (2010) – set in 2030 containing multiple flashbacks ranging from 2010 to 2015 depicting
1464-506: The arrival at Darwin, the destroyer visible in the background is the Fletcher -class destroyer USS Wren . A plot error says that Sea Tiger is heading to Darwin to meet up with the sub tender USS Bushnell in December 1941; Bushnell was not commissioned until 1943. As noted above, the fictional Sea Tiger is played by three different Balao -class submarines. The action of
1525-471: The arrival of Commander Nick Holden, his wife (the former Lieutenant Duran), and their two sons. Sherman promises Holden command of a new nuclear-powered submarine , also named Sea Tiger . Sherman's wife (the former Lieutenant Crandall) arrives late with their four daughters and rear-ends her husband's staff car, causing it to lock bumpers with a Navy bus. When the bus drives away, dragging his car with it, Sherman reassures his wife that it will be stopped at
1586-489: The daughter of Japanese immigrants, Toguri traveled to Japan to tend to a sick aunt just prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor . Unable to leave the country when war began with the United States, unable to stay with her aunt's family as an American citizen, and unable to receive any aid from her parents who were placed in internment camps in Arizona, Toguri eventually accepted a job as a part-time typist at Radio Tokyo (NHK). She
1647-410: The end of each episode to show how the protagonists successfully carried out their confidence trick on the episode's antagonist. The anime Inuyasha uses flashbacks that take one back half a century ago in the two-part episode "The Tragic Love Song of Destiny" in the sixth season narrated by the elderly younger sister of Lady Kikyo, Lady Kaede ; Episodes 147 and 148. In Princess Half-Demon ,
1708-528: The endless petty problems that vex Commander Grant". Operation Petticoat was a huge box office hit, earning over $ 9.3 million in theatrical rentals in the United States and Canada, which made it the third highest-grossing film of 1959 , the highest-domestic-grossing comedy of all-time up to that point, as well as the most financially successful film of Cary Grant's career. Through his contract, Grant's residuals topped $ 3 million, making Operation Petticoat his most profitable film to date. Operation Petticoat
1769-448: The entire hull. Sherman reluctantly has the two mixed together, resulting in a pale pink primer that is applied. A Japanese air raid forces a hasty departure before the crew can apply a top coat of navy gray. Tokyo Rose mocks the mysterious pink submarine, while the U.S. Navy believes it to be a Japanese deception and orders that it be sunk on sight. An American destroyer spots Sea Tiger and opens fire, then launches depth charges when
1830-467: The film begins on December 10, 1941, with Sea Tiger obviously already in-service; however, the first Balao -class submarine would not be launched until late October 1942. (Based on her name, Sea Tiger probably would have been a prewar Sargo -class submarine .) Some of the plot points of Operation Petticoat were based on real-life incidents, such as: Operation Petticoat was a hit with audiences and critics. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes ,
1891-521: The film has an approval rating of 81% based on 21 reviews, with an average score of 6.60/10. The review in Variety was typical: "Operation Petticoat has no more weight than a sackful of feathers, but it has a lot of laughs. Cary Grant and Tony Curtis are excellent, and the film is directed by Blake Edwards with a slam-bang pace". A much more restrained commentary came from Bosley Crowther of The New York Times , who noted in his December 8, 1959 review that
Operation Petticoat - Misplaced Pages Continue
1952-480: The film is told in flashback, with the scene of Liberty Valance's murder occurring as a flashback within that flashback. Other examples that contains flashbacks within flashbacks are the 1968 Japanese film Lone Wolf Isazo and 2004's The Phantom of the Opera , where almost the entire film (set in 1870) is told as a flashback from 1919 (in black-and-white ) and contains other flashbacks; for example, Madame Giry rescuing
2013-678: The flashback technique in cinema occurs throughout D.W. Griffith 's film, Hearts of the World (1918): for example, during the wall scene with the Boy at 1:33. Flashbacks were first employed during the sound era in Rouben Mamoulian 's 1931 film City Streets , but were rare until about 1939 when, in William Wyler 's Wuthering Heights as in Emily Brontë 's original novel, the housekeeper Ellen narrates
2074-405: The flashbacks take place years before the events of each series, there are also cases in which new scenes set during previous episodes are shown, such as Breaking Bad' s " Más " and " Ozymandias ," whose openings are set during the show's pilot . The final three episodes of Better Call Saul , set in the post- Breaking Bad timeline, also include flashbacks taking place both between and during
2135-404: The main characters with slight variations in clothing, but the exact same mannerisms and voices. ( Northern Exposure episode "Cicely" used a similar device, with the main cast playing unrelated characters of 84 years before, at the founding of the village.) Breaking Bad and its spinoff Better Call Saul frequently employ flashbacks, most often in the form of the cold open . While many of
2196-462: The main gate. Commander Holden then takes Sea Tiger out on her final voyage. Curtis took credit for the inception of Operation Petticoat . He had joined the U.S. Navy during World War II intending to enter the submarine service in part because his hero, Cary Grant, had appeared in Destination Tokyo (1943). After he became a star, Curtis suggested making a film in which Grant would stare into
2257-419: The main story to overnight visitor Mr. Lockwood, who has witnessed Heathcliff's frantic pursuit of what is apparently a ghost. More famously, also in 1939, Marcel Carné 's film Le Jour Se Lève is told almost entirely through flashback: the story starts with the murder of a man in a hotel. While the murderer, played by Jean Gabin , is surrounded by the police, several flashbacks tell the story of why he killed
2318-564: The man at the beginning of the film. One of the most famous examples of a flashback is in the Orson Welles ' film Citizen Kane (1941). The protagonist, Charles Foster Kane , dies at the beginning, uttering the word Rosebud . The remainder of the film is framed by a reporter's interviewing Kane's friends and associates, in a futile effort to discover what the word meant to Kane. As the interviews proceed, pieces of Kane's life unfold in flashback, but Welles' use of such unconventional flashbacks
2379-488: The men listened because the program had "good entertainment," and one G.I. remarked, "[l]ots of us thought she was on our side all along." After World War II ended in 1945, the U.S. military detained Toguri for a year before releasing her due to lack of evidence. Department of Justice officials agreed that her broadcasts were "innocuous". But when Toguri tried to return to the United States, an uproar ensued because Walter Winchell (a powerful broadcasting personality) and
2440-402: The most celebrated fictional use of contested multiple testimonies. Sometimes a flashback is inserted into a film even though there was none in the original source from which the film was adapted. The 1956 film version of Rodgers and Hammerstein 's stage musical Carousel used a flashback device which somewhat takes the impact away from a very dramatic plot development later in the film. This
2501-543: The murderer later reveals himself, he narrates his reasons for the murder in a series of flashbacks leading up to the discovery of her dead body at the beginning of the story. Flashbacks are also employed in several other Arabian Nights tales such as " Sinbad the Sailor " and " The City of Brass ". Analepsis was used extensively by author Ford Madox Ford , and by poet, author, historian and mythologist Robert Graves . The 1927 book The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder
Operation Petticoat - Misplaced Pages Continue
2562-498: The obsolete diesel submarine USS Sea Tiger , prior to her departure for the scrapyard . Sherman, her first commanding officer, begins reading his wartime personal logbook , and a flashback begins. On December 10, 1941, a Japanese air raid sinks Sea Tiger while she is docked at the Cavite Navy Yard in the Philippines. Lieutenant Commander Sherman and his crew begin repairs, hoping to sail for Darwin , Australia , before
2623-541: The ongoing spinoff to the anime stated above, the premiere takes us back eighteen years ago, five months since the conclusion of the original series' seventh season . Episode Fifteen "Farewell Under the Lunar Eclipse" is narrated by Riku that explains what had happened before and right after the Half-Demon Princesses were born; namely where Inuyasha and nineteen-year-old Kagome Higurashi had ended up, trapped within
2684-412: The plot device of women aboard a wartime submarine was strained. "And that is the obvious complication upon which are pointedly based at least 60 per cent of the witticisms and sight gags in the film. How to berth the nurses in the exceedingly limited space, how to explain to them the functioning of the bathroom facilities, how to compel the sailors to keep their well-diverted minds on their work — these are
2745-506: The propaganda broadcasts of Lord Haw-Haw and Axis Sally , and in 1949 the San Francisco Chronicle described Tokyo Rose as the " Mata Hari of radio". Tokyo Rose ceased to be merely a symbol during September 1945 when Iva Toguri D'Aquino , a Japanese-American disc jockey for a propagandist radio program, attempted to return to the United States. Toguri was accused of being the "real" Tokyo Rose, arrested, tried, and became
2806-516: The propaganda broadcasts of Tokyo Rose and then as a parody to entertain U.S. troops abroad. In U.S.-occupied Japan, his "Moshi, Moshi Ano-ne" jingle was sung to the tune of "London Bridge is Falling Down" and became so popular with Japanese children and G.I.s that the U.S. military's Stars and Stripes newspaper called it "the Japanese occupation theme song." In 1946, Elsa Maxwell referred to Kaner as "the breath of home to unknown thousands of our young men when they were lonely." Tokyo Rose has been
2867-401: The sequence titled "The Gold Watch". Other films, such as his two-part Kill Bill (Part I 2003, Part II 2004), also feature a narrative that bounces between present time and flashbacks. The television series Quantico , Kung Fu , Psych , How I Met Your Mother , Grounded for Life , Once Upon a Time , and I Didn't Do It use flashbacks in every episode. Flashbacks were also
2928-401: The seventh person in U.S. history to be convicted of treason . Toguri was eventually paroled from prison in 1956, but it was more than twenty years later that she received an official presidential pardon for her role in the war. Although she broadcast using the name "Orphan Ann", Iva Toguri has been known as "Tokyo Rose" since her return to the United States in 1945. An American citizen and
2989-458: The stand, and that they had been threatened with treason trials themselves if they did not cooperate. U.S. President Gerald Ford pardoned Toguri in 1977 based on these revelations and earlier issues with the indictment. Walter Kaner (May 5, 1920 – June 26, 2005) was a journalist and radio personality who broadcast using the name Tokyo Mose during and after World War II. Kaner broadcast on U.S. Army Radio, at first to offer comic rejoinders to
3050-591: The subject of songs, movies, and documentaries: The first registered rock group using the name Tokyo Rose was formed in the summer of 1980. They are most known for their video which tells the story of the war time Tokyo Rose. Tokyo Rose is also the name of an emo/pop band hailing from New Jersey. In 2019, Burnt Lemon Theatre brought the musical theatre production Tokyo Rose to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and New Diorama Theatre. An extended version toured in 2021 in several UK cities, accompanied by
3111-477: The submarine crash dives . Sherman tries an oil slick and then launches blankets, pillows, and life jackets from his one working torpedo tube, but the deception fails. At Holden's suggestion, Sherman ejects the nurses' lingerie. Crandall's bra convinces the destroyer's captain that "the Japanese have nothing like this", and he ceases fire. Sea Tiger , still painted pink, arrives at Darwin, battered and listing, but under her own power. Sherman's reminiscence ends with
SECTION 50
#17328736563443172-483: The territories occupied by the Japanese Empire , including Tokyo , Manila , and Shanghai . The name "Tokyo Rose" was never actually used by any Japanese broadcaster, but it first appeared in U.S. newspapers in the context of these radio programs during 1943. During the war, Tokyo Rose was not any one individual, but rather a group of largely unassociated women working for the same propagandist effort throughout
3233-522: The time at which the story takes place can be ambiguous: An example of such an occurrence is in Slaughterhouse-Five where the narrative jumps back and forth in time, so there is no actual present time line. Os Lusíadas is a story about a voyage of Vasco da Gama to India and back. The narration starts when they were arriving in Africa but it quickly flashes back to the beginning of the story which
3294-650: The two series' time frames. The 2D hand-drawn animated show Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (known as Tangled: The Series during its first season) began showing flashbacks set a quarter of a century ago in the Dark Kingdom, where the heavenly Moonstone resides within for hundreds of years in the second season's premiere "Beyond the Walls of Corona", "Rapunzel and the Great Tree" and the finale "Destinies Collide." Tokyo Rose Tokyo Rose (alternative spelling Tokio Rose )
3355-455: The very same scene. Occasionally, a story may contain a flashback within a flashback, with the earliest known example appearing in Jacques Feyder 's L'Atlantide . Little Annie Rooney (1925) contains a flashback scene in a Chinese laundry, with a flashback within that flashback in the corner of the screen. In John Ford 's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), the main action of
3416-406: The viewer that the action shown is a flashback or flashforward; for example, the edges of the picture may be deliberately blurred, photography may be jarring or choppy, or unusual coloration or sepia tone, or monochrome when most of the story is in full color, may be used. The scene may fade or dissolve, often with the camera focused on the face of the character and there is typically a voice-over by
3477-508: Was a name given by Allied troops in the South Pacific during World War II to all female English-speaking radio broadcasters of Japanese propaganda . The programs were broadcast in the South Pacific and North America to demoralize Allied forces abroad and their families at home by emphasizing troops' wartime difficulties and military losses. Several female broadcasters operated using different aliases and in different cities throughout
3538-586: Was adapted as an ABC-TV series which ran from September 17, 1977, to August 10, 1979. Initially starring John Astin in Grant's role of Lieutenant Commander Sherman, the TV series cast Tony Curtis' daughter, Jamie Lee Curtis , as Lieutenant Duran. Most of the cast was replaced for the show's second season, a decision that led to low ratings and cancellation. Only 32 episodes of the series (22 in season 1, 10 in season 2) were produced in total. Flashback (narrative) A flashback , more formally known as analepsis ,
3599-417: Was done because the plot of Carousel was then considered unusually strong for a film musical. In the film version of Camelot (1967), according to Alan Jay Lerner , a flashback was added not to soften the blow of a later plot development but because the stage show had been criticized for shifting too abruptly in tone from near-comedy to tragedy. In Billy Wilder 's film noir Double Indemnity (1944),
3660-459: Was quickly recruited as a broadcaster for the 75-minute propagandist program The Zero Hour , which consisted of skits, news reports, and popular American music. According to studies conducted during 1968, of the 94 men who were interviewed and who recalled listening to The Zero Hour while serving in the Pacific, 89% recognized it as "propaganda", and less than 10% felt "demoralized" by it. 84% of
3721-733: Was thought to have been influenced by William K. Howard 's The Power and the Glory . Lubitsch used a flashback in Heaven Can Wait (1943) which tells the story of Henry Van Cleve. Though usually used to clarify plot or backstory, flashbacks can also act as an unreliable narrator . The multiple and contradictory staged reconstructions of a crime in Errol Morris 's 1988 documentary The Thin Blue Line are presented as flashbacks based on divergent testimony. Akira Kurosawa 's 1950 Rashomon does this in
SECTION 60
#1732873656344#343656