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.

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.

Members of the cast include several actors who went on to become television stars in 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 the obsolete diesel submarine USS Sea Tiger, prior to her departure for the scrapyard.

Lieutenant (junior grade) Nick Holden, an admiral's aide, is reassigned to Sea Tiger despite a total lack of submarine training or experience.

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.

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.

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.

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).

[11] A much more restrained commentary came from Bosley Crowther of The New York Times, who noted in his December 8, 1959 review that the plot device of women aboard a wartime submarine was strained.

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 the endless petty problems that vex Commander Grant".