The Iron Petticoat (1956)

User Rating:

5.6/10   

Director:

Ralph Thomas

Writer:

Ben Hecht (screenplay)

Release Date:

7 January 1957 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

Bob and Kate...Simply Great

Plot:

Captain Vinka Kovelenko defects from Russia, but not for political reasons. She defects because she feels discriminated against as a woman...

Plot Keywords:

Russian | Capitalism | American | Aviatrix | Army

Cast

Bob Hope	...	Major Charles "Chuck" Lockwood
Katharine Hepburn	...	Captain Vinka Kovelenko
Noelle Middleton	...	Lady Connie Warburton-Watts
James Robertson Justice	...	Colonel Sklarnoff
Robert Helpmann	...	Ivan Kropotkin
David Kossoff	...	Dr. Anton Dubratz
Alan Gifford	...	Colonel Newt Tarbell
Nicholas Phipps	...	Tony Mallard
Paul Carpenter	...	Major Lewis
Sid James	...	Paul (as Sidney James)
Alexander Gauge	...	Senator Howley
Sandra Dorne	...	Tityana
Richard Wattis	...	Lingerie Clerk
Tutte Lemkow	...	Sutsiyawa
Olaf Pooley

Also Known As:

Not for Money

Runtime:

87 min | UK:106 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

UK:A (original rating) | UK:U | Italy:T | Australia:PG | Finland:K-12 | Sweden:Btl

Filming Locations:

Buckingham Palace, Westminster, London, England, UK

Company:

London Film Productions

Quotes:

Colonel Tarbell: It doesn't hurt to tantalize em'.
Major Chuck Lockwood: Tantalize an heiress? That's like not opening your parachute!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Harry Saltzman: Showman (2000) (V)

Dreadful nonsense that makes 87 minutes feel like 200

What was Hepburn thinking? This is a really poor film that goes nowhere and feels like it takes a long time doing it. Bob Hope relies, as ever, on the knowing side-glances but hasn't anything funny to say to justify them, whilst Hepburn spends the whole film doing a dreadful Russian accent to no purpose other than to annoy. It's a clumsy, stereotyped and frankly disturbing film that says much about the paranoia of the times. For the film's publicity to rave about the chemistry between Hepburn and Hope is laughable....their only chemistry is of the kind that brews sleeping potions.

Is there anything to salvage 87 minutes that feels like 200? Absolutely, the great Richard Wattis makes an appearance just as you are reaching for the remote. It's only a brief moment as he tries to sell sexy under-ware to Hepburn, but it's an oasis worth waiting for.

Bottom line....dreadful nonsense that never raises a smile