Starring Cary Grant and Tony Curtis, Operation Petticoat tells the tale of a disabled submarine trying to make it safely to Australia from the Philippines in the opening weeks of WWII. Soon the sub takes aboard five stranded nurses, and, as Hollywood writers were wont to say, hilarity ensued. The film was marketed with the tag line "20,000 Laughs Under the Sea."

Operation Petticoat was the hit movie of 1959. After filming in Hollywood and Key West, it was quickly edited by director Blake Edwards and released in time to be the toast of the Christmas season. As befitting a studio film of its stature, the movie was part of the big Christmas show at Radio City Music Hall in New York, complete with the Rockettes and the Nativity tableaux, and played through the entire month of December.

Filming had taken place in Key West during the previous February, because when you need a location to substitute for the Philippines and Australia, you sure think Key West, Florida. The cast and crew moved into the Key Wester and Blue Marlin motels and stayed for about a month. With carte blanche from the U.S. Navy, filming was done primarily on the Key West Navy Base property and out to sea.

The Naval submarine USS Balao appeared as the destined-to-become-pink Sea Tiger. Naval personnel in Key West were encouraged to offer every assistance to the film company, even allowing the planes carrying the cast, crew and equipment to land three islands up at Boca Chica­ the Naval Air Station.