Petticoat Pirates

1961 British film by David MacDonald

T.J. Morrison
Lew Schwarz
Charlie Drake

Produced byGordon L.T. ScottStarring

Charlie Drake
Anne Heywood
Cecil Parker
John Turner

CinematographyGilbert TaylorEdited byAnn ChegwiddenMusic byDon Banks

Production
company

Associated British Picture Corporation

Distributed byWarner-Pathé Distributors

Release dates

30 November 1961 (1961-11-30) (London premiere)
19 December 1961 (1961-12-19) (general release)

Running time

87 minutesCountryUnited KingdomLanguageEnglish

Petticoat Pirates is a 1961 British comedy film directed by David MacDonald and starring Charlie Drake, Anne Heywood, Cecil Parker, John Turner and Thorley Walters.^[1] The film had its premiere on 30 November 1961 at the Warner Theatre in London's West End.

Plot

Wren Officer Anne Heywood and the 150 girls under her command are piqued. On the grounds that Wrens can do anything that men can do, at least as well or better, they demand the right to serve at sea in warships. When their request is turned down by the authorities they board a frigate, imprison the skeleton crew, and set off to sea, where they unintentionally become embroiled in a training exercise between British and US fleets...

Cast

Charlie Drake as Charlie
Anne Heywood as Chief Officer Anne Stevens
Cecil Parker as Commander-in-Chief
John Turner as Lieutenant Michael Pattinson
Thorley Walters as Captain Jerome Robertson
Maxine Audley as Mary, Superintendent
Eleanor Summerfield as Chief Wren Mabel Rawlins
Victor Maddern as Chief Petty Officer Nixon
Lionel Murton as Admiral
Barbara Hicks as Physical Training Instructress
Kenneth Fortescue as Paul Turner
Dilys Laye as Sue
Penny Newington as Elizabeth
Michael Ripper as Tug
Anton Rodgers as Alec
Murray Melvin as Kenneth
Angus Lennie as George
Tony Hilton as Pincher
Michael Henry as Jumper
Norman Chappell as Johnson
James Milner as Chips
Diane Aubrey as Gunnery officer
Daphne Jonason as Navigating Officer
James Villiers as English Lieutenant
Kim Tracy as Mess attendant
Jemma Hyde as Carole
Susan Castle as Mandy
Patricia Garwood as Wren in linen store
Aleta Morrison as Frog girl
Jacqueline Jones as Frog girl
Diana Potter as Frog girl
Priscilla Morgan as Wren on Mess Deck

Reception

Box office

According to Kinematograph Weekly the film was considered a "money maker" at the British box office in 1962.^[2]

Critical

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Two sequences, one involving Charlie Drake's activities in the boiler room, the other a nightmare in which he plays all the parts from prisoner to judge in a navy court-martial, have the berserk lunacy of some of Drake's television shows: the humour is crude but vigorous. The rest of the film is in the worst traditions of British farce – flat-footed, ineffectual and coy."^[3]

Leslie Halliwell called the film an: "uncertain comedy fantasy."^[4]

The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 1/5 stars, writing: "In his third tilt at movie stardom, TV comic Charlie Drake again finds himself up a well-known creek without a script. This time, however, he's only got himself to blame, as he co-wrote this woeful comedy, in which he plays a timid stoker ordered to disguise himself as a Wren in order to recover a battleship hijacked by a mutinous all-woman crew."^[5]

References

^ "Petticoat Pirates". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 26 April 2024.
^ Billings, Josh (13 December 1962). "Three British Films Head the General Releases". Kinematograph Weekly. p. 7. Retrieved 7 March 2023.
^ "Petticoat Pirates". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 29 (336): 13. 1 January 1962 – via ProQuest.
^ Halliwell, Leslie (1989). Halliwell's Film Guide (7th ed.). London: Paladin. p. 792. ISBN 0586088946.
^ Radio Times Guide to Films (18th ed.). London: Immediate Media Company. 2017. p. 716. ISBN 9780992936440.