Wednesday, May 28, 2014

The Love Submarine

Began a cloudy, cool day with more Bowery Boys. Slip and Sach are Trouble Makers when they see what they think is a murder through the window of a nearby hotel. When they and their buddy Officer Gabe Marino go to find the corpse, it's gone and there's no sign of any death. They go undercover at the hotel as bellboys to figure out what's going on.

It was still just cloudy and windy when I headed to the laundromat to get a rather big load done. The laundromat was busy with people hoping to avoid the rain we were supposed to be getting later today. I read Clarice Bean Spells Trouble and listened to Rachel Ray and the view. Things had slowed a bit by the time my stuff went in the drier, but it was picking up again as I left.

When I got home, I put everything away, made leftovers for lunch, then ran Operation Petticoat as I scrubbed the bathroom and hall floors, the only non-carpeted floors in the apartment. Unlike Mister Roberts, this 1959 war film is pure comedy. Cary Grant is the admiral in charge of the Sea Tiger, a dilapidated submarine that can barely get out of the Philippines in late 1941, much less attack anything. While his crew works feverishly to try to repair the leaky tub, the admiral is assigned pretty-boy officer Lieutenant Hoban (Tony Curtis) as his assistant. Turns out Hoban has several shady methods of getting necessary parts quickly. The admiral questions this at first, but he has to admit Hoban's odd (and illegal) methods work...until Hoban brings five nurses who were stranded on an island on board ship. The admiral isn't happy to have women in such close quarters, and a lot of the crew isn't, either. When Hoban's double-dealings brings even more people aboard and the ship ends up being painted pink, the Admiral has to do some double-dealing of his own to keep them going and get everyone - men and women - working together.

Basically a seagoing romantic comedy, this is a very different look at life during the early weeks of America's involvement in World War II. I thought it was cute but not all that great, although Grant was pretty funny as the Navy officer who just wants to see action in the Pacific, not women in his bunk. Your mileage may vary if you're a bigger fan of war films or romantic comedies than I am.

It poured while I was eating lunch. Thankfully, it slowed down enough for me to ride to work and only arrive a little damp. Work was pretty normal for the time of the month and year - steady when I arrived, busy during rush hour, dead later. I filled up the quieter time late in the evening shelving candy. It wasn't raining at all when I went home, and I don't think it's rained since.

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