“Splurching” the Military: The Ideological Uses of Slapstick in Blake Edwards’s Operation Petticoat and What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?

The crew of a pink submarine during World War II desperately trying to escape the Japanese and a platoon of Americans trying to capture a strategic Sicilian village from its residents who just want to have a party: these two scenarios are the core plots of films directed by Blake Edwards. The former is Operation Petticoat (1959) and the latter is What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? (1966). Service comedies in particular may have an intrinsically subversive impact on the subject of their humor so that over the course of time and under repeated attack that subject has its authority weakened, and slapstick may be a particularly effective means of undermining military authority. In both films, the image of the military authority is carried by the main character, and he becomes the subject Edwards’ slapstick gags. In Operation Petticoat, slapstick is ideologically deployed to demonstrate the sub’s commander’s competence to overcome obstacles to fulfill his mission. But in What Did You Do, the whole chain of command becomes the subject of slapstick, and ideologically Edwards questions the use of military power: the village was captured by negotiation and compromise not by force.