It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Admirable film.

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

An hilarious comedy with a much higher gag quota than I was expecting.Very little actually happens in terms of the plot: they repair the sub, they pick up some women en route to another port where they make further repairs, escape from an air raid and fall foul of an American destroyer in the final minutes. But it's the dialogue that matters, and the interplay between Cary Grant and Tony Curtis, the men and the women. These dynamics prove fertile comedy ground, and are mined for everything they're worth without ever overdoing it or becoming silly.The film looks fantastic. One of those where the full weight of military cooperation is evident on the screen, with planes flying low overhead, naval destroyers dropping dozens of depth charges in the spectacular climax, and an unexpected level of detail in some of the external shots of the sub. The resultant location shooting means the film is a lot less studio-bound than similar films of the era. Talking of the sub, I don't know if the interiors were shot on a real sub - I doubt there'd be room - but it feels very authentic and realistic.Most of the best material stems from Curtis' attempts to procure supplies for the sub, with the best scene in the film being the theft of a pig and the ensuing cover up. It's a riotous few minutes and as funny as anything I've seen in a film made in the '50s.

The message Cary Grant, in complete frustration at red tape, requisitions toilet paper for the Sea Tiger is almost word for word from an actual sardonically-toned requisition from a USS sub commander in WWII to HQ (CINCPAC). I don't have the book nearby, but in "Submarine", Commander Edward L. Beach (of "Run Silent, Run Deep" fame) recounts the famous incident.After this Skipper's message was received, he got his toilet paper. More than he may have expected. Every time thereafter that his sub returned to Pearl Harbor from patrol, instead of the mounds of meat, fruit, and ice cream that greeted the sequestered crews of other returning subs at the dock, there were disappointingly only mounds of rolls of toilet paper.Some viewers may see a double entendre in the context of the film where ladies are aboard on a pink submarine. Edwards and Blatty probably were also aware of this because sexual innuendoes abound in the film - and might I say in good taste - although in their other later collaborations, the taste may have gotten lost on a few occasions.But, do appreciate that an older USS sub (SS-23? 22? 21? 20? etc...) undergoing retrofit in the US Navy around December 1941 in the South Pacific did have a rust colored primer coat applied to it prior to its final coat of gray. However, after Pearl Harbor, the finishing gray paint became unavailable or the sub had no time to have the finishing coat applied, and had to enter war service with only its primer coat. Because of the rusty color of the primer, it often looked pink, especially in grand Pacific sunsets. Therefore, you actually had a US sub on patrol in the early days of WWII that was, in effect, pink.Blake Edwards also knew the Navy because he served in it during WWII. The characters, Sherman and Holden, Cary Grant and Tony Curtis respectively, might just be akin to Edwards' alter egos since Blake was in the fight as a swab jockey.Extra stuff: Crews on USS subs were "hand-picked" for their advanced aptitude in engineering and mechanics. Collectively, on one US sub in WWII, you probably had quite a few geniuses in service. Each man could operate any function on the boat should one have become incapacitated. They CYA'd very well. "Pig Boats" is another great book to learn of the US Silent Service during WWII."Through Hell and Deep Water" recounts the contributions of a Texas-bred submarine skipper to the Pacific campaign. Sam Dealey was renowned for his "down the throat" torpedo kills of Japanese destroyers, a major plot point in the film version of "Run Silent, Run Deep".Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas was named after the family from which Sam Dealey was a member. Unfortunately, the main legacy of the name Dealey now relates to the location of the assassination of an American President, not to Sam's Silent Service.At highest rank an XO on the first "Trigger", Beach's sub was also retroactively fitted with an ice cream maker by some of its crew. In those years, ice cream was a most cherished commodity in American society.A strange phenomenon would actually occur to some US crews of sunken vessels and left adrift for days asea. After their boats had been sunk, having been drifting in the merciless sun of the Pacific, air-blasted with sea salt, and suffering from hypothermia in Pacific warm waters still lower than their own body temperature, some sailors would begin hallucinating of mirages of islands made of ice cream, and set a swimming course to them. Some of their less-affected, but still exhausted, mates would try to stop them, but weakness prevented any action. These young sailors would swim to the mirage of ice cream, and eventually disappeared with it.

I have read this film called "fluff" with which I can most certainly not agree. I first saw in in first run forty seven years ago and it remains just as fresh and delightful today after many more viewings. Tony Curtis is at his very best in this picture as a shore-side con man reassigned to sea duty aboard the USS Sea Tiger in the opening days of WWII. Suave Cary Grant is as always flawless in his performance as the captain of the badly damaged sub, trying to keep it in the war with bailing wire and sealing wax. Edwards uses tight camera shots, well cut to maintain the illusion of the claustrophobic conditions of the sub, and witty dialog to keep the plot rolling. The chemistry between the principals and the supporting cast make this one of the best ever. That Edwars would go on to many other comedy triumphs is not at all surprising after seeing this film. I must see for anyone with a funny bone.

We all live in a pink submarine, a pink submarine...The Beatles song about a yellow submarine is more entertaining than this lame comedy. There are zero laughs until the women get on board about a third of the way through the film and after that there are a few chuckles here and there. Grant and Curtis seem to be trying but they get no help from the script or from Edwards, directing one of his earliest films. It is fun trying to pick out future TV stars like Dick Sargent, Gavin McLeod, and Marion Ross. In fact, an episode of "Bewitched," "Mary Tyler Moore Show," or "Happy Days" has a lot more laughs than this film, which goes on way too long at two hours.