MartinHafer In the 1950s, Hollywood tried making a couple films about Soviet female pilots who defect to the West. Both films starred big stars and both films are absolutely god-awful!! "Jet Pilot" was a thorough embarrassment for John Wayne and Janet Leigh and "The Iron Petticoat" was an embarrassment for Katharine Hepburn. As for Hepburn's co- star, Bob Hope, he essentially plays the same snappy sort of character he did in all his films and so the film was less of an embarrassment. Regardless, neither film should have ever been made and are absolutely terrible.This misguided and embarrassing film begins with a Russian jet (actually, an American F-84) arriving unannounced at a US airbase. Inside the plane is Major Kovelenko (Hepburn)--a pilot who claims to be defecting because she's sick of sexism in Russia. So, a dim- witted Colonel decides the best thing to do is assign her to a sexist American, Major Lockwood (Hope)...a guy who CONSTANTLY spouts one-liners as if he's standing up on stage. In fact, he almost NEVER talks like a human being. While this is dumb, Hope's inappropriateness is hardly noticeable since Hepburn is simply terrible. Her impression of a Russian officer is like one done in a high school play--with her shouting her lines and sounding, often, like a stilted version of Natasha from "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle"---though here in "The Iron Petticoat" she's a bit more cartoon-like! Sadly, it's not Hepburn's most inappropriate role-- that would probably be her playing a Chinese peasant in "The Dragon Seed". Nor is it her worst, as that would be "Spitfire"--a terrible film so awful you have to see it to believe it. A great actress, certainly, but clearly one who had a few misfires during her illustrious career.So is there anything good about the film? No. Hepburn is loud and shrill and ridiculous. Hope is simply going through the motions and offers nothing in his role that would make you think he's anything other than a vaudevillian. Neither are right for the film and the writing doesn't do anything to improve upon this.By the way, although this film is very bad, "Jet Pilot" actually manages to be worse! However, it is much, much funnier--which is sad, as "Jet Pilot" is not supposed to be a comedy and "The Iron Petticoat" is!

Lawson I was born too late to appreciate Bob Hope, since his talent showed mostly in presenting and stand-up. He has mostly left behind a less-than-stellar movie career, as evidenced by his highest rated movie (in IMDb) being The Muppet Movie, and even that's not nearly high enough to be in the Top 250. I enjoyed his Fancy Pants, but I have to say that was largely due to the presence of Lucille Ball.I am, however, a mad fan of Katharine Hepburn and eagerly devour all of her movies. But great as she is, she still has some clunkers in her repertoire, and unfortunately this is one of them.Egads, the Russian accent. I think that once she realized how bad it sounded (not for lack of trying), she just went all out to ham up the performance. There's chemistry between the two legends that are Hepburn and Hope, but the script lets them down, and the lines mostly fall flat. It doesn't even venture into camp, in which the movie's worth a watch just because you want to see Hepburn play Chinese (Dragon Seed) or a mountain girl (Spitfire). I would pretty much only recommend this for die-hard Hope or Hepburn enthusiasts (like me).

barrymn1 This is the notorious forgotten movie that Bob Hope and his gagwriters imposed many rewrites and ad-libs.So many that not only did Hepburn's get horribly reduced, but writer Ben Hecht demanded that his name be removed from the credits.He apparently took an ad out denouncing Hope's inappropriate take over.The movie seems to have disappeared from the face of the world making it certainly Hepburn's most obscure released movie.It's a shame since it's a reworking of Billy Wilder's screenplay "Ninotchka".I'd love to see it, but it's apparently one helluva stinker. Ooofta!

SanDiego Bland cold war comedy was a rare British effort for Hope who was teamed for the first (and last) time with Hepburn. Hope was coming off his best film ever (THE SEVEN LITTLE FOYS) so he was in his prime as an actor, but poor dialogue and little happening on screen gave him and his co-star little to do except react to each other. These two pros acted very well together but too fews laughs and no big ones (I begged for even the lamest of pratfalls) made for a murky and unrewarding effort. For die-hard fans of the stars only.