Perhaps it is a contentious idea, but war is good for producing two kinds of art: devastating realist tragedy and outrageous absurdist comedy, the former being more immediate while the latter is more commonly found after some time has elapsed. In some rare cases, a comedy about war will be produced during the peak of a specific conflict, done for the express purpose of giving viewers something pleasant and entertaining in an otherwise challenging or uncertain time. The concept behind The Iron Petticoat (which is one of the great film titles of the era) is straightforward since it tells the story of a Russian fighter pilot who grows weary of the male-dominated profession into which she has entered and decides to defect to the other side of the conflict, which means that a down-on-his-luck American officer is given the task of “softening her up” in the hopes that she will abandon her fondness for Communism and fully surrender to the charms of living under a free market economy, the true American Dream at which she has previously scoffed. Written by the brilliant Ben Hecht, who was behind some of the greatest comedies of the era (including the timeless classic The Front Page, one of the funniest plays ever written, and one that has been understandably adapted countless times) and directed by the reliable Ralph Thomas, The Iron Petticoat is a wickedly entertaining and often quite charming romantic comedy that manages to be both thought-provoking and hilarious in equal measure, which it accomplishes through a strong approach to tricky subject matter that the director navigates with incredible skill, turning a relatively straightforward premise into one of the more delightful films of its era.

As in any era of mainstream filmmaking, a director could get away with the most inane and redundant of concepts if they simply managed to pair up two incredibly popular actors, since casting was often half the effort when it came to these mid-level comedies produced around this time. Audiences weren’t scrambling to see The Iron Petticoat for its subversive and unique depiction of the Cold War, but rather were interested in the pairing of Bob Hope and Katharine Hepburn, two of the most beloved and bankable stars of the era, in what was their first and only collaboration. A film like this can very easily sustain itself entirely on the strength of its central performers, especially when they are wonderfully gifted as Hepburn and Hope, who prove to be a formidable pairing. Hepburn is the main attraction, at least in hindsight – we live in an era where she is considered one of the most uniquely gifted actors of her generation, and a talented comedian who could deliver knockout performances with seemingly very little difficulty. There are some peculiar choices she makes in this film – her accent is atrocious in a way that is quite endearing, and she also makes a rare return to androgyny for the first time since Sylvia Scarlett, which drew on her gamin, ambigious appearance, which also serves her tremendously here. Hope can match her almost beat-for-beat, and while his style of humour is understandably not all that resonant, perhaps even being considered somewhat out-of-date, he proves to be a strong companion for Hepburn, oddly taking on the part of the straight-man and allowing his co-star to take the lion’s share of eccentricity. Their work together is terrific – they may not be as natural on screen with one another as they were with others (it doesn’t help that most of their comedic work was done in conjunction with another actor who defined their partnership), but they still deliver terrific, layered work that is oddly much better than it ought to be in retrospect.

Any American film produced in the 1950s with even a vaguely political narrative (or even the most ambigious of references) is immediately going to evoke discussion around the Red Scare and how the entire country was enveloped by the fear of Communism, which was viewed as an encroaching, dangerous political disease ready to corrupt ordinary American civilians into this seemingly perverse and anarchic system. To prevent the growth of such a regime, a lot of art was produced to combat any sense of logic being applied to Communist ideology, in the hopes that audiences would be repelled from even considering opening their minds to such ideas. Mercifully, The Iron Petticoat managed to avoid some of these heavy-handed ideas through the simple fact that it was produced in the United Kingdom, which was not exactly receptive to the deceptive charms of the Soviet Union but was also not quite as nervous about the spread of an opposing political belief, or at least not to the extent that we saw across the pond. Hecht, who was always ahead of his time, writes a compelling story that takes the form of an unconventional Romeo and Juliet narrative, where two military officers find themselves falling in love against all odds, and coming to terms with the other’s political beliefs, finding common ground between them that facilitates their growing romance. The politics here are undeniably quite inconsistent and not always accurate, but considering how it was produced at quite a peculiar time in global history, one where the Second World War had only been over for about a decade, and the Cold War continued to impact worldwide politics and culture, the way Thomas and his collaborators work to create a film that is this bold and unquestionably compelling is certainly very impressive in ways that can be viewed as almost ingenious, should we look at it from a more nuanced perspective.

However, once we set aside the politics of the film (which was not all that invested in offering the most ironclad definition of these political ideologies), we find that the reason The Iron Petticoat works so well is because of its simplicity in terms of structure. Beneath the surface, this is the story of two star-crossed lovers who find themselves feeling the burden of forbidden romance due to their different backgrounds, which leads to a lot of hilarious moments. However, it should be noted that this is not the waif-life romantic comedy in which the two leads are hopelessly in love to the point where the story lacks precision. The film becomes less about the romance and more an outrageous comedy-of-manners that can essentially be reduced to being one of the many films centring on the battle of the sexes, this time the term being quite literal, insofar as the story is set to the backdrop of a genuine war. The layers of differences that inform this film are very clear – not only does it revolve around the differences between men and women, but there are many cultural variances woven into the narrative, and the fact that this is a British production focused on the interactions between an American and a Russian brings a level of multiculturalism to the comedy, which is enriched by the genuine, earnest attention to detail that comes with this already very funny premise. Seeing these actors bounce off one another while Thomas crafts an off-the-wall exploration of the differences that exist between these people makes for a suitably entertaining romp and one that understands exactly what it was required to be based on the overarching material and how it was masterfully executed without needing to promise anything particularly ambitious or bespoke to audiences who simply wanted something passable in terms of a narrative.

The Iron Petticoat is far from the most complex comedy, but it has a lot of merit. It may sometimes veer towards being overly obvious in terms of the plot and how it all progresses, but very few of us would go into this film expecting the most complex, hard-hitting satire of wartime conditions and the political ideologies that divided the world for most of the 20th century. Instead, we got exactly what we expected – a quaint, charming comedy-of-manners anchored by two terrific performances by some of the most popular actors working at the time, who turn in strong work that is very much within their wheelhouse, but still offer a lot unique insights that drive this film forward and create something memorable. As a piece of filmmaking, The Iron Petticoat is certainly a lot of fun – it never takes itself too seriously, and even at its more thrill-inducing and historically complex, it still maintains some sense of enchantment and delight, choosing to be entertaining long before its accurate, which is something we often saw with these films around this time. Hilarious and irreverent, but with a lot of heart accompanying the wacky narrative, Hecht’s sharp screenplay has been turned into a delightful and eccentric wartime comedy that proposes a thorough glimpse into the rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union, but instead becomes a fascinating glimpse into the perpetual battle of the sexes that was a popular subject at the time, and the source of so many enjoyable, bitingly funny satires that don’t take themselves all that seriously, and instead exist merely to be thoroughly and wholeheartedly entertaining in some way or another.