| The Iron Petticoat | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Ralph Thomas |
| Written by | Ben Hecht |
| Produced by | Betty E. Box executive Harry Saltzman (uncredited) |
| Starring | Bob Hope Katharine Hepburn Noelle Middleton James Robertson Justice Robert Helpmann |
| Cinematography | Ernest Steward |
| Edited by | Frederick Wilson |
| Music by | Benjamin Frankel |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 94 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $509,000[1] |
| Box office | $1,385,000[1][2] |
The Iron Petticoat (also known as Not for Money) is a 1956 British Cold War comedy film starring Bob Hope and Katharine Hepburn, and directed by Ralph Thomas. The screenplay by Ben Hecht became the focus of a contentious history behind the production, and led to the film's eventual suppression by Hope. Hecht had been part of the screenwriting team on the similarly themed Comrade X (1940).
Hepburn plays a Soviet military pilot who lands in West Germany and, after sampling life in the West in the company of Hope's Major Chuck Lockwood, is converted to capitalism. Subplots involve Lockwood trying to marry a member of the British upper class and communist agents trying to coerce Hepburn's character to return to the Soviet Union.
The main story borrows heavily from Ernst Lubitsch's Ninotchka (1939), starring Greta Garbo, and very closely resembles Josef von Sternberg's Jet Pilot with Janet Leigh as the Russian pilot and John Wayne as the US Air Force officer. Jet Pilot, inspired by real-life Cold War pilot defections, completed principal photography in 1950 but was not released until 1957, after The Iron Petticoat.[3]
- ^ a b "The Eddie Mannix Ledger". Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study (Los Angeles).
- ^ Domestic take: See "Top Grosses of 1957". Variety, 8 January 1958, p. 30.
- ^ "Notes: 'Jet Pilot'." Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved: 29 March 2015.