The Iron Petticoat - Production

Production

The original screenplay "Not for Money" was written by Ben Hecht, from a story by producer Harry Saltzman, with Hepburn in mind to play the female lead, and Cary Grant playing opposite her. When Grant was unavailable, Hope stepped in, seeing the opportunity to get away from the U.S. at a time when a scandal was tarnishing his reputation as a family man. The film project marked the first time that he had worked outside the United States, and in the country of his birth.

There were concerns, however, that Hecht's script was unfinished, with Hope turning the script over to his own gag writers to tailor it to his style, as was his usual practice. Many of Hepburn's best scenes were cut, and the title was changed from "Not For Money". Hope had intended to change his role from a debonair leading man to that of his usual wise-cracking comic. Hepburn considered her pairing with a co-star steeped in comedy routines, as a "challenge".

Hope and Hepburn had a wary relationship during the production as she was aware that the film was being remade into a typical Hope comedy, leaving her aspirations to do a Garbo-like role nearly untenable. A difficult time in the U.K. was compounded by a worrisome eye infection, but Hepburn, who had made a commitment to the film due to the entreaties by good friend Robert Helpmann, played the "good trooper" and completed her obligations, athough for years that she would not talk about the film. Her later recollections of The Iron Petticoat were of an unlikely pairing of lead actors, trapped in the wrong roles. She recalled that Hope thought her sense of humour was basically "zilch."

The Iron Petticoat was released through Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the American market. Hope, whose company controlled U.S. rights as one of the film's producers, cut 12 minutes from the version released in the U.K. Hope's cutting prompted Hecht to take a full-page ad in The Hollywood Reporter accusing Hope of "blowtorching" Hepburn's role. Hecht's open letter in the film trade journals disclaimed the picture and offered Hepburn and her fans an apology. As Hecht told journalist Mike Wallace in a 1958 interview, "the movie was written for a lady, Miss Katharine Hepburn, and ended up instead as a role for the hero, Mr. Bob Hope. Miss Hepburn was removed from it by fifty percent. I got irritated and took my name off it – it had nothing to do with the movie I wrote." Hope replied with an open letter apologising that Hecht had a hit on his hands and hoped they would keep up corresponding in public; his ad was signed "Bob 'Blowtorch' Hope."

On the U.S. release, the film's credits ended up saying it was "Based on an Original Story by Harry Saltzman." Saltzman often joked that his first motion picture production was the only Bob Hope film that failed at the box office. The latest release by TCM, however, features a large screen credit: "Screenplay by Ben Hecht."

Production took place primarily at the Pinewood Studios but also utilised unique background locations such as Buckingham Palace and Piccadilly Circus, as well as air force bases in the U.K. Although the plot involved a defecting military officer and her aircraft, only a minimum of aircraft appeared in the production, with the use of a Republic F-84F Thunderstreak as a stand-in for the ubiquitous MiG-15 jet fighter, the staple of 1950s Iron Curtain air forces, including that of the Soviet Union. When Kovelenko's MiG is escorted into West German airspace, two USAF North American F-86D Sabres intercept it. A Douglas C-47 Skytrain (as its counterpart, the Soviet Lisunov Li-2) is used for the return to Russia, while a Boeing B-29 Superfortress and Avro Anson also appear, albeit mainly as backdrops.