odd usages in _Mister Roberts_

[Wilson Gray]

"Seventeen hundred fifty hours," rather. "1750" ("Seventeen fifty," I
assume) sounds like the English translation of the time as given on
German civilian radio. in the '60's.

-Wilson

On Tue, Jun 1, 2010 at 9:53 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      odd usages in _Mister Roberts_
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I noticed two very odd usages in the 1955 film _Mister Roberts_, screenplay
> by Frank S. Nugent and Joshua Logan.
>
> The writers have a Navy officer in 1945 casually referring to 5:50 p.m. as
> "eighteen hundred minus ten" instead of "seventeen fifty."
>
> And head nurse Lieut. Girard addresses her female staff as "Men!" Of course,
> this may just be a joke.
>
> Both the movie and the play which preceded it are based on the novel by
> Thomas Heggen (1918-1949).  Unlike Nugent and Logan, Heggen was a navy
> veteran of WWII.
>
> When the film came out, the NYT described the play as a "cherished work."
>
> JL
>
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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--
-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"––a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
–Mark Twain

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