Caught in the Draft

Movie star Bob Hope is sensitive to loud noises—when shooting a war movie scene he expects the director to stage the battle silently and then put in the shooting sounds later. And so talk of the impending military draft soon has Bob and his agents Eddie Bracken and Lynne Overton discussing…marriage? Yes—avoiding the draft seems highly desirable, and a marriage deferment seems a likely strategy.

Alas, having fallen for a colonel's daughter, a best-laid scheme to fake his enlistment goes awry and he finds himself a private after all. The bulk of the picture follows Hope's efforts to adapt to army life—and his continuing efforts to woo the girl he had originally hoped to marry as a means to deferment.

Dorothy Lamour is quite lovely as the object of Hope's attentions; she's easy to root for as she tries to balance her affection for Bob with her loyalty to her military father, who understandably thinks Hope is an idiot. Clarence Kolb is excellent as the colonel—crusty and acerbic, he nevertheless displays love and grudging patience as well. Eddie Bracken is super as always as the buddy; Lynne Overman is good, too, as the agent who never quite forgets that Hope's safety is his own livelihood.

There's plenty of typical Hope humor—"Of course I'm not a coward. I'm just allergic to bullets"—mixed in with doses of real patriotism from Dorothy: "How do you know? You can be scared and still be a hero. You know, some of the bravest men have been scared to death going over the top. But they kept on going."

It would be a rare Hope movie without at least one winking reference signaling to the audience that we all know it's just a movie; here it's his comment when first glimpsing Lamour through a window: "Mmm, that's a bundle. She looks like Dorothy Lamour with clothes on."

No, it's not as riotously funny as Buck Privates or as wisecrack-packed as My Favorite Brunette, but it's nevertheless a very pleasant and solid little picture.

This is the first pairing of Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour without Bing Crosby. It is funny, but the comedy is better when Bing is part of the equation. The Army takes the place of Bing in this one, and the Army can be pretty funny at times. I like the gag that Hope cannot stand loud noises and is in the military. There were three great comedy teams during this time period; Laurel and Hardy (who were close to the end of the great run), Abbott and Costello (who were just beginning their great run) and Bob Hope and Bing Crosby with their wonderful road pictures). What made Bob Hope films at this time, different from the other two comedy teams was his dominance with one-liners; no one could match Hope with one-liners. The other two teams did better physical comedy, but the Hope films had better scripts and situations. Be sure to catch this one with the whole family for an hour of fun.

Back in the late 30s and early 40s, just about all the comedians and comedy teams made war films...and they were quite popular. Films like Abbott & Costello's "Buck Privates", Laurel & Hardy's "Great Guns" and Bob Hope's "Caught in the Draft" are just a few of the many films designed to encourage Americans to do the patriotic thing and enlist. And, with a few exceptions ("Great Guns"), the films were very enjoyable.

When "Caught in the Draft" begins, Don Bolton (Bob Hope) is a famous and very self-absorbed Hollywood star. He's also quite the coward. So when he learns that there is going to be a draft, he's worried he might be chosen and looks for a way out. And, his way out might be getting married. But his choice is odd...be wants to marry a woman who wants nothing to do with him AND is a colonel's daughter! Antoinette (Dorothy Lamour) sees right through Don and his schemes and instead of being honest, he just creates more and more complicated schemes...one which accidentally gets him to enlist in the Army...and guess who Don's commanding officer is? Along with Don are his lowly gofer (Eddie Bracken) and his agent (Lynne Overman--who is in his mid-50s!).

This film is very enjoyable...and perhaps more than "Buck Privates" because it does NOT have any singing! Clever and enjoyable from start to finish, though I wonder why at the end Eddie Bracken's character got a commendation? Watch the film and you'll understand what I mean.

I saw this movie when it was re-released as a supporting feature at a cinema here in Melbourne about 1951. Don't remember much about it, except the scene where the hero (Hope) loses control of a tank and runs it into the side of the colonel's Cadillac limo (it might have been a Chrysler) but the audience was appalled, as I was, because luxury cars like this were rarely seen here in those years. It wasn't faked either, as I recall. Can someone advise what the car was? I'm compiling a list of cars used in the movies. Apart from that I thought it was a quite passable comedy and I'm hoping it might come up on late-nite TV sometime as they have occasionally shown other Paramount movies of the era. TT.

Bob Hope plays a cowardly movie star who is afraid of being drafted. So he concocts a scheme to marry pretty Dorothy Lamour, in hopes of avoiding the draft. But general's daughter Dorothy figures him out and is disgusted by his cowardice. Having actually fallen for her, he comes up with another scheme to pretend to join the army to impress her, but it backfires and he finds himself actually enlisted. You can pretty much guess what will happen next. Decent WW2 comedy with the usual likable performances of Hope and Lamour. Eddie Bracken plays Bob's sidekick. It's a pleasant time-passer but nothing exceptional. It's fun to see Hope and Lamour in a movie without Bing Crosby. I kept expecting Bing to pop up and steal Dorothy away, as Bob rarely got the girl in their movies together.