Caught in the Draft

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.

Caught in the Draft finds Bob Hope as an egotistical movie star who may be subject to the draft so he's going to do the unthinkable, get married and get a deferment. But you'd think the last person he'd try that with is a daughter from a military family. Yet Hope pursues Dorothy Lamour in his usual wolfish Hope way, but the net result is he winds up still single and actually enlisting in the army when a Sting like con game backfires on him.

But I will say Hope has loyal friends, his agent Lynne Overman and general factotum Eddie Bracken also enlist. To say they don't exactly have the makings of Audie Murphy is to put it mildly. Still what they won't do for a pal. I know I didn't have friends like that back in the day.

Caught in the Draft has the usual run of service comedy situations and Hope while not as hopeless a soldier as Lou Costello, still he gets his usual laughs. It's a dated film in the sense we haven't had a draft in this country for almost 40 years, but I still think audiences can appreciate it today.

Look for good supporting performances by Clarence Kolb as Lamour's father and Hope's commanding officer and Paul Hurst as the eternal tough training sergeant.

Bob Hope starred as cowardly movie star Don Bolton. When he reads that the government is going to increase the military draft age to include 21-to-35 year olds, he panics at the prospect of being conscripted. He comes up with the idea of getting married, which at the time removed him from draft eligibility, and so he woos army brat Antoinette (Dorothy Lamour). In his haste to get her to marry him, he inadvertently signs up for the Army anyway. He and his pals (Eddie Bracken and Lynne Overman), who join up as well, try to survive basic training.

This agreeable-though-not-groundbreaking comedy ended up being one of the biggest hits of 1941. Hope is fun as the weasly Bolton, and Eddie Bracken is fun as his young assistant. Dorothy Lamour is beautiful, and when her character is first spotted by Hope's, he remarks, "She looks like Dorothy Lamour with clothes on." She has a few lines that were directed at the audience as much as Hope's character about how the military needs soldiers even during peacetime, since no one knows how long that peace will last. The movie premiered about five months before the attack on Pearl Harbor.

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.

Caught in the Draft is directed by David Butler and written by Wilkie C. Mahoney and Harry Tugend. It stars Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, Lynne Overman, Eddie Bracken and Clarence Kolb. Music is by Victor Young and cinematography by Karl Struss.

It's an old saying, but comedy "is" very subjective, something that makes recommending or writing reviews about comedy films troublesome. Bob Hope movies are a mixed bunch, suffice to say that for every fan prepared to stand up and say that "such and such" is a great and funny Hope movie, another will say it's a lame effort. Caught in the Draft, to my Hope fan mind, is one of his best films. The "forces comedy" has many entries in the cinema drawer, from Bud and Lou to Martin & Lewis, and into the modern era with Stripes et al, it's a well farmed premise. Caught in the Draft, however, is up with the best of them.

Film finds Hope as Don Bolton, a movie star who is so cowardly he can't even stand loud noises. To dodge the draft, he plots to marry Dorothy Lamour's Antoinette 'Tony' Fairbanks, who happens to be a Colonel's daughter. But sure enough, Don and his two crony side-kicks enlist by mistake. Cue mishaps and chaos during basic training. Don's incentive is that if he by some miracle achieves the rank of Corporal, then the Colonel will let him stay on base and continue his relationship with Antoinette.

It was tailored as an ensemble piece, with Bracken etc slotted in alongside Hope as the big sell, but Hope, as his subsequent career bares out, didn't need help because he dominates the comedy and steals every scene he is in. And this in spite of Bracken, Overman and Kolb also doing fine work as well. The gag quota is high, visually and orally, a one liner or a brisk set piece is never far away, and Lamour continues to be the perfect lady foil for Hope's ebullient japery. Whether it's the cowardly comedy antics or fluke bravado, it's a film showcasing the best of Bob Hope and a character persona that served him so well over the years. If only for a tank sequence this deserves a chance to lift your blues, as it is, it's all good, even now, never mind in 1941! 8/10