How sad is this?

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

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.

Finally, a film were there's no Bing Crosby to steal Dorothy Lamour from Bob Hope in the last segment, as was the usual case in the famous "Road" series. Even in "The Princess and the Pauper", where Virginia Mayo substituted for Dorothy in a raucous farce, Bing showed up at the end to steal the fair damsel away from Hope. David Butler directed that film, as well as the present one. Bing's substitutes in this film: Eddie Bracken and Lynne Overman, were no substitute for the presence of Der Bingle as a foil for Hope, as well as a little singing and dancing. Hope's obstacles to marrying Dorothy included his own cowardice and incompetence, his persistent trickery, and the opposition of Dorothy's father, Colonel Fairbanks, unless he could qualify to be at least a corporal and show evidence of adequate bravery. During his basic training , he lived in fear that Col. Fairbanks would make good his threat to transfer him to another base, if he didn't stop pestering Dorothy, and start showing some competence as a potential soldier.Hope has frequent access to the Colonel's residence during his training, where Dorothy is also residing. We certainly have to wonder how he managed that, and why Dorothy put up with his repetitive bumbling and trickery to chose him as a potential husband. Must be that he is a famous movie actor when not in the army, despite his various phobias and clumsiness.In the beginning, the two things Hope most feared were being drafted and being suckered into a marriage to hopefully avoid being drafted. "That's like cutting your throat to cure laryngitis". Dorothy seemed to be an exception to his fear. Thus, he aggressively pursued marriage to her to hopefully avoid the draft. As you might expect, he ended up married, and in the army, as an involuntary volunteer, we might say.The film begins with Hope, among others, mired in a very muddy trench in WWI. This turns out to be a film shoot. Strangely, Hope is rattled by loud noises, even from a pistol shot, and faints at the sight of his blood. His first meeting with Dorothy and her father, on the movie set, is a disaster, as he mistakes her father for one of the actors, and sprays him with mud. Next, he lands in a gooey mud pit, totally immersed except for his eyes, exclaiming "Mami!", as if he was in blackface.Most of you will probably consider the segment where Hope has to drive a tank the most hilarious. Narrowly missing various disasters, he ends up grazing the side of the Colonel's car, knocking the door off its hinges, after having picked up a pretty nurse along the way... Hope fails miserably as a paratrooper and on the target range....Then, there's the segment where Hope is hiding and being chased around the base hospital. The last segment has Hope and buddies participating in a war game. They become heroes in averting a disaster, are promoted to corporal, and Hope is judged now to be fit to marry Dorothy.Unlike the "Road" series, there is no singing or dancing. Thus, this film totally relies on one liners and physical comedy for its interest Hope and Dorothy made another film during the war without Bing: "They Got Me Covered": a combination comedy and spy thriller, relating to the war. I haven't seen it.

Although very well written, I think the previous review of this relatively early Bob Hope picture is a little harsh. Perhaps it is written from a professional viewpoint.As an ordinary punter that happens to be a Bob Hope fan, there are more than enough good quips and comical situations here to keep me chuckling throughout.I would class this as a picture that is simply meant to be enjoyed, rather than dissected and analysed in intimate detail. In fact, good "old-fashioned" entertainment that will provide more than a fair share of laughs on a winter's afternoon.

Not even Bob Hope, escorted by a raft of fine character actors, can save this poorly written attempt at wartime comedy, as his patented timing has little which which to work. The plot involves a Hollywood film star named Don Bolton (Hope), and his attempt to evade military service at the beginning of World War II, followed by his enlistment by mistake in a confused attempt to court a colonel's daughter (Dorothy Lamour). Bolton's agent, played by Lynne Overman, and his assistant, portrayed by Eddie Bracken, enlist with him and the three are involved in various escapades regarding training exercises, filmed in the Malibu, California, hills. Paramount budgeted handsomely for this effort, employing some of its top specialists, but direction by the usually reliable David Butler was flaccid, and this must be attributed to a missing comedic element in the scenario. A shift toward the end of the film to create an opportunity for heroism by Bolton is still-born with poor stunt work and camera action in evidence. Oddly, Lynne Overman is given the best lines and this veteran master of the sneer does very well by them. Dorothy Lamour looks lovely and acts nicely, as well, and it is ever a delight to see and hear Clarence Kolb, as her father, whose voice is unique on screen or radio, but there is little they can do to save this film, cursed as it is with an error in script assignment.