Laikals The greatest movie ever made..!

ChanBot i must have seen a different film!!

Holstra Boring, long, and too preachy.

Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

SimonJack The U.S. wasn't at war yet when this film came out on July 4, 1941. But, the war in Europe had begun nearly two years earlier when Germany invaded Poland (September 1939). America soon began providing aid to England and it was only a matter of time before the U.S. would enter the fighting. Of course, no one knew how that would happen when in just five months the Japanese would bomb Pearl Harbor. So, what's this history got to do with "Caught in the Draft?" This film, and others like it were being made in Hollywood in anticipation of America's entry into the war. This is one of a handful of films that treated induction and enlistment in the Armed Forces with humor. Just six months earlier, Abbott and Costello's "Buck Privates" debuted. It poked fun at some of the training and Army life in boot camp, with Lou as a hilarious misfit. Others of theirs would follow with the boys in the Navy and the Army Air Corps (which would become the U.S. Air Force after WWII). This film with Bob Hope is an unusual comedy piece for him. Hope's trademark comedy developed around dialog and funny scenes. But here, he shows some zaniness of antics not unlike those of the Marx Brothers, or even the Three Stooges. Bob is not the bumbling fool or inept soldier that Costello and others portrayed. He has a head on his shoulders, and is cunning with an eye on the Colonel's daughter. Dorothy Lamour plays Tony Fairbanks, daughter of Col. Peter Fairbanks, played by Clarence Kolb. But Hope's Don Bolton has a couple of buddies whose miscues often wind him up in trouble. Lynne Overman plays Steve Riggs and Eddie Bracken plays Bert Sparks. Bolton goes through a series of situations and encounters that have funny mishap results. Aside from the KP duty and GIs standing watch, this film has little else that could be considered realistic about boot camp, training or the Army – even way back then. The incongruous things are part of what makes this film so funny. Bolton enters basic training and is able to get leave or take time to visit the Colonel's daughter on post. He becomes a driver in boot camp. He drives a tank in some very hilarious scenes. And he even goes up in an airplane to train for the new parachutist units. All of this is far-reached. No Army base had all of those types of units, nor did boot camp ever expose men to those fields. The American parachute forces were just being formed for training in the summer of 1941 at Ft. Benning, GA. But these various types of Army units and training for them are the basis of a wacky plot that is filled with humor. No doubt this and similar films helped prepare the public, and many men, for military service. And, the light and funny treatment of military training may have helped ease tensions and the apprehensions the public otherwise may have had about preparing for war. But today, many decades later, we can look at dated films like this and appreciate them for the time and culture they represented. And, we should also enjoy the comedy. It's a type that never becomes outdated. I enjoy this film more than any of the seven "Road" films that Hope and Bing Crosby made together, beginning in 1940 and into 1962. This is a nice look at Bob Hope's early film comedy that was refreshing and original, before the Road movies and other later films used the technique of the actors talking to the audience at times. I think modern audiences today should enjoy this film, and the kids should get a kick out of some of the funny antics.

Spikeopath 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

tedthomasson 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.

rsoonsa 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.