Caught in the Draft

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.