Caught in the Draft is a 1941 comedy/war film with Bob Hope directed by David Butler.
Plot
Don Bolton (Hope), a vain movie star who fears being drafted into the military, suffers an aversion to loud noises -- even fake gunshots on the set. He therefore doubts he would last a day in training. On one occasion, Col. Peter Fairbanks (Clarence Kolb) visits the studio as technical consultant on a war film. He brings his beautiful daughter Tony (Dorothy Lamour) with him. Don plots to marry the colonel's daughter to avoid the draft. After proposing to her, however, he immediately learns that draft eligibility ends at age 31. So Don, who is 32, retracts his proposal. A disgusted Tony accuses him of cowardice.
A few weeks later, Don realizes he's in love with Tony after all. He wants to impress her, so he stages a fake enlistment. But everything backfires, and before he knows it, Don's in the Army, along with his assistant Bert (Eddie Bracken) and his manager Steve (Lynne Overman). At training camp, Col. Fairbanks is CO. He tells Don if he ever gets promoted to corporal, he can marry Tony. But Army life proves almost too much for the trio. Consequently, they endure lots of KP duty as punishment.
Later, when Don and his companions are transferred to a distant base, a camp war game is set up. During the "fighting," Bert alters the signposts in the field in order to help his team. But the result proves disastrous; the men on the opposing team now follow a route into a live artillery range. Don overcomes his fear of noise to rescue the men. He also saves Tony, who is observing the games while riding horseback. After this success, Don is promoted to corporal and is now free to marry Tony.
Cast
Bob Hope – Don Bolton
Dorothy Lamour – Antoinette 'Tony' Fairbanks
Lynne Overman – Steve Riggs
Eddie Bracken – Bert Sparks
Clarence Kolb – Col. Peter Fairbanks
Paul Hurst – Sgt. Burns
Ferike Boros – Yetta
Phyllis Ruth – Margie
Irving Bacon – Cogswell
Arthur Loft – Movie director
Edgar Dearing – Recruiting sergeant
Reception
The film was a big hit and became Paramount's second most successful release of 1941 after Louisiana Purchase, also starring Bob Hope.