Dated but a movie made for its time and well worth seeing. Bob Hope is a lot of fun as an actor in the army whose main goal is to marry the Colonel’s daughter.
Don Barlow (Bob Hope) is a successful actor. He’s about to film a battle scene when his gun goes off. He can’t stand the noise. Visiting the set is Colonel Peter Fairbanks (Clarence Kolb) and his daughter Tony (Dorothy Lamour). Don comes on to her but doesn’t get anywhere. She accidentally knocks over a prop and Don falls into a trench filled with mud.
Back home Don’s reads in the paper about the coming draft for men ages 21-40. His valet Bert Sparks (Eddie Bracken) and his manager Steve Riggs (Lynne Overman) suggest he get married to avoid it. He decides Tony should be his bride. It’ll only be for a year.
After some maneuvering he starts dating her. Bert is driving while Don and Tony are in the back seat. He finally asks her to marry him. That’s when the announcement comes over the radio that the draft will be for men between 21-31. Don is thirty-two. He tries to back out of the proposal and Tony catches on and calls him yellow. She leaves.
Now he tries a scam involving a recruiting station. He tells Tony he’s enlisting and if she doesn’t believe him she can drive him to the station. The scam doesn’t go off as planned and he’s in the army. He gets assigned to the post run by Tony’s father. Bert and Steve are also enlisted with him.
Now the movie has a lot of the expected gags involving Don having to clean fish and peel potatoes. There are bits with him driving a tank, being a paratrooper etc. The Colonel told him he’ll approve his marrying Tony is he can become a Corporal. The Colonel doesn’t think he’ll make it.
There’s a long and funny bit in the post hospital and things wrap up with a mock battle. Funny stuff with good one liners along the way.
TV fans know Clarence Kolb as Mr.Honeywell, Vern Albright’s (Charlie Farrell) boss on “My Little Margie” (1952-55).
Clarence Kolb
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