Caddyshack - Wahnsinn ohne Handicap

CADDYSHACK could very well be the ultimate comedy.

The ultra-crass zillionaire (Rodney Dangerfield) is the perfect foil for the stiff, humorless, snobby Judge (Ted Knight). The sneaky, animatronic gopher is the perfect nemesis for the hopelessly inept, shell-shocked Assistant greenskeeper (Bill Murray).

The central theme of class warfare is represented by the working class caddies set against the backdrop of the exclusive golf course / club and its highbrow members. Young Danny Noonan (Michael O'Keefe) is vying for a college scholarship, and taking useless, pseudo-spiritual counsel from golf pro, Ty Webb (Chevy Chase). Don't worry, none of it is taken the least bit seriously. At all.

Memorable scenes abound, including the "Water Ballet" and "Baby Ruth bar incident" scenes at the pool. Of course, any scenes with Dangerfield, Knight, Murray, or Chase are hilarious classics!

Director Harold Ramis caught comic lightning in a bottle here! A comedic masterpiece from beginning to -explosive- end!

CADDYSHACK is on a very short list of movies that I will drop everything to watch!...

A big hit in its day, 'Caddyshack' was set in a more salubrious venue than your usual low comedy; being set among the country club set with a cast ranging from De Mille veteran Henry Wilcoxon to a cute young actress soon to swallowed up by television by the name of Cindy Morgan.

Cutest by far, however, was a cheeky little fellow with staring eyes and buck teeth listed in the credits as 'Chuck Rodent', who literally popped up throughout the story to provide a foil to Bill Murray as his would be nemesis as a spaced out groundsman "licensed to kill gophers by the government of the United Nations. A man free to kill gophers at will!"

Following the success of "National Lampoon's Animal House" a couple of years earlier Harold Ramis and Doug Kenney struck comedy gold a second time with this classic that once again pitted the slobs against the snobs.

The cast is dynamite. Chevy Chase was at the top of his game as zen golfer Ty Webb, Bill Murray was equally memorable as demented assistant greens-keeper Carl Spackler, the one and only Rodney Dangerfield basically played himself with predictably hilarious results and rounding it out was Ted Knight, who effortlessly oozed smarm.

The storyline is rambling but that doesn't matter much. It's the jokes and the interplay between the actors that fuels the movie. It was no surprise to learn that there was a lot of improvisation going on on the set. The sole scene shared by Chevy Chase & Bill Murray is sheer genius through and through. Still, a more coherent story would have benefited the film.

There is one thing I'm not crazy about, though, and that is the music. 'Songs by Kenny Loggins' doesn't have the same ring today as it did about thirty years ago. That being said, "I'm Alright" isn't bad. I do wish, however, that the filmmakers had gotten Elmer Bernstein to handle the music like he did for "Animal House".

In the end, I give the all-around edge to the precursor, "Animal House", but this one is a worthy successor. Too bad Doug Kenney didn't live to see the end of the year or we might have seen more comedies of this caliber during the '80s.

The film has some great moments and is possibly one of the most ad-libbed pictures of all time. Chevy Chase, in one of his first film roles, gives us a taste of his great comic turn in 'Fletch'(1985) with the off-beat portrayal of club pro Tye Webb. Chase is really untouchable when it comes to playing funny-straight characters. Bill Murray is hilarious as grounds keeper Carl Spackler. Murray has improvised just about all of his dialogue and it really is superb. His 'Cinderella Story' scene, followed by caddying for the Bishop in the thunder storm is one of the funniest things i've seen on screen.

Rodney Dangerfield is somewhat hit and miss. All of his dialogue is quick fire one-liners so the chances are that when he does crack a funny joke you'll be so busy laughing that you'll miss the next one. The funniest one in my book is his retort to caddy Tony D'Annunzio: 'Hey kid, when are you due back in boy's town?' For me Ted Knight steals the picture as Judge Smails. He is such an energetic over the top character. His constant put downs of grandson Spallding , 'You'll get nothing and like it!', and random acts of frustrated violence supplied constant entertainment.

The question is...why didn't the film just focus completely on these guys? Instead it kept on harping back to Danny Noonan. Michael O'Keefe is a fine actor but he was always going to struggle in a comedy which featured the above cast members and characters. Another handicap is that in a comedy he gets few comedic lines. His character's relationship with his girlfriend Maggie, played inexplicably with a terrible Irish accent, and with his own family are highly under developed. Cindy Morgan is also given an extremely under written character who's motives are never explained and who randomly comes in and out of the film. Harold Ramis's direction is at times sloppy and echoes his then inexperience. He did go on to do 'Groundhog Day'(1993) though so he obviously learned his lessons.

To sum up this is a good film to get you in the mood for the summer. Lots of beautiful weather covering some splendid golf course scenery. There are plenty of likable characters and some very funny set pieces. Its also interesting to see the launch pad for some of the 80s biggest comedic stars. But be warned if you don't like Chase, Murray or Dangerfield then don't waste your time on this. Along with Knight, the film really is their show. For further evidence to support the final sentence just look at the poster.

Ah, yes, Caddyshack. The king of low brow comedies. I remember working at my dad's San Leandro restaurant as a young jerk and loving the sound of the Kenny Loggins' "I'm Alright" theme song as they played Caddyshack on the big screen TV's in between sports games. That friggin' song made me wanna jump down and rock out, baby!

Caddyshack isn't so much a movie as it is an excuse for a bunch of one liners, gross outs, and stand-up comedy schtick. Chevy Chase, Bill Murray and Rodney Dangerfield were at their funniest in this movie.

In fact, this movie was made back when Chevy Chase WAS still funny. Remember those days? Man, was that a while ago. I read an article recently where a reporter asked Chevy, "What happened to your career?" And Chevy looked totally pained and wounded at that cruel question. Chevy's a great comic actor, he just needs to track down another decent script like the one in Caddyshack and get his comic chops back on track. But I dig everything about this film, the background music, the great comedy gags, the gopher, even the look of the ritzy, snob ridden country club setting! Freeze gopher!