The Caddy

The Caddy is a Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis comedy film. It's directed by Norman Taurog and also stars Donna Reed & Barbara Bates. Also featured in the story are some leading professional golfers of the time.

Middle tier Martin & Lewis movie that sticks rigidly to the formula that made them so popular. Jerry causes mayhem but always endears in doing so, while Dean croons and catches the eye of the ladies. Plot is told in flashback as the popular duo, now big musical hall stars, shows how they got together courtesy of golf. Cue some goofing around on golf courses and chaos unbound as Jerry upsets the upper class toffs of society. Cue carnage in a department store and chaos on the golf course.

Dean sings the Oscar nominated "That's Amore," as well as "It's A Whistle In," "Kinda Mornin," "One Big Love" & "What Wouldcha Do Without Me?" Reed and Bates are pretty and adorable, and both play off of the boys with ease. All of which builds to a fun double-take ending to seal the deal as The Caddy reaching its par on the course of Martin & Lewis movies. 7/10

"The Caddy" is one of more than a dozen comedy films that Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis made together. Their pairing made them both famous in films. This has the usual mayhem that Jerry's Harvey Miller causes or gets into. In one scene in the department store in which he works, he trips, slides, rolls on a coaster table, and clumsily stumbles around and smashes numerous merchandise displays. This scenario includes toppling and breaking several shelves of chinaware and dishes (no doubt, this was not expensive stuff for props). This could very well have established some sort of record for breakage in a comedy film.

Dean sings a few songs, including the debut of a song that would be a major hit and become his signature song for years, "That's Amore." Harry Warren wrote the music and Jack Brooks wrote the lyrics for the song specifically for this film. The song was nominated for a 1953 academy award. Although it didn't win, it was a smash hit with audiences and rose to No. 2 on the Billboard charts that year.

As the title alludes, the film centers a lot around the sport of golf. Jerry gets in some of the best humor there. With legendary golfers Ben Hogan and Sam Snead, there's also some very good golf shots.

This isn't the best of their pairings, but it will entertain folks who like this sort of comedy. I don't recall thinking Jerry was that funny when I watched his films as a kid and later on TV. His later solo movies, when he wasn't such a loud, complaining goofball, had more spontaneous humor, I thought.

Anyway, fans of the two will enjoy this film, and maybe some in the younger audiences will still find it quite funny. Golfers will enjoy seeing the famous pros on the course with the Dean and Jerry.

Harvey Miller Jr. (Jerry Lewis) and Joe Anthony (Dean Martin) are two golfers and later Harvey becomes the caddy of Joe. But after causing a chaos at the big tournament their career as golfers is over and soon they find themselves from the world of entertainment.The Caddy (1953) is a great comedy from Norman Taurog. It features the funny man and the king of comedy Jerry Lewis and the straight man Dean Martin. It also has Donna Reed as Kathy Taylor. You can remember this amazing actress from It's a Wonderful Life and other classics. Martin and Lewis were just amazing together. Dean charmed the ladies and took care of singing and Jerry's job was to be the clown and make people laugh. Those were the good times.In 1956 Lewis and Martin sadly broke up but they did just great on their own. Martin lived in the years 1917-1995. Lewis is 77 years old today. He hasn't been working so much lately but last month he did a voice for a character in The Simpsons. I've been a big fan of this comedian for five years, since they showed Lewis movies on TV in the summer of 1998. Thanks for the laughs, Jerry Lewis! But now back to this movie. The Caddy is a movie that offers you lots of laughs and also some great songs, like That's Amore. It's been 50 years since this movie was made but Jerry Lewis movies don't age. They only get better with time.

When Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis split up in 1956, the consensus was that Jerry's comic talents would sustain his career, but that Dino would have a rough going. Well the consensus only had that half right. Most critics did focus on Jerry's talents, Dean was the straight man who sang a nice song occasionally.

But of all their joint films, The Caddy is best remembered for Dean's singing of That's Amore. The Harry Warren-Jack Brooks song sold a lot of records for Dean, putting him on something of an equal footing with his partner. It was nominated for an Oscar that year and until ten years or so later when Dino revived a song called Everybody Loves Somebody and made it his theme, That's Amore became the song most identified with the man from Steubenville, Ohio.

Of course Jerry has his moments in The Caddy, clowning with the various golfers who made cameo appearances here, doing a comic obligato after Dean sings That's Amore and a number called The Gay Continental. But That's Amore made this of all their films, Dean's triumph.

In fact Dino had another great reason to enjoy this film. Though not as publicized in fact he was as passionate about the game of golf as that other noted singer on the Paramount payroll, Bing Crosby. If he wasn't involved in any of the scenes on a given day, you would find Martin on the links invariably.

The plot such as it is involves Jerry Lewis as the son of a noted golf pro who also has an extreme case of stage fright. Jerry is engaged to Barbara Bates who is Dean's sister. Both come from an Italian fishing family. Father Joseph Calleia is a commercial fisherman and mother Argentina Brunetti runs a restaurant, specializing in seafood and pasta.

Jerry agrees to coach Dean and be his caddy. A lot of money can be made from professional golf although Calleia doesn't believe it. If this story sounds familiar that was the attitude of the patriarch of another San Francisco Italian fishing family named DiMaggio when three of their sons opted for careers in baseball. I guess Joe and his brothers Vince and Dom must have been flattered because they didn't sue Paramount.

Donna Reed plays the socialite sponsor of golf tournaments who falls big time for Dean. And Jerry gets to have another straight man in this film in the person of Clinton Sundberg, Reed's snooty butler. In fact Jerry gets even another substitute straight man in Fred Clark who is his and Bates's boss at the job they have at a department store. Although to be fair, Lewis rehashed some material here the Marx Brothers originally used in The Big Store.

The Caddy is one of the Martin-Lewis teams best and funniest comedies and if that don't get you, That's Amore will.

I love Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin, and this film had to be one of the funniest, aside from Sailor Beware. Martin and Lewis have a great chemistry that is so much fun to watch. I haven't seen all their movies yet, but after seeing The Caddy, I'll have to see them all! You have to see this movie.