The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz

Duddy Kravitz (Richard Dreyfuss) is a hustling young Jewish man living in a working class Montreal neighborhood. His older brother medical student Lenny is the favorite of his father Max (Jack Warden) and his rich uncle Benjy. His grandfather's mantra is "a man without land is nobody" and sees every man in the family including himself as failures. He works a summer job at a Jewish resort hotel. He falls for the French Canadian maid named Yvette (Micheline Lanctôt). The other waiters from McGill University led by Irwin look down on the lower class Duddy. While on a picnic with Yvette, he decides to buy the land around a beautiful lake and build his own hotel resort. She would need to front the deal since the owners would probably be unwilling to sell to a Jew.

Duddy is a money grubbing Jew character and he's somewhat annoying. His obsession is also understandable and fascinating. It's wrapped up with daddy issues. I don't root for his quest but it is still compelling. This is a nice slice of an era as well as an interesting coming of age story. The production is adequate and Dreyfuss delivers a good performance.

It's a post-World War II drama set in Montreal, Quebec, and the Laurentian Mountains in a predominately Jewish context. David "Duddy" Kravitz (Richard Dreyfuss) is a recent 19-year-old high school graduate. He is a fast-talking hustler, somewhat like his widowed father, Max (Jack Warden), who is a cab driver and occasional pimp. Duddy's older brother, Lenny (Alan Rosenthal), is in medical school with the help of Max's more successful brother, Benjy (Joseph Wiseman). Benjy has never had time for Duddy. However, Zaide (Zvee Scooler), Duddy's grandfather, has always been supportive. He tells Duddy that you are only someone if you own land.

The film follows Duddy's efforts to make money and become someone in a world that distrusts Jews. He has a French Canadian girlfriend, Yvette (Micheline Lanctôt), and hires an alcoholic filmmaker (Denholm Elliott). He tries to make money from a local gangster, Dingleman (Henry Ramer), who used to be friends with his father. Duddy also abuses the trust of a young, naive American, Virgil (Randy Quaid), whom he hires to transport pinball machines.

"The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz" contains much humor, focused on Duddy's chutzpah as he struggles two steps forward and falls one step back. Richard Dreyfuss plays the role brilliantly, and Lanctôt provides a good counterbalance. One wished to see more of Scooler. The remaining characters are less developed.

The script, also by Richler, is uneven. It has gaps and transitions that could have been smoother. The cinematography is good, particularly on the land that Duddy is pursuing.

This Canadian movie has aged quite well.

The younger son of a working-class Jewish family in Montreal, Duddy Kravitz (Richard Dreyfuss) yearns to make a name for himself in society..

We start with the idea: "A man without land is nobody." From there, we get to a surreal Bar Mitzvah film, a pinball business, assorted other ventures and possible scams... all so Duddy can buy up some farmland, which he does under another name because he thinks farmers will not sell to Jewish people (although this is not clearly explained).

"Duddy Kravitz" has an important place in Canadian film history because it was the most commercially successful Canadian film ever made at the time of its release, and has thus been described as a 'coming of age' for Canadian cinema. One wonders how things have changed, because it seems that today (2017) Vancouver is one of the most-filmed cities in the world.

"A little bit of Duddy Kravitz in everyone," so the poster tells us. Yeah, I guess you could say that, although it is exaggerated in the film to get the message across (either that, or I haven't met anyone like that yet.) Dreyfuss' character is believable, and so is his father. I would have to say the only wooden character in the whole film is that of Lenny, Duddy's brother. There is a good message to get from the film--if you watch it, you won't be disappointed.

I always wanted to see this film ever since it was released when I was in college, but just never got around to it. Just watched it now in 2018 and not disappointed. Dreyfuss really was the perfect Duddy Kravitz. Many of his subsequent roles had a "little bit of Duddy" in them. The viewer can both cheer for Duddy and also be repulsed by him, the mark of a good screenplay, script and actors. Warden, Wiseman and Lanctot lend realism to the tale and provide the other prisms through which to view Kravitz. Both a story and a character study it can be tough to watch, even if occasionally softened by touches of humor. By the end we're left to wonder if it was all worth it and we sense that Duddy is wondering the same thing.