The Caddy

How can you go wrong with Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin, Donna Reed and Ben Hogan all in the same film?! The funniest of the Martin-Lewis pairings, with real-life players Sam Snead and Julius Boros adding to the goofy golf. Oscar-nominated song "That's Amoré" has been a classic for 45 years (it should have won the Academy Award; hear it again in "Moonstruck"). If you don't crack up when Jerry tells Bantam Ben "That's a wedge shot Mr. Hogan," then take up tennis.

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.

Joe Anthony (Dean Martin) and Harvey Miller, Jr (Jerry Lewis) are a star humor team. A friend recounts their story to a reporter. Harvey's father is a champion golfer. Harvey could be a great golfer but he can't perform in front of a crowd. When both Harvey and girlfriend Lisa (Barbara Bates) get fired for leaving work to see a golf tournament, Lisa gets him to work as a golf instructor. Lisa's brother Joe becomes his first client. Joe is a natural and starts playing in tournaments with Harvey as his caddy. He falls for socialite Kathy Taylor (Donna Reed).

This is generally fun. It is sad to hear that Martin and Lewis had already started splitting during this film. It doesn't really show on the screen although they aren't always together. Lewis is hamming it up while Martin is suaving it up. It's not the funniest but the guys are working hard. The misunderstanding is stupid but those are often the case in this type of movie. This is a fair Martin and Lewis film.

Dean martin, jerry lewis, still together, kind of. Kind of like abbott and costello, harvey (lewis) can't seem to do anything right... his dad wanted him to play golf, and he keeps getting fired from his jobs. Co-stars donna reed, barbara bates, fred clark. When harvey can't take the pressure of golfing in front of a crowd, he ends up as caddy to joe (martin). That somehow leads to the comedy team being hatched. Lewis was almost 30 at this point, and i never understood why he spoke in that annoying baby voice. Did he dislike his own voice that much? It's a seldom shown martin and lewis film. It's okay. Not bad, not great. Martin's song amore was nominated for the oscar. Directed by norman taurog, who did a whole lot of elvis films. A bunch of spencer tracy films. And some other great stuff too.