Caddyshack (1980)

Director:

Harold Ramis

Writers:

Brian Doyle-Murray (written by) &
Harold Ramis (written by) ...

Release Date:

25 July 1980 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Sport

Tagline:

At last, a comedy that bites!

Plot:

An exclusive golf course has to deal with a brash new member and a destructive dancing gopher.

Plot Keywords:

Golf | Judge | Golf Course | Gopher | Caddy

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Chevy Chase	...	Ty Webb
Rodney Dangerfield	...	Al Czervik
Ted Knight	...	Judge Elihu Smails
Michael O'Keefe	...	Danny Noonan
Bill Murray	...	Carl Spackler
Sarah Holcomb	...	Maggie O'Hooligan
Scott Colomby	...	Tony D'Annunzio
Cindy Morgan	...	Lacey Underall
Dan Resin	...	Dr. Beeper
Henry Wilcoxon	...	The Bishop
Elaine Aiken	...	Mrs. Noonan
Albert Salmi	...	Mr. Noonan
Ann Ryerson	...	Grace
Brian Doyle-Murray	...	Lou Loomis
Hamilton Mitchell	...	Motormouth

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Glen Glenn Sound)

Certification:

Iceland:L | Canada:14A | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:R | West Germany:16 | Australia:M

Filming Locations:

Boca Raton Resort & Club - 501 East Camino Real, Boca Raton, Florida, USA

Company:

Orion Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

Bill Murray improvised the "Cinderella story" sequence from two lines of stage direction. Director Harold Ramis simply asked Murray to emulate a kid announcing his own fantasy sports moment. Murray simply asked for four rows of 'mums and did the scene in one take.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Lacy walks into the foyer of Ty's house there is a Japanese screen Ty bangs his hand into. The next scene shows them walking into the den and the same Japanese screen is there too.

Quotes:

Spalding Smails: I want a hamburger. No, cheeseburger. I want a hot dog. I want a milkshake. I want potato chips
[gets cut off by Judge Smails]
Judge Smails: You'll get nothing, and like it!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Psych: There's Something About Mira (#2.11)" (2008)

Soundtrack:

Something on Your Mind

One of the funniest comedies of all time

There are five movies Chevy Chase has done that were really good: Seems Like Old Times, Foul Play, National Lampoons Vacation, Fletch, and this icon of film comedy, Caddyshack. The plot is very simple and has often been imitated and the tone of the movie is said in its tagline: the snobs against the slobs. Who are the snobs? The men of Bushwood country club, the snobby Bishop, Dr. Beeper, who never seems to be at his office and the obnoxious leader of the pack Judge Smails, played by Ted Knight.

Who are the slobs? There is Ty Webb, a wealthy man who plays without keeping score. Carl Spackler is a groundskeeper that smokes a little too much. And of course the biggest snob of them all, developer Al Czervik, outspoken, obnoxious and completely out of place in a country club. Rodney Dangerfield plays him, Ty Webb is played by Chevy Chase and Bill Murray plays Carl Spackler.

These characters rub together uncomfortably in various forms to create all-time great comedy moments. What makes this movie so good is there is no star that dominates the movie. Everyone dominates the stage equally. They all have great lines and they work very well together.

This comedy is extremely dirty and raunchy even by today's standards. The raunchiness has worn off with time and some of the take-offs are not so obvious to future generations but some of these lines have become well known jokes among some. Part of the reason this movie works so well is the jokes are rapid fire. They just hit you with one line after another.

One thing I noticed watching this movie is that these characters pop out at you. These people are incredible snobs, incredible sluts, extremely insulting, or just weird. There are no really neutral characters. Every character in this movie does something that makes them stand out if not for a few seconds. This can be accredited to the great writing and directing by Harold Ramis one of the great comedians of our day despite the fact he is very underrated and is mostly these days behind the cameras.

Another thing about these characters is that they seem so real. Today a lot of characters in comedy films are cardboard characters. All of the characters here are written so nicely and believably and this is something very rare in modern comedy. And there are so many classic scenes in this movie. Among my favorites is the boating scene, the swimming pool scene, and when we see Rodney Dangerfield's golf bag phone.

And there are many great small parts by people like Albert Salmi, who plays Danny Noonan's father, Brian Doyle-Murray, who plays Lou Loomis, Scott Colomby who plays a troublemaking Caddy named Tony D'Annunzio, and Sarah Holcombe plays Maggie O'Hooligan, Noonan's girlfriend, Cindy Morgan plays the niece of Judge Smails, Lacey Underall, Henry Wilcoxon plays a rather bigoted Bishop Fred Pickering, Dan Resin plays a rather uncaring Dr. Beeper and there are many other great small parts. All of these small parts are very good. But one thing to notice is all of the ironic names like Lacey Underall, Maggie O'Hooligan, Dr. Beeper and plenty of other funny names.

The movie is a bit dated. Everyones hair is very long, the segway music seems heavily disco influenced, there are a lot more people wearing plaid, and there are jokes about people like Dick Cavett when so few people today know who he is. I love some of the more pointed humor in this movie, but I like the effect of the age of the movie. The movie makes some rich people look like callous uncaring bigoted fools and has some not too king rich people talk very bluntly (such as Smails' nephew say he knows some drugs are good because he got it from a Negro) Be forewarned this could be an offensive movie to some.

My hat is off to the two leads, Rodney Dangerfield and Chevy Chase. Bill Murray is funny too but his part is very small and this is not the best showcase of his talents. But Chase is goofy to no end. In this part he always manages to say the most off the wall comments that are hysterical. Dangerfield uses his patented rich obnoxious out-spoken character and make it fit this movie so perfectly. His insults are classic.

Unfortunately after this movie Chevy Chase made few quality movies. These days he prefers to do mostly family oriented movies that are mostly not funny. It is sad he has chosen to do so few straight comedies. He has essentially been a comedy legend based on some raunchy movies like this one and Vacation but chooses not to star in these kinds of movies anymore. It is sad. He is one of the funniest people in my generation and he probably could have been even funnier.

And I love the soundtrack. The song by Kenny Loggins, I'm Alright is great and more songs by Eddie Cochran and Earth Wind and fire are great as well. And who could forget that little gopher? He was actually created by George Lucas. Some of the funniest scenes in the movie involve that little gopher. Overall this is a funny movie that has withstood the test of time and will probably be funny to future generations as well.