Review of Caddyshack (1980) by Cameron H — 16 Sep 2016

For every well-played, undercutting joke from Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Rodney Dangerfield, and even Ted Knight, we get the arbitrary plot that no one talks about anymore, when hailing this as one of the all-time comedy classics.

See the movie poster? Notice anyone missing? That's right, the main character, played by Michael O'Keefe! Where did he go? Maybe in retrospect, everyone attempting to advertise the movie realized how dull he and his caddy scholarship plot is, not to mention everyone eye-goggling over the vaguely sexy Cindy Morgan.

(You did your best with Chase, at the least.) Look, if this were a Mel Brooks movie, it would be easy to argue that the plot is the means by which everyone drives home joke after joke after joke. Caddyshack, meanwhile, interrupts the comedy for drama, when it would function far stronger as simple "class" warfare (i.

E., the classy rich versus the not-so-classy rich). As for the actors who facilitate the warfare, you know which characters stand better the test of time? The straight ones played by Chase and Knight! They have a struggle in maintaining composure, at the faces of pure zaniness, and, through the clever dialogue, are quite consistent.

Murray and Dangerfield prefer improvising their lines, which would be just fine, if every scene of theirs worked. The boat chase scene was more psychotic than funny, not for the better, and the bishop's golf game in the rain was just confusing in understanding his or Murray's motives.

So, here is the scoop: Regardless of what you think of Chase or Knight, I think anyone would enjoy their performances. Murray is Murray at his outright silliest, and Dangerfield is Dangerfield at his outright crudest.

Between the four of them, Caddyshack succeeds at times, and falters at other times, in Harold Ramis' attempt to paste various subplots together like a ransom note. If this were not called "Caddyshack," this may have been a pretty good comedy.