Caddyshack

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Caddyshack

movie poster for Caddyshack
Directed by Harold Ramis
Produced by Douglas Kenney
Written by Douglas Kenney
Harold Ramis
Brian Doyle-Murray
Starring Chevy Chase
Rodney Dangerfield
Ted Knight
Michael O'Keefe
Bill Murray
Dan Resin
Music by Johnny Mandel
Cinematography Stevan Larner
Editing by William C. Carruth
Distributed by Orion Pictures
Warner Bros.
Release date(s) July 25, 1980
Running time 98 min.
Country Flag of the United States United States
Language English
Budget $6,000,000
Followed by Caddyshack II
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Caddyshack is a 1980 U.S. comedy film directed by Harold Ramis and written by Brian Doyle-Murray, Ramis and Douglas Kenney. It stars Chevy Chase, Rodney Dangerfield, Ted Knight, Michael O'Keefe and Bill Murray. Doyle-Murray also has a supporting role.

The film was Ramis' first feature and was a major boost to Rodney Dangerfield's film career; he was previously known mostly for his stand-up comedy. Grossing almost $40 million in the U.S. alone (16th highest of the year), it was the first of a series of similar comedies. A sequel, Caddyshack II, followed in 1988, although it wasn't nearly as successful or as well-received.

In 2000, Caddyshack was placed at number 71 on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 funniest American films. In 2005, a line from the movie was chosen by AFI for their list of the top 100 movie quotes from U.S. films. This film is also second on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies".[1]

Contents

[edit] Cast

Also, Chuck Rodent was credited as playing the part of "Mr. Gopher."

[edit] Plot summary

The film's story centers on Danny Noonan (O'Keefe), one of many children in a Roman Catholic family of modest means. Danny aspires to attend college in Nebraska, but his parents can't afford it and his grades are less than exceptional, making obtaining a scholarship difficult, at best. Danny works as a caddy at the upscale Bushwood Country Club, where he earns tips to add to his meager college fund.

Bushwood's membership includes: Judge Smails (Knight), a by-the-book, no-nonsense jurist and the country club's co-founder; Doctor Beeper, a stereotypical doctor who's more concerned about his golf game than his patients; Bishop Pickering, a Lutheran minister; and Ty Webb (Chase), the son of Bushwood's other co-founder and a free spirit, very unlike the other members. Danny often caddies for Ty, who teaches Danny about the finer points in life, usually while showing off a random trick shot.

Judge Smails spies the handiwork of a gopher on his way to the course. Smails confronts Bushwood's greenskeeper, who then entrusts the task of removing the gopher to Carl Spackler (Murray), his unkempt, unhinged assistant, whose attempts to rid the course of the gopher become a running sub-plot of the main story. Later that day, real estate tycoon Al Czervik (Dangerfield) arrives, along with his Asian business partner Mr. Wang, as a guest of another member. Al first meets Judge Smails in the pro shop as Czervik comments on a hat he sees for sale, which he discovers is also being worn by Smails.

Danny's boss informs the caddies that the country club's caddy scholarship has become available after its previous winner, Carl Lippbaum, died of an anxiety attack while at school. Danny then decides to caddy for Judge Smails in hopes of earning his favor when Smails awards the next scholarship. Judge Smails' foursome, which includes Dr. Beeper, Bishop Pickering and Smails' grandson, Spaulding, begins their round, and is joined by Smails' voluptuous niece, Lacey Underall. While he waits to start his game, Czervik wastes no time in needling Smails as he tees off, which forces Smails to slice his ball into the rough. Czervik's group continues its rowdy behavior, which is of no help to Danny, as he is trying to butter up the increasingly agitated members of Smails' foursome. He is granted a brief respite when the party completes the front nine of the course, and he enjoys lunch with his girlfriend, Maggie, who is working the snack bar. Danny finally enters Judge Smails' good graces when Smails attempts to putt on the final hole. Al loudly wagers $1000 that Smails will miss his relatively short putt, which draws a crowd of onlookers. Smails does miss the putt, causing him to fling his putter into the air in a blind rage. The putter crashes onto a deck at the clubhouse, striking a woman. Danny takes responsibility for the incident, claiming the grips on the club were worn and that the club was therefore thrown accidentally.

That evening, the country club hosts a fancy dinner for the Fourth of July. Danny and Maggie are working as servers when Danny becomes enamored of Lacey. Maggie attempts to dissuade Danny by informing him of Lacey's promiscuous reputation. Al Czervik, dining with his friends, begins to create his unique form of fun-loving chaos during the otherwise stodgy party by tipping all of the staff, making insulting comments about Smails and his family, and paying the band playing at the party to play more upbeat dance music. Later Ty Webb arrives, and he manages to catch the eye of Lacey, who attempts to seduce him outside.

Danny all but seals the deal on the scholarship by winning the Caddy Day golf tournament, sinking a clutch putt and earning the praise of the Judge, along with an invitation to mow his lawn and drop by a party at the Judge's yacht club that Sunday. Danny and Maggie enjoy a romantic interlude before going to the country club pool. Lacey makes another appearance, this time getting a massage from Danny's chief rival, Tony D'Annunzio. That evening, Lacey visits Ty Webb at his home, where the two enjoy tequila shots and a naked moonlight swim.

At the yacht club, Danny again encounters Lacey, who suggests that she and Danny slip away for some private time at the Judge's house. Once again, Al Czervik crashes the party, destroying Smails' tiny wooden sloop with his enormous yacht by dropping the anchor into the cargo hold. The judge and his wife return home and discover Lacey and Danny naked in his bed. Danny grabs his clothes and flees, steps ahead of a club-wielding Judge.

Danny spends the night in the caddyshack, where he is awakened by a scared Maggie, who informs him she may be pregnant. Danny proposes marriage, but is turned down. Making matters worse, he is called into the Judge's office. Danny believes that he's blown his chances at the scholarship at best and expects to be fired at worst. However, the Judge surprises him by offering him the scholarship in gratitude after Danny promises never to mention the embarrassing incident with his niece to anybody. That evening, Maggie reveals that she isn't pregnant and apologizes to Danny. Elsewhere, Smails and Czervik encounter each other in the club's private bar one last time, where the enemies agree on a winner-take-all $20,000 golf match pitting Smails and Dr. Beeper against Al and Ty Webb.

Later that evening, Ty is practicing for the match and hits an errant ball into Carl's ramshackle home. Carl and Ty discuss their respective problems (Ty's match against Smails and Carl's credit trouble). Ty's visit ends with sharing a very large joint made of grass (said to be a hybrid of "Kentucky bluegrass, featherbed bent, and northern California sinsemilla"), which Carl has invented that also doubles as golf turf.

The match begins, with Judge Smails selecting Danny to be his caddy. As the foursome plays, word spreads of the stakes involved, and other course employees start placing side-bets on the event. At the end of the first nine holes, Smails' team is winning. He taunts Czervik, who then doubles the stakes to $40,000, which the Judge gleefully accepts. Later, Al is hit by a ricocheting ball and pretends to be hurt, hoping to have the contest declared a draw. The match umpire says Al would forfeit, unless they were to choose a substitute. The Judge picks Spaulding, but Ty insists that they should name their own substitute, choosing Danny instead. The Judge threatens to revoke Danny's scholarship if he plays. Danny smirks and takes Al's place (after Al offers to make it "worth his while.")

While the match is underway, Carl has moved into the endgame of his battle with the course's gopher. He has been dropping decoy animals sculpted from plastic explosives into every gopher hole he finds, tying all of the detonators to a single master switch. By the final hole, the score is tied and a large crowd has gathered to watch. On this hole, Judge Smails pulls out a putter from his bag while telling Spaulding it's time for "the old Billy Baroo" and he makes his putt. Ultimately, it's up to Danny to sink his putt and win the game for himself and Ty Webb. Again, Czervik raises the stakes to a whopping $80,000, which Smails accepts. Danny's putt reaches the edge of the cup, meaning that Smails would win the hole and the match. At that moment, Carl detonates the explosives, rocking the course. The force of the explosions is enough to cause the ball to drop, scoring a birdie and winning the match. Judge Smails attempts to renege on his end of the bet but Al's thugs are summoned to convince him otherwise. While Smails is busy with Al's goons, Czervik turns to the people at the house and proclaims "Hey, everybody! We're all gonna get laid!", earning him cheers from all of the people. The movie concludes with the gopher emerging, largely unharmed despite the explosives, from his hole, and dancing to Kenny Loggins' "I'm All Right" playing during the end credits.

[edit] Production

The movie was inspired by writer and co-star Brian Doyle-Murray's memories working as a caddy at a golf club. His brother Bill Murray and director Harold Ramis also worked as caddies when they were teenagers. Many of the characters in the film were based on characters they had encountered through their various experiences at the club, including a young woman upon whom the Maggie character is based and the Havercamps, a doddery old couple who can barely hit the ball out of their shadows ("That's a peach, hon"), based on a couple Doyle-Murray had known at his club. The now-legendary scene involving a Baby Ruth candy bar being thrown into the swimming pool was based on a real-life incident at Brian Doyle-Murray's high school.

The film was shot over 11 weeks during the autumn of 1979. Golf scenes were filmed at the Rolling Hills Golf & Tennis resort in Davie, Florida. The explosions that take place during the climax of the film were reported at the nearby Fort Lauderdale airport by an incoming pilot, who suspected a plane had crashed.

The famous scene that begins when Ty Webb's golf ball crashes into Carl Spackler's ramshackle house was not in the original script. It was added by director Harold Ramis after realizing that two of his biggest stars, Chevy Chase and Bill Murray, did not have a scene together. The three met for lunch and wrote the scene together. Although the scene has nothing to do with the plot, it is widely regarded as the funniest in the movie. This is the only time that Chase and Murray have appeared in a movie together.

Bill Murray's famous "Cinderella story" scene was improvised based on two lines of stage direction. Ramis basically gave him direction to act as a kid announcing his own imaginary golf moment. Murray just took it from there. The flowers were his idea.

The gopher sequences were written and filmed after most of the movie was shot. Originally, director Harold Ramis wanted to cast a live animal to play the gopher. When that did not work out, the animatronic gopher (credited as "Chuck Rodent") and its tunnels were built by John Dykstra. The gopher sounds were the same sounds used by Flipper the dolphin in the 60's television show of the same name. This was after principal cinematography had been completed and used higher quality film stock in an indoor soundstage resulting in the higher picture quality of these scenes still evident even on the current DVD.

[edit] Reception

Despite the film's reputation as a bona-fide cult classic and its many inclusions on lists of funniest films, reviews at the time of the film's release were generally negative. Gene Shalit called it a "hazard", and David Ansen of Newsweek wrote that "The writers have saddled themselves with a bland hero and a perfunctory drama that will be of interest only to the actors' agents".

Nevertheless, the film has slowly gained a massive cult following among those of the younger generation as well as in the golf world (Tiger Woods has said that it is his favorite film) and many of the film's quotes have entered the lexicon of pop culture. Ramis notes in the DVD documentary that TV Guide had originally given the film two stars when it began showing on cable television in the early 1980s, but over time, the rating had gone up to three stars.

Douglas Kenney was reportedly very distressed by the film's initial reception and spiralled into a drug-influenced depression. At a press conference following the initial screening, he went on a profanity-laced drunken tirade before passing out. One month after the film's release, his body was found at the base of a 30-foot (9.1 m) cliff in Hawaii, where he and Chevy Chase had been vacationing.

[edit] Caddyshack restaurants

On June 7, 2001, Bill Murray, Brian Doyle-Murray and their other four brothers opened a themed restaurant inspired by the movie at the World Golf Village, near St. Augustine, Florida. The restaurant is meant to resemble a stodgy country club, much like the fictional Bushwood Country Club, and serves primarily American cuisine. The brothers are all active partners and make occasional appearances at the restaurant. Two more restaurants opened in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and Orlando, Florida, however, both have been closed, leaving only the World Golf Village location.[2]

[edit] Cultural references

  • As a tribute to the film's popularity (and to the fact that two of the film's stars had been cast members), in 1999 Saturday Night Live performed a sketch where men who had never seen Caddyshack, and therefore did not recognize the commonly-used references of their friends, could purchase a book of Caddyshack quotes. Chevy Chase was a special guest star in the segment.[3]
  • A 2004 American Express commercial features Tiger Woods as Carl Spackler and parodies several of Carl's scenes from the movie, particularly those involving the gopher.
  • At the World Wrestling Entertainment Summerslam '96 event's pre-show, the Baby Ruth scene was recreated during a "Bikini Beach Blast-Off" segment.
  • In the Family Guy episode "Meet The Quagmires", Lois' swimming pool entrance is a straight parody of Cindy Morgan's "swan dive" scene, right down to Kenny Loggins' song "Mr Night" being played in the background.
  • In the "Family Guy" episode Peter's Two Dads", Peter complains that Mickey never called his mother after "knocking her up," Mickey responds, "So what?" Peter's "So, let's dance" rebuff preceding the song "My Drunken Irish Dad" is an reference to Caddyshack where Al Czervik has the same dialogue with Tony D'Annunzio before playing Any Way You Want It by Journey.
  • In the Family Guy episode "North by North Quahog", Brian is forced to read the book version of Caddyshack and quotes Chevy Chase from it.
  • The Simpsons has referenced Caddyshack on a few occasions.
    • In "Team Homer", the end of the bowling match is similar to the climactic golf match where a pin teeters on the edge for several seconds before falling over as the result of an incident occurring elsewhere (Otto knocking over the claw machine).
    • In "Scenes from the Class Struggle in Springfield", Judge Smails' club-throwing incident and Carl running away from the bishop after being struck by lightning are both spoofed in one scene involving Homer, Krusty the Klown, and Tom Kite.
    • In "Burns, Baby Burns", Rodney Dangerfield guest stars on the show as Mr. Burns' estranged son and plays a character very similar to that of Al Czervik. Rodney's character Larry Burns manages to act boorishly at a Country Club dinner function (similar to the 4th of July dinner scene) and at the end of the episode, the song "Any Way You Want It" by Journey is played over a party scene and eventually over the closing credits.
  • The Off-Broadway revue "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change" mentions the film in the song "Single Man Drought."
  • In an episode titled "My Big Fat Sober Wedding" from the TV Series The New Adventures of Old Christine, numerous references to Caddyschack are made, to a point where the bride (sarcastically) exclaims "Oh Caddyshack, yaay!!".

[edit] The Book of Caddyshack

In 2007, Scott Martin, a writer based in Charlotte, North Carolina, published The Book of Caddyshack-Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About The Greatest Movie Ever Made. Taylor Trade, a division of Rowman and Littlefield, published the book.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Movies
  2. ^ Murray Bros. Caddyshack home page
  3. ^ SNL Transcripts: Bill Murray: 02/20/99

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
v • d • e
Films directed by Harold Ramis

Caddyshack (1980) • National Lampoon's Vacation (1983) • Club Paradise (1986) • Groundhog Day (1993) • Stuart Saves His Family (1995) • Multiplicity (1996) • Analyze This (1999) • Bedazzled (2000) • Analyze That (2002) • The Ice Harvest (2005) • The Year One (2008) • Pure Imagination (2008)