Caddyshack

Hilarious and insane fun, Caddyshack is a reminder of the bygone era of comedy in film, and a comedy classic.

Danny Noonan (O’Keefe) is a golf caddy from a poor family, looking to get into college. Whilst caddying for eccentric golfer Ty Webb (Chase), he finds out about earning the golf caddy scholarship from Judge Smails (Knight), a high-class, influential member of the golf club. Danny’s story takes place at the same time as brash millionaire Al Czervik (Dangerfield) joins the club, much to Smails’ disgust, and behind all this, groundsman Carl (Murray) is enlisted with catching and killing the gopher destroying the course.

O’Keefe has the hard job of being straight-faced in the company of Chase, Dangerfield and Murray, and fortunately he does well. He is the audience’s point of view quite honestly – the underdog aiming to get success. I would say Chase was the other male star, and the comedy legend is in top form here as a golf pro who no-one seems to understand. His personality, a mix of forgetful idiot and smarmy sex-god, is a more normal, more restrained version of Will Ferrell’s iconic comedy characters of the last few years, and Chase shows us how it’s done – genius.

Bill Murray, Rodney Dangerfield and Ted Knight make this film the classic that it truly is. Murray’s groundsman Carl is the indisputable centre to the movie, and his bizarre appearance, along with his insane quest to kill the gopher plaguing the course, makes him one of Murray’s best roles. Dangerfield and Knight play Al Czervik and Judge Smails respectively, the comedy legend and the actor playing the two sides of the class war – working-class rich man and WASP, their conflicts giving the movie much of its hilarity, particularly Knight’s indignant rage towards the man he deems unworthy of membership at the golf course. Dangerfield is the epitome of crass, and yet you root for him throughout, his brashness a breath of fresh air into the stuffy golf club.

The women in the film really just serve to be attractive, stupid or a mockery – the main focus being Cindy Morgan as Judge Smails’ relative Lacey Underall, and the name suggests what you can expect from the actress. Maggie O’Hooligan, played by Sarah Holcomb, is the antithesis of Lacey, and the other women of his affections. Both women are alright, but not really up to the standard of the other performers – and that’s only because they’re the straight support.

Harold Ramis ably combines comedy legends with the sedentary game of golf; his use of his SNL cohorts a revelation in the circumstances, and Ramis manages to utilise the comedians perfectly – each of them given the space to be as improvisational as possible, and as with the Apatow movies of modern times, the spontaneity gives the movie a feeling of controlled insanity. Nearly every scene with Murray’s Carl is quotable; I’m sure that many will have heard the ‘Cinderella’ scene before, and his wacked-out musings on what he’ll do to the gopher, along with the scene with Chase’s golfer, give the comedian the chance to improvise to hilarious effect. The class battle between Czervik and Smails also provides many excellent lines – some hitting rather close to the bone. Chase gets many of the more surreal quotes, and his scenes provide the viewer with the chance to listen incredibly carefully – so many of his jokes and one-liners go unnoticed he says them so fast.

Kenny Loggins was hired to sing every song on here – and having absolutely no idea who he was before, I don’t really want to know now. The songs sound the same, every one, and it’s annoying to have watched this film, repetitive music in check, alongside Platoon and Taxi Driver – two films with the exact same problem. The physical comedy stunts are staged perfectly – the minimum of effects, if any, are used, and the scenes at the dock in Miami harbour are a prime example of the lengths to which Ramis wanted to make the audience laugh – boats flip, passengers are hurled in the sea, and Smails’ boat subsides into the water in a haze of madcap action! It’s a shame really then that the gopher, so integral to the plot, is a rubbish little toy – I get that the situation would have demanded it, and computer effects at the time would have looked terrible, but it is a little ridiculous. It does add to the humour of the whole situation – and hell, it looks more like a real gopher than the ones in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

If it’s madcap, laugh-a-minute comedy you want, Caddyshack comes highly recommended, quite honestly one of the best of its time.

8/10