Caddyshack

A week over-viewing Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein for an upcoming Lambcast on the movie has left me contemplating how movies—which do not change without some "Director's Cut" interference—can change over time. Because the viewer changes. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein holds up pretty well (pretty well...) from the time I saw it as a 9 year old to my current dotage. Some do not.

Case in point: Caddyshack, which, I once thought was hilarious, but now...seems rather puerile. Oh, it has moments of entertainment in spots, but a lot of the time slices, and sometimes just whiffs. It's a bogey rather than a birdie and it is certainly not the hole-in-one I remember.

So, yeah, kvetch all you like about it, but it's going out on the traditional "Take Out the Trash" Day.

Caddyshack (Harold Ramis, 1980) One has few regrets in life, hopefully. As one gets older, experience colors perception, and suddenly movies like The Rules of the Game speak to you in new ways, and movies like Caddyshack...well, I've been spending a remorseful few minutes thinking of all the people I'd recommended this movie, too.

Not that Caddyshack is horrible, mind you. But it hasn't aged well since my college days.* Fond memories of Harold Ramis' "Animal House for Juvenile Adults" is full of references and gags that seem geezer-ish. But there are some things that hold up. It's Chevy Chase's funniest performance in the movies (I believe that is the very definition of "Damning with Faint Praise"), and one of Bill Murray's wildest--you get the impression that they were winging it, Chase improvising the physical with Murray skewering the dialog. It showed Rodney Dangerfield to be a weirdly endearing clumsy performer for the movies, and it's Ted Knight at his foolish best.

Two bits still work--the "Baby Ruth" gag, and the little mini-epic contained in it of the minister's perfect game in the rain. But, don't be surprised if the one thing you take away from it is John Dykstra's roly-poly gopher puppet.

* It reminds of the recent reactions to the release of "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." series on DVD, where the adults who watched it as kids ask facetiously why it was re-filmed using a "crap filter," that made all the sets look like cheesy back-lots, the performances hammy, and the thrills, not so much. Memories are yet green. The reality is oft-times compost.