Simply Perfect

Absolutely Brilliant!

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Directed by Norman Taurog, with a story by Danny Arnold, who also wrote the screenplay with Edmund Hartmann, this Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin comedy is full of laughs especially if you like Lewis's antics: his many voices and physical humor. If you're a fan of golf, you will enjoy seeing Ben Hogan and Sam Snead (among others) swinging the clubs. The cast also includes Donna Reed, Barbara Bates, Joseph Calleia, Fred Clark, Clinton Sundberg, Marjorie Gateson, and Romo Vincent (among others).The story is pretty straightforward, and is aided by a plot device or two, to enable the headlining duo to show their stuff: Martin plays a suave character who's a natural golfer and terrific singer (in fact, this is the film in which he first sings his signature song, "That's Amore", which was nominated for an Academy Award); Lewis plays Martin's doormat and "brother-in-law to be", who always finds himself in odd, funny situations. Reed plays Martin's country club gal, Bates plays Lewis's fiancée. Calleia plays Martin's dad (Argentina Brunetti, his mom); Gateson plays Reed's mom, and Sundberg plays their butler. Clark plays the latest boss to fire Lewis's character. Vincent plays the boys' agent, who discovers their real talent doesn't lie on the links.The film opens with Joe Anthony (Martin) and Harvey Miller Jr. (Lewis) looking out their window to their adoring fans; apparently, they're a comedy pair much like Martin & Lewis. Their story is told in flashback by their agent Eddie (Vincent): Harvey Sr. (Donald Randolph) was a professional golfer and Harvey Jr. is pretty terrific too, only he has to give it up since he can't play in front of crowds. Over the years he worked in various sport related jobs, but gets fired from his latest by Mr. Baxter (Clark), whom he's dubbed Old Skinhead, when he takes his fiancée Lisa (Bates) to see Ben Hogan play in a tournament. Harvey then inadvertently trashes the entire department store's sporting goods department and more. Joe's Papa (Calleia) is a fisherman, but Joe gets seasick so he hits the road and does various odd jobs himself until he finally returns home to find his sister Lisa is engaged to Harvey, who's just started to work as a golf tutor. Harvey discovers that Joe is a "natural" (golfer), and because Joe's father, who now owns an Italian restaurant, needs $500 to buy a boat to return to fishing, Harvey becomes Joe's caddy and the two enter a country club tournament whose prize for 1st place is (wouldn't you know?) $500.Once they're at the club, attractive Joe is pursued by the tournament's registrar Kathy Taylor (Reed), and Harvey is sent to bunk with the other caddies. Initially Joe protests the treatment of Harvey as less than his partner, but he quickly learns the benefits of the high life and begins to treat his future brother-in-law as one of the lesser classes. After a couple of scenes during which each lead gets to exhibit their talents (Martin sings while Lewis does slapstick "gags", the latter attracting the attention of a laughing rotund Eddie), and Joe wins the tournament, he's invited to stay at Kathy's before the big $10,000 tournament while Harvey follows in a truck full of livestock with his golf clubs. Nancy Culp appears briefly (uncredited) as a drunk's wife. To escape the Taylor's watch dogs, Harvey pretends to be a guest at the Taylor's estate, and eventually gets invited, by Kathy's mother Grace (Gateson), to assist their butler Charles (Sundberg), serving the other guests. By this time, Joe has adjusted quite well to the good life, and treating Harvey as a servant. A simple misunderstanding between Joe and Kathy, she thinks Lisa is his fiancée instead of Harvey's, causes Joe to get the boot. But eventually he returns with great fanfare to the big tournament and mayhem abounds at the golf course ... after which Eddie signs the singer and his sidekick to a contract. There's a brief mistaken identity gag at the end - Kathy and Lisa mistake (the real) Martin & Lewis for Joe and Harvey.

I am not a Martin and Lewis fan, but to my surprise I enjoyed watching the Paramount DVD of this entry. One of the fascinating things I noticed is that you can actually see why Martin decided to split up the super-successful partnership. Jerry does his best to upstage Dean not only at every opportunity, but you get the impression that he is actually making some of these opportunities himself, and knowing director Norman Taurog as well as I do, I would definitely say that Taurog would have certainly encouraged Lewis in this endeavor so long as it didn't delay production! And even if you don't agree with this assertion, it's quite obvious that Norman did nothing to discourage Jerry's antics. No wonder Dean decided that a little Jerry goes more than a long way. All the same, Dean has not much to actually complain about. He has plenty of scenes without Jerry, but he still acts as if he had a chip on his shoulder. It's the lovely Donna Reed who receives the short end of the stick, and as for the equally lovely Barbara Bates, blink and you'll miss her! Of course, if you're a golf fan you'll enjoy seeing some of the greats on the screen. So, all told, the movie is definitely a mixed blessing, but it has dated rather well.

When Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis split up in 1956, the consensus was that Jerry's comic talents would sustain his career, but that Dino would have a rough going. Well the consensus only had that half right. Most critics did focus on Jerry's talents, Dean was the straight man who sang a nice song occasionally. But of all their joint films, The Caddy is best remembered for Dean's singing of That's Amore. The Harry Warren-Jack Brooks song sold a lot of records for Dean, putting him on something of an equal footing with his partner. It was nominated for an Oscar that year and until ten years or so later when Dino revived a song called Everybody Loves Somebody and made it his theme, That's Amore became the song most identified with the man from Steubenville, Ohio.Of course Jerry has his moments in The Caddy, clowning with the various golfers who made cameo appearances here, doing a comic obligato after Dean sings That's Amore and a number called The Gay Continental. But That's Amore made this of all their films, Dean's triumph.In fact Dino had another great reason to enjoy this film. Though not as publicized in fact he was as passionate about the game of golf as that other noted singer on the Paramount payroll, Bing Crosby. If he wasn't involved in any of the scenes on a given day, you would find Martin on the links invariably.The plot such as it is involves Jerry Lewis as the son of a noted golf pro who also has an extreme case of stage fright. Jerry is engaged to Barbara Bates who is Dean's sister. Both come from an Italian fishing family. Father Joseph Calleia is a commercial fisherman and mother Argentina Brunetti runs a restaurant, specializing in seafood and pasta.Jerry agrees to coach Dean and be his caddy. A lot of money can be made from professional golf although Calleia doesn't believe it. If this story sounds familiar that was the attitude of the patriarch of another San Francisco Italian fishing family named DiMaggio when three of their sons opted for careers in baseball. I guess Joe and his brothers Vince and Dom must have been flattered because they didn't sue Paramount.Donna Reed plays the socialite sponsor of golf tournaments who falls big time for Dean. And Jerry gets to have another straight man in this film in the person of Clinton Sundberg, Reed's snooty butler. In fact Jerry gets even another substitute straight man in Fred Clark who is his and Bates's boss at the job they have at a department store. Although to be fair, Lewis rehashed some material here the Marx Brothers originally used in The Big Store.The Caddy is one of the Martin-Lewis teams best and funniest comedies and if that don't get you, That's Amore will.

Harvey Miller Jr. (Jerry Lewis) and Joe Anthony (Dean Martin) are two golfers and later Harvey becomes the caddy of Joe. But after causing a chaos at the big tournament their career as golfers is over and soon they find themselves from the world of entertainment.The Caddy (1953) is a great comedy from Norman Taurog. It features the funny man and the king of comedy Jerry Lewis and the straight man Dean Martin. It also has Donna Reed as Kathy Taylor. You can remember this amazing actress from It's a Wonderful Life and other classics. Martin and Lewis were just amazing together. Dean charmed the ladies and took care of singing and Jerry's job was to be the clown and make people laugh. Those were the good times.In 1956 Lewis and Martin sadly broke up but they did just great on their own. Martin lived in the years 1917-1995. Lewis is 77 years old today. He hasn't been working so much lately but last month he did a voice for a character in The Simpsons. I've been a big fan of this comedian for five years, since they showed Lewis movies on TV in the summer of 1998. Thanks for the laughs, Jerry Lewis! But now back to this movie. The Caddy is a movie that offers you lots of laughs and also some great songs, like That's Amore. It's been 50 years since this movie was made but Jerry Lewis movies don't age. They only get better with time.