Caddy, The (1953) - full review!
Directed by Norman Taurog (Skippy (1931)), with a story by Danny Arnold, who also wrote the screenplay with Edmund Hartmann, this Jerry Lewis & Dean Martin comedy is full of laughs especially if you like Lewis's antics: his many voices & physical humor. If you're a fan of golf, you will enjoy seeing Ben Hogan & 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.
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