Caddyshack (1980)

Chevy Chase, Rodney Dangerfield, Bill Murray, Ted Knight and Michael O’Keefe starred in this classic comedy.

A louche golf professional (Chase) gets caught up in a feud between a snooty golf club president (Knight) and a vulgar millionaire (Dangerfield) who wants to buy the course for a new property development.

This hilarious movie had scene after scene of memorable moments; Dangerfield reprises his stand-up persona to gloriously vulgar effect in his first feature film appearance, and Bill Murray nearly steals the show as a psychopathic groundsman maintaining a running battle with the club’s resident gophers.

Childish humour at its very best!

Bill Murray spent only six days on set and improvised nearly every scene he was in. His grumbling groundskeeper character, Carl Spackler, was originally written as mute to pay homage to the Marx Brothers, but after Murray arrived on set, Ramis quickly changed his mind.

Caddyshack was Ted Knight’s final movie. After his role as uptight country club owner, Judge Smails, Knight stuck to television for The Love Boat and Too Close for Comfort before passing away in 1986.

The least said about the ill-advised 1988 sequel the better. Suffice it to say that Bill Murray, Rodney Dangerfield, Ted Knight, Chevy Chase, and extremely funny dialogue were all conspicuous by their absence from the second film.

Ty Webb
Chevy Chase
Al Czervik
Rodney Dangerfield
Judge Elihu Smails
Ted Knight
Danny Noonan
Michael O’Keefe
Carl Spackler
Bill Murray
Maggie O’Hooligan
Sarah Holcomb
Tony D’Annunzio
Scott Colomby
Lacey Underall
Cindy Morgan
Dr Beeper
Dan Resin
Bishop
Henry Wilcoxon
Noonan
Albert Salmi
Mrs Noonan
Elaine Aiken
Grace
Ann Ryerson
Lou Loomis
Brian Doyle-Murray
Motormouth
Hamilton Mitchell

Director
Harold Ramis