Welcome To THE COUCH...Sit on Down and Get Comfy...
So, last evening I caught CADDYSHACK (1980) on the Golf Channel.
As the movie played they would put up little bits of information on the movie and the characters and one of those bits was that CADDYSHACK was the number 2 comedy on the BRAVO CHANNEL'S list of top comedies.
Number 1 one the list.....YES, OF COURSE....ANIMAL HOUSE!!! (1978)
I laughed when I saw that, as there has been an online discussion regarding people in the Soul Patrol who have never seen ANIMAL HOUSE.
I also started to compare the parts played by John Belushi in ANIMAL HOUSE (John "Bluto" Blutarsky) and Bill Murray in CADDYSHACK (Carl Spackler) and how much of both of their roles were done unscripted.
Belushi's scene where he is on the ladder outside the sorority house...looking in the window in full view, yet they never even see him and he mugs for the camera the whole time... Brilliant!
Murray's scene outside the clubhouse where he recreates the playing of the Master's Tournament with a weed wacker...hitting the carnations....his first shot from 450 yards with a two iron goes exactly 105 yards. His second shot with a five iron goes 125 yards and then on the third shot, he puts the ball in the hole...Harold Ramis (the director- more on him later) just told Murray to conjure up a fantasy scene and Murray did the rest...Brilliant!
They both have some of the greatest lines in each of their movie's and unless you are really paying attention, you could miss their true meanings:
Belushi:
[the Deltas have been expelled]
Bluto: Christ. Seven years of college down the drain. Might as well join the fucking Peace Corps.
Bluto: Over? Did you say "over"? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!
Bluto: And it ain't over now. 'Cause when the goin' gets tough... [thinks hard]
Bluto: the tough get goin'! Who's with me? Let's go! [runs out, alone; then returns]
Murray:
Spackler: License to kill gophers by the government of the United Nations. Man, free to kill gophers at will. To kill, you must know your enemy, and in this case my enemy is a varmint. And a varmint will never quit - ever. They're like the Viet Cong - Varmint Cong. So you have to fall back on superior intelligence and superior firepower. And that's all she wrote.
Spackler: This is a hybrid. This is a cross, ah, of Bluegrass, Kentucky Bluegrass, Featherbed Bent, and Northern California Sensemilia. The amazing stuff about this is, that you can play 36 holes on it in the afternoon, take it home and just get stoned to the bejeezus-belt that night on this stuff.
Spackler: I have to laugh, because I've outsmarted even myself. My enemy, my foe, is an animal. In order to conquer the animal, I have to learn to think like an animal. And, whenever possible, to look like one. I've gotta get inside this guy's pelt and crawl around for a few days.
And, of course the scene where the Baby Ruth candy bar goes into the pool - everyone thinks it is a doodie floating in the pool - and they drain it and Spackler finds it on the bottom, picks it up, smells it and takes a bite and says "Nothing wrong with it."
Now, both of these should be required viewing for anyone over the age of 16...Brilliant comedies.
Interesting pieces of trivia to amaze your friends...
- There was one actress who played in both movies. She ended up only doing two other movies in her career besides these two...But will be in the American conscience forever for these two secondary roles...
- That actress was Sarah Holcomb....
- In ANIMAL HOUSE she played Clorette DePasto, the drunk daughter of the Mayor who Larry Kroeger (Tom Hulce) ends up sleeping with on the football field.
- In CADDYSHACK, she plays Maggie O'Hooligan, the waitress at the club who Danny Noonan (Michael O'Keefe), the caddy sleeps with in her room.
Walk Proud in 1979
Happy Birthday Gemini in 1980
Two years...Four movies..and into oblivion...But never forgotten!
- ANIMAL HOUSE was Kevin Bacon's first movie.
- He played Chip Diller "Thank you Sir, may I have another."
- Jack Nicklaus, the great golfer has said that CADDYSHACK is the best movie about golf ever made!
- One person (not really an actor) also appeared in both films.
- Doug Kenney, an editor of the National Lampoon at Harvard!
- He was a writer for ANIMAL HOUSE along with Harold Ramis and Chris Miller
- Appeared as Stork in ANIMAL HOUSE.
- He wrote CADDYSHACK with Harold Ramis and Brian-Doyle Murray (Bill's older brother)
- Appeared (uncredited) as Al Czervik's (Rodney Dangerfield) dinner guest in CADDYSHACK.
- Kenney died on August 27, 1980, aged 32, after falling from a thirty-foot cliff called the Hanapepe Lookout, one month after CADDYSHACK opened to horrible reviews.
- Harold Ramis was a co-writer on both films (which you learned above if you were paying attention).
- CADDYSHACK was his directorial debut.
- If the name sounds familiar, it is because he has made millions laugh as an actor, writer and director of some of the great comedies in the last 30 years. Click his name above to see his list of credits..They are amazing.
PLEASE DON'T DRINK ANY LIQUIDS WHILE WATCHING...You could expel them from your mouth and nose from laughing too hard!
To learn more about either of these movies, you can visit:
ANIMAL HOUSE: http://imdb.com/title/tt0077975/
CADDYSHACK: http://imdb.com/title/tt0080487/
Thanks for sitting on THE COUCH, hope you enjoyed your stay.
FIND AN OPPORTUNITY TO PAY IT FORWARD!
FIND AN OPPORTUNITY TO PAY IT FORWARD!
Keep that spark of insanity kids...It helps keep you an individual.
This still amazes me that there are people in the Soul Patrol who have never seen ANIMAL HOUSE. I would be willing to bet that there are some who have never seen Caddyshack either. *shrugs* Oh well... they don't know what they are missing. :-)
Love it Vince. Absolutely love it.
If I start quoting I just won't stop.
On the way home yesterday, I thought of another great classic movie, "The Blues Brothers"... I know there are many others, but ANIMAL HOUSE, CADDYSHACK & THE BLUES BROTHERS.... are 3 of my favorites.
:-)
Lee Ann
LOL-- now you have done it---here's a link y'all will enjoy---
http://www.acmewebpages.com/animal/trivia.htm
This also links to the Nitpicker's site--
Thanks to Joyce for the rainy weekend suggestion...and Dixie for including another classic
Dixie- I know..just shrug the shoulders and move on! heheh
Turn: Thanks for the site..pretty cool stuff