Caddyshack II
Caddyshack II is a 1988 American sports comedy film and a sequel to the 1980 film Caddyshack. Directed by Allan Arkush and written by Harold Ramis (who co-wrote and directed the original Caddyshack) and PJ Torokvei, it stars Jackie Mason, Robert Stack, Dyan Cannon, Dina Merrill, Jonathan Silverman, Brian McNamara, Marsha Warfield, Paul Bartel, and Randy Quaid with special appearances by Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd. It tells the story of a wealthy and widowed real estate developer who goes up against Bushwood County Club's snobbish president in a golfing tournament.
While the writing of the film is officially credited to Ramis and Torokvei, the first-draft script by Ramis and Torokvei was rewritten by other uncredited writers.
The sequel was panned by critics and is considered one of the worst sequels of all time.[3] However, Kenny Loggins' "Nobody's Fool" which was used as the film's theme song was a chart success where it hit #8 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Plot[edit]
Kate Hartounian is the teenage daughter of Jack, a wealthy and widowed real estate developer of Armenian and Jewish descent. Eager to improve her social status, Kate befriends the snobbish WASP Miffy Young, who encourages Kate and the boorish but good-hearted Jack to join their country club Bushwood (the same club from the first film) where the gopher is still at large.
When the elitist, old money members of Bushwood meet self-made millionaire Jack, who builds low-income housing in upscale neighborhoods and displays many working-class traits, his application to join is rejected. The only member of the club who takes a liking to the crude, but friendly Jack is wealthy widow Elizabeth Pearce. Jack runs afoul of Bushwood's snobbish president Chandler Young who declares the Hartounians "are not Bushwood material." Chandler's equally snooty wife Cynthia tries to persuade Jack to build his housing complex away from her neighborhood after her son Todd failed to persuade Jack's lawyer Peter Blunt, leading Jack to chase her and the Pierponts with a bulldozer. In addition, Jack wins Chandler, Cynthia, Mr. Jamison, the Pierponts, and each of its "secret slaves" in an auction that involves them working on his construction site. Jack's behavior upsets Kate, harming their relationship as she befriends a caddy named Harry.
In retaliation for being blackballed by the club and Chandler having the construction site being shut down by establishing a Historical Preservation Society, Jack turns to his friend, millionaire Ty Webb who owns the majority share of Bushwood but otherwise stays out of the club's day-to-day operations. Jack buys Ty's stock in the club - making himself majority owner - and turns Bushwood into a garish amusement park called Jackie's Wacky Golf, appalling Chandler and the other club members when they lose at each hole against Peter. Chandler hires a mercenary named Captain Tom Everett to kill Jack after being hooked up by their mutual friend. Kate moves in with Miffy since Jack does not care for her.
Chandler and Todd threaten Blunt with endless legal motions and filings intended to financially bankrupt Jack. Ty Webb suggests that the dispute between Jack and Chandler be resolved by the two men facing each other in a golf match. If Chandler wins, Jack gives up his construction site and the country club. If Jack wins, he keeps Bushwood and the housing project. Chandler hedges his bet by expecting Everett to kill Jack. Everett botches the first attempt by accidentally blowing up Chandler's Rolls-Royce which he mistook for Jack's car.
On the day of the golf match, Ty enlists Harry to be Jack's caddie following Jack's training. Everett's mission is derailed by the antics of the gopher. Despite Jack's poor performance early in the match, he manages to tie the score before the final hole. While playing the hole, Jack is faced with a 50-foot putt while Chandler faces a simple two-foot putt. Employing advice given to him by Webb before the match, Jack manages to sink the nearly impossible putt. Chandler needs to sink the easy two-foot putt to tie the match.
Meanwhile, Everett accidentally shoots himself in the buttocks with a poison dart. Kate commiserates with Miffy who suggests that she change her last name from Hartounian to Hart. Although she is embarrassed by her father's actions, Kate is still loyal to Jack and is bewildered at the thought of changing her family name. Kate stands up to Miffy and makes up with her father during the final hole. Everett fails to eliminate Jack as the gopher steals an explosive golf ball from him. The gopher quietly replaces Chandler's ball with the explosive ball. As Chandler putts the ball, it bursts in front of the Young family and Jack wins the match.
Ty encounters Everett who asks him for help removing a poisoned arrow and sucking out the poison. Peter mocks Chandler and Miffy argues with her mother over marrying Chandler while Todd falls unconscious. Jack asks Elizabeth out on a date and she accepts. The gopher pops out of the hole during the celebration and falls for a poodle.
Production[edit]
It was only after agreeing to direct Caddyshack II that Allan Arkush realized how much trouble the project was in: production began in late 1987 and Warner Bros. still insisted upon a summer 1988 release, meaning only half a year for principal photography and post-production. Adding to this difficulty was the fact that the project was nowhere near ready to begin filming. Arkush later claimed, “The more I got into it, the more I realized that they didn’t have a script that was in any kind of shape, they didn’t have Bill Murray and now they didn’t have Rodney Dangerfield.” Arkush likened his assignment “to hopping onto a moving ship barreling full steam ahead.”[3]
Screenwriters Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman, who scripted Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), were brought in to overhaul Ramis and Torokvei's script (although they would ultimately receive no official credit for doing so). With Rodney Dangerfield out of the picture, the screenplay replaced Al Czervic with Jack Hartounian, a new character to be played by Jackie Mason - like Dangerfield, a Jewish-American Borscht Belt stand-up comedian. After witnessing Mason's one-man comedy act on Broadway at the insistence of producer Jon Peters, Allan Arkush was concerned about the comedian's suitability for the film: “The thing that occurred to me was that [Mason] didn’t connect with the audience in any sort of personal way. That’s not necessarily a good thing for someone who’s supposed to be your lead. At least when Rodney says, ‘I get no respect,’ there's an empathy that he evokes from the audience.”[3] Arkush also stated, "[Mason] is a very funny joke machine and you laugh yourself silly. I needed a comedian who was equally an actor. I went to the producer Jon Peters and told him my fears. He was so convinced that Jackie was a brilliant comedian and could pull it off. Jon looked me in the eye and said, “Don’t turn a Go picture into a development deal.” I should have walked away."[7] Mason's casting in Caddyshack II was publicly announced by Daily Variety on November 17, 1987. Of his role as Jack Hartounian, Mason said, "What I like about [him] is that he's more concerned with the way people treat each other than whether they use the right words in polite society or raise the proper finger to drink a glass of beer."
Chevy Chase was the only cast member from the original Caddyshack to reprise his role (and would publicly announce later that he regretted doing so). Bill Murray refused to reprise his Carl Spackler role, opting to make Scrooged (1988) instead. Murray's Saturday Night Live colleague and Ghostbusters co-star Dan Aykroyd signed on in Murray's place, portraying a mercenary/survivalist hired by Chandler (Stack) to kill Jack (Mason). Although playing new characters in the sequel, Jackie Mason, Robert Stack, Dan Aykroyd, and Jonathan Silverman play roles that are analogous to those played by Dangerfield, Knight, Murray, and Michael O'Keefe in the first film. Sam Kinison, who had appeared alongside Dangerfield in Back to School, was originally intended for Randy Quaid's role, but left the production when Dangerfield dropped out.
Caddyshack II began filming on January 18, 1988, at the Rolling Hills Country Club in Davie, Florida (where Caddyshack had been filmed just under a decade prior). Despite working on the set with a golf pro, Mason could not make a convincing golf swing; he also couldn't remember his lines, had no chemistry with this onscreen love interest (played by Dyan Cannon) and his gorging at the craft services table meant the wardrobe department had to keep letting out his pants. Aykroyd angered the producers by insisting on playing his role with a high-pitched, whinnying voice (which Aykroyd claimed was based on the voice of Colonel Oliver North).[3]
Arkush also had problems working with Chevy Chase, who was paid a substantial fee for a relatively minimal role. Arkush later recalled, "It was a big paycheck, which Chevy talked about a lot... I went into this thinking that Chevy was committed to this character, but he wasn’t. On his first day, we were working out the blocking for his scene and I said, ‘How do you want to do this, Chevy?’ And he was just pissed at me and said, ‘Why? Don’t you have any ideas?!’”[3] Arkush claimed that two days later, when filming Chase, Arkush offered suggestions to which Chase snapped, “What? Don’t I get any input on this?!” Later, while watching one of his scenes during postproduction, Chase quipped to Arkush, “Call me when you’ve dubbed the laugh track,” before walking off in disgust.[3]
Industrial Light and Magic supplied the visual effects for the scenes involving the animatronic gopher; vocal effects for the creature were provided by veteran voice-over artist Frank Welker.