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 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 wealthy and widowed real estate developer Jack Hartounian who goes up against Bushwood Country Club's snobbish president Chandler Young 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.
Caddyshack II was released by Warner Bros. on July 22, 1988. The sequel was panned by critics and is considered one of the worst sequels of all time. 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
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 rough but charming Jack to join their country club Bushwood, where the gopher still dwells.When the elitist, old money members of Bushwood meet self-made, nouveau riche 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 lewd, but well-meaning Jack is wealthy widow Elizabeth Pearce. Jack runs afoul of Bushwood's arrogant president Chandler Young who declares the Hartounians "are not Bushwood material." Chandler's equally haughty 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 and the Pierponts, 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 blacklisted by the club and Chandler having the construction site being shut down by establishing a Historical Preservation Society, Jack turns to his friend 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 gaudy amusement park called Jackie's Wacky Golf, angering 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. Kate moves in with Miffy after a heated argument with Jack.
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. 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 offended at the thought of changing her family name. Kate attacks Miffy and reconciles 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 Cynthia 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 pursues a poodle.
Cast
Construction workers portrayed by Andre Rosey Brown, Dennis Bowen, Gary Carlos Cervantes, Kenny D'Aquila, and Mark Christopher Lawrence.Production
The original Caddyshack was a box-office success, making $60 million worldwide on a budget of $4.8 million. Warner Bros. therefore set about to make a sequel. As originally planned, Caddyshack II would have reunited Rodney Dangerfield with the director Alan Metter, who had worked with Dangerfield in the comedy film Back to School. Dangerfield, who made $35,000 for Caddyshack, asked for $7 million – of which $5 million was to be paid in advance – to reprise his Al Czervic role in Caddyshack II. Needing a big comedy for the summer of 1988, Warner Bros. agreed to Dangerfield's demands and paid Chevy Chase a seven-figure sum to reprise his role of Ty Webb from the original Caddyshack.Jon Peters, executive producer of Caddyshack, would produce the sequel with Peter Guber and Neil Canton. The studio invited Caddyshack director Harold Ramis, who co-wrote that film with Brian Doyle-Murray and Douglas Kenney, to write the sequel.
Ramis later described Caddyshack II, which he co-wrote with his Second City Television colleague PJ Torokvei, as "terrible." In an interview with The A.V. Club in 1999, Ramis said that:
Ramis was later quoted as saying that Dangerfield was the only one who expressed an interest in doing a sequel in the first place. Ted Knight had died two years earlier, Bill Murray was not interested in reprising his role as Carl Spackler the greenskeeper, and he said Chase had "already moved on", although Chase did eventually agree to appear.
Ramis worked on the first draft of Caddyshack II in the summer of 1987 with Torokvei. Dangerfield did not like the script and requested rewrites. Growing disillusioned with the project, Dangerfield reportedly tried to force Warner Bros. to release him from his contract by demanding additional royalties and final-cut rights. In October 1987, less than a month before Caddyshack II was scheduled to begin filming and with $2 million already spent by the studio on pre-production, Dangerfield dropped out of the project because he felt it would not be successful. Warner Bros. sued Dangerfield for breach of contract. Early in the hearings, the studio settled with Dangerfield for an undisclosed amount.
The project was put on hold while Warner Bros. looked for a new director, eventually landing upon Allan Arkush. A former protégé of Roger Corman and collaborator with Joe Dante, Arkush directed several motion pictures before becoming a prolific director of episodic television, with credits including L.A. Law, St. Elsewhere and Moonlighting. Arkush was keen to get back into directing films, later recalling, "I had a really successful run on television. Moonlighting was a big deal, I was doing L.A. Law, working on pilots and I had a deal with Warner Bros. to direct and they said, “Well, there’s another National Lampoon movie.” National Lampoon Goes to College and I thought, “That sounds like a good idea.” They couldn't get it bought. So they asked, “How would you like to make Caddyshack II?”
After the offer was made, Arkush rented and watched the original Caddyshack and signed on to direct the sequel. He was not aware at the time of the litigation between the studio and Dangerfield. It was only after agreeing to direct Caddyshack II that 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.”
Screenwriters Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman, who scripted Who Framed Roger Rabbit, were brought in to overhaul Ramis and Torokvei's script. With 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, Arkush was concerned about the comedian's suitability for the film: “The thing that occurred to me was that 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.” Arkush also stated, " 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."
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 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." Mason's character in Caddyshack II has the same surname as the character Mason played in The Jerk, Harry Hartounian.
Chase was the only cast member from the original Caddyshack to reprise his role. Murray refused to reprise his Carl Spackler role, opting to make Scrooged instead. Murray's Saturday Night Live colleague and Ghostbusters co-star Dan Aykroyd signed on in Murray's place, portraying Captain Tom Everett, a mercenary/survivalist hired by Chandler Young to kill Jack. Although playing new characters in the sequel, Mason, Stack, 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 Peter Blunt, 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. Despite working on the set with a golf pro, Mason could not convincingly swing a golf club; he also had difficulty remembering his lines, had no chemistry with his onscreen love interest Elizabeth Pearce and continuous overindulgence at the craft services table required the costume department to keep altering his wardrobe to accommodate his growing waistline. Aykroyd angered the producers by insisting on performing his character with a bizarre, grating, high-pitched voice.
Arkush had a bad working relationship with 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?!’” Arkush claimed that two days later, when filming Chase, Arkush offered suggestions to which Chase replied, “What? Don’t I get any input on this?!” Later, while watching one of his scenes during postproduction, Chase said to Arkush, “Call me when you’ve dubbed the laugh track,” before walking off in disgust.
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.