Rodney Dangerfield specialised in gatecrashing films, even the ones he was headlining.
In Caddyshack he played nouveau-riche property developer, Al Czervik, with all the understatement of a psychotic bull on heat. He’s Groucho Marx channelling Tony Montana (think, “Say hello to my little putter”). Small wonder Scarface’s writer, Oliver Stone, cast him as Mallory’s abusive father in Natural Born Killers. Groucho famously quipped that he’d refuse to join any club that was prepared to accept him as a member. Dangerfield’s Czervik has no such scruples but then again no one is prepared to accept him, on any level. Dressed permanently like a clown’s idea of a porn star on a first date Dangerfield doesn’t so much chew the scenery in Caddyshack as dry hump it, eyes permanently bulging in extremis as he ejaculates each punchline. There are few scenes with him alongside his comedic co-stars Bill Murray and Chevy Chase. Perhaps their agents took the decision to keep the young turks away from the old lion on career health and safety grounds. Dangerfield physically dominates scenes, walking and twitching into view like some kind of jive-ass artillery prior to verbally razing everything to the ground; other characters, no matter how integral or peripheral are simply cannon fodder. The plot doesn’t move on when he’s on screen, it wisely just gets out of the way.
In Caddyshack Dangerfield decimates a golf club (and a yacht club) and its elitist members. He’s a class warrior with no class, all mouth and checked trousers. In Back to School he’s trashing a college and its elitist faculty. He’s a class warrior with no class, all mouth and pastel slacks. In both films he’s unapologetically and vulgarly super-rich, a self-made man still on the make, best illustrated by the fact that he can only join his target establishments by buying his way in. His Back To School character, Thornton Melon, is given an added dimension over Caddyshack’s Al Czervik in the form of a nerdy, loser son over whom he dotes like a love-lorn puppy. This is useful if for no other reason than it allows the audience to draw breath and Dangerfield time to reload his muzzle.
In his career Dangerfield had a long run of early failures before he finally found success. His “I get no respect” catchphrase was testimony to how he overcame the knock-backs and was the basis of his comedic world-view: if you can’t join ’em beat ’em. “Rodney Dangerfield…There goes the neighbourhood” are the words on his headstone.
His persona personified the idea of living life in the service of ‘lower pleasures; there is something both attractive and counter-intuitive to our relishing his relentless abuse of the ‘high pleasures’ afforded from formal education, intellectual self-improvement and moral fortitude. The kick to the kerb kameo of Kurt Vonnegut illustrates this contrast beautifully.
Bingo Little says
I like this post. I LOVE Back to School.
James Blast says
I have spouted long and hard about Caddyshack, it fell on deaf ears. I’m happy to see RD’s light is not lost on all here. BTW, if you’ve seen the peogramme about the making of Caddyshack, you’ll see it was a cocaine fueled enterprise.
“Hey Wang! it’s a parking lot”
Chimney Singing Crow says
My favourite film. “Hey, wanna make fifty bucks the hard way?”
Tell me more about this programme….. Where can I find it
Baskerville Old Face says
My favourite line: ‘Hey waiter, you call this a steak? I can still see the marks where the jockey was hittin’ it!”
man.of.soup says
Brilliant post – great description:
“Dressed permanently like a clown’s idea of a porn star on a first date Dangerfield doesn’t so much chew the scenery in Caddyshack as dry hump it, eyes permanently bulging in extremis as he ejaculates each punchline.”
Perfectly sums his screen presence up.