The Caddy (1953)

(On Cable TV, July 2022) Often hailed as the best of the Dean Martin/Jerry Lewis comedy duo films, The Caddy shows both performers doing what they do best—being an insufferable comic jitterbug in Lewis’s case, and being a smooth-singing crowd charmer in Martin’s case. (When I was younger, I wanted to be Lewis—now I’d rather be Martin.)  Biographers of the pair tell us that the rift that would blow up the duo a few years later was already apparent by 1953, and indeed The Caddy can be read as a meta-fictional portrayal of two stars finding their chemistry through conflict and very different temperaments. (With a final kicker being the characters meeting the real Lewis/Martin duo.)  The story has something to do about Lewis being a golf instructor to Martin, but that’s not why we’re watching: it’s far more fun to see Lewis being a hyperactive goofball, and Martin strutting out “That’s Amore” (written for the film!) in a rather charming sequence. Viewers aware of the reasons for the Lewis/Martin rift (essentially: Lewis taking more and more space) will recognize the dynamics at play here, with Martin providing the scaffolding for Lewis’s far more noticeable antics. If it wasn’t for “That’s Amore,” Martin would have been sidelined in his own film. While The Caddy is among the best of the pair’s filmography, that doesn’t quite mean that the film itself is all that great—at best, it has a few good moments and plays into the two men’s stage image. But Lewis remains a divisive comic figure, and director Norman Taurog does nothing to stop him from rampaging across the screen. Repeatedly. But that was the shtick, and The Caddy is a polished showcase for both of them.