nelsonmuntz
Point Center
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2011
- Messages
- 44,155
- Reaction Score
- 33,003
I watched the Doug Kenney biopic on Netflix, and I have seen the behind the scenes school on E! about the filming. Putting the partying and craziness of the off screen stuff aside, it is a miracle that a movie that is considered by most lists to be one of the Top 10 or Top 20 comedies of all time was such a train wreck to make.
Director Harold Ramis completely lost control of the movie and the set, and had no idea what he was doing. Knight was supposed to be one of the leading roles, and his part was cut back as more screen time was given to Murray, Chase and Dangerfield. That pissed Knight off. Dangerfield was doing a lot of blow, and didn't even understand the basics of being in a movie, such as when to start acting and when to stop. Chase and Murray hated each other, and a year or two before had actually gotten into a fist fight at SNL. Cindy Morgan did not like Chase either, and they were fighting throughout the movie.
Kenney wrote it, with a lot of input from Ramis and Brian Doyle-Murray, and they had no idea what they were going to make the movie about other than some experiences from their youth. The producer Jon Peters was a total creep when it came to Cindy Morgan, and Ramis stopped a Playboy shoot of Morgan that Peters was pressuring her to do. Kenney hated Peters so much that they had a physical confrontation at one point.
The initial reviews were generally poor, and most of the cast, including Chevy Chase and Ted Knight, thought the movie sucked after filming. I am not sure any of them even screened the final version before it hit theatres. Kenney had mental health issues already, but he thought the movie was so terrible that he went into a deep funk, ultimately killing himself by jumping off a mountain on Kauai a month after Caddyshack's release.
Most movie shoots half this messed up don't get finished, and the other half almost always end up terrible. This movie went on to be a classic that is still popular 40 years later. It is truly one of a kind.
Director Harold Ramis completely lost control of the movie and the set, and had no idea what he was doing. Knight was supposed to be one of the leading roles, and his part was cut back as more screen time was given to Murray, Chase and Dangerfield. That pissed Knight off. Dangerfield was doing a lot of blow, and didn't even understand the basics of being in a movie, such as when to start acting and when to stop. Chase and Murray hated each other, and a year or two before had actually gotten into a fist fight at SNL. Cindy Morgan did not like Chase either, and they were fighting throughout the movie.
Kenney wrote it, with a lot of input from Ramis and Brian Doyle-Murray, and they had no idea what they were going to make the movie about other than some experiences from their youth. The producer Jon Peters was a total creep when it came to Cindy Morgan, and Ramis stopped a Playboy shoot of Morgan that Peters was pressuring her to do. Kenney hated Peters so much that they had a physical confrontation at one point.
The initial reviews were generally poor, and most of the cast, including Chevy Chase and Ted Knight, thought the movie sucked after filming. I am not sure any of them even screened the final version before it hit theatres. Kenney had mental health issues already, but he thought the movie was so terrible that he went into a deep funk, ultimately killing himself by jumping off a mountain on Kauai a month after Caddyshack's release.
Most movie shoots half this messed up don't get finished, and the other half almost always end up terrible. This movie went on to be a classic that is still popular 40 years later. It is truly one of a kind.