Some Thoughts About 'Caddyshack'-- Part 3: Of Comic Styles and a Baby Ruth

**  There were at least four styles of comedy in the movie.  You had Bill Murray's  absurdist, Rodney Dangerfield's nightclub one-liners, Chevy Chase's snark and Ted Knight's sitcom rage.

**  Chase's golf pro never keeps score and then there was that priest declaring that there is no God.

**  The infamous pool evacuation scene -- a Baby Ruth candy bar lands in the water and gets mistaken for something else -- was inspired by an actual prank that had been played while the Murray brothers attended Loyola Academy in Wilmette.

**  The scene, shot four years after the release of "Jaws" and borrowing John Williams' iconic score, is remarkably faithful to Steven Spielberg's staging of the shark attack in :Jaws."  Ramis keeps the camera at the waterline, waves swamping the lens, and then the stampede out of the water is ugly and out of focus at times.

**  In case you haven't tested the theory, Baby Ruths do not float in water.

**  Early in the film, the head caddy wrangler threatens his unruly charges that if they don't straighten up they will be replaced with cheaper, less-mouthy golf carts.  Indian Hill Country Club still uses caddies.

--DaCootMurray

What Makes A Movie Scary?-- Part 2: Maniac Killers and That Big Ol' Shark

**  Ones I've seen:

**  GET OUT--  (2017)--  A young black man meets his white girlfriend's family.  Guess who's not coming to dinner.

HEREDITARY--  (2018)--  They say this may be too intense for some.  You've been warned.

**  HALLOWEEN  (1978)--  John Carpenter terrorized middle America with this one.  It's all in the family.

**  JAWS  (1975)--  Steven Spielberg's masterpiece about a big ol' shark.  But you never had to worry about it until you heard that music.  That meant Sharkey was nearby.

**  NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD   (1968)--  George Romero's original.  All zombie shows owe this for their existence.

Like, BOO!!!  --CootScared

"Jaws" Turns 40-- Part 6: Spielberg Makes His Getaway

22.  Richard Dreyfus was not available to shoot the close-up of Hooper's face when he saw the shark coming at the cage so his stunt-double Frank Sparks had a Dreyfus-sized beard and was used instead.

23.  For the scene of the shark plunging to the bottom, Spielberg blended in the sound of a roaring dinosaur.

24.  Spielberg heard that the crew was going to throw him in the water at the end of the 5 1/2-month shoot.  He wore leather and suede clothing hoping that would stop them that last day.  Just to be safe, he slipped away to a ferry and headed quickly to a waiting car.  He leaned out the window and yelled, "I shall NOT return" as it pulled away.

25.  In order to secure a PG rating instead of R, Spielberg had to cit a few frames from the scene where the boater's leg was bitten off.

And, now it seems sharks are having their own salute to the movie's 40th anniversary off the coast of North Carolina.

Don't Go Into the Water.  --Cooter

"Jaws" Turns 40-- Part 5: "Here Lies the Body...."

17.  The naughty limerick Quint says before the Orca leaves to go after the shark: "Here lies the body of Mary Lee/died at the age of 107/For 15 years she kept her virginity/Not a bad record for this vicinity." was lifted from a tombstone Shaw had seen in Ireland.

18.  To pass time on the set, Spielberg and Dreyfus would sing songs by Stan Freberg.

19.  For the Orca, an old boat named the Warlock was secired.  Bit Spielberg felt it lacked character and replaced the entire wheelhouse.  Most crucially though, he added big windows on all sides so viewers would see ocean everywhere they looked-- a movie that highlighted just how isolated the three men were.

20.  The famous USS Indianapolis speech was filmed twice.  The first time Shaw was too drunk to tell it correctly.

21.  For Hooper's underwater cage scene Spielberg needed film of a real Great White.  The film he got was of one only 14-feet long, ten feet shorter than the movie one.  So he hired 4'9" stuntman Carl Rizzo and placed him a in a miniature cage.

The Ship the Navy Forgot.  --Cooter

"Jaws" Turns 40-- Part 4: "Hey Baby, I'm a Star!!"

12.  To record Susan Backalinic's screams (she was the first one the shark attacked), Spielberg stood above the actress with a bassinet full of water and poured it over he mouth as she yelled.

13.  Dreyfus became a star during the filming with his role in "The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz" which opened and he used this fame to try to pick up women during the filming.

14.  The 13-foot tiger shark reeled in was a real shark, caught in Florida, packed in ice and shipped to Martha's Vineyard where it sat on the dock for four days, making an awful stench.

In revenge, islanders left shark carcasses at the homes of the producers.

15.  To make the blood as distinctive as possible, Spielberg ordered that no other bright red objects could be filmed in the same scene.

16.  Three mechanical sharks, each weighing in at a ton and a half and costing about 150,000 apiece were used.They would sometimes sink and one had its hydraulics explode.  They also became discolored from exposure to the sea.

And, We're Not Finished Yet.  --CootShark

"Jaws" Turns 40-- Part 3: Marvin's Going Fishing

7.  Another Spielberg scene that was cut for the beginning of the movie was the harbor master sitting in a shack and watching the 1957 World War II movie "Don't Go Near the Water.  While he stares at the scene, you see the masts of the boats start to rocking and the shark's wake.  The shark eventually attacks him.

8.  Spielberg also wanted two characters from his 1974 comedy "The Sugarland Express" to be beachgoers.

9.  Jon Voight was originally approached to play Hooper, but he turned it down.  Also Timothy Bottoms and Jeff Bridges and then Richard Dreyfus were asked, but all turned it down as well.  But later Dreyfus approached Spielberg and asked it the part was still open.

10.  Spielberg wanted Lee Marvin to play Quint, but was turned down, supposedly because Marvin wanted to go "fishing for real."  Producers suggested Shaw be given the part who had just recently been in "The Sting."

11.  Actress Susan Backlinic played the doomed swimmer Chrissie Watkins in the opening scene.  She was supposed to recite "The Lord's Prayer" as she was being pulled against the buoy, but neither she nor any of the others on set could remember the words.

Then, There Was That Scary Music.  --Don'tGoNeartheWatererCooter

"Jaws" Turns 40-- Part 2: No "Moby-Dick"

4.  Numerous story lines offered the movie by Peter Benchley were turned down.

5.  Steven Spielberg wrote his own draft.  He had Quint in an Amity movie theater, at the beginning of the movie,watching the 1956 movie "Moby-Dick."  He starts laughing loudly and people leave.  He is then all alone.

6.  Spielberg approached Gregory Peck, the star of "Moby-Dick" and also that movie's producer for permission to use the clip at the beginning of his movie but was turned down.  After "Jaws'" success, Peck's film was rereleased in 1975 with the tagline "Before the shark, there was the whale."

The Great White Whale.  --Cooter

"Jaws" Tuns 40-- Part 1: Steven's Lawyer's Name

From the 6-18-15 Yahoo! Movies "25 Deep-Dive Facts About 'Jaws,' the Wildest, Most waterlogged Movie Shoot of All Time" by Brian Raftery.

It was released to day, 40 years ago, directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley's successful 1974 book.  It starred Roy Schneider as Brody, Robert Shaw as Quint and Richard Dreyfuss as Hooper, who go out to battle the great white shark.  The mechanical sharks that had the part were all named Bruce, after Spielberg's lawyer.

Go to site for photos, video and more information.

1.  Peter Benchley originally considered dozens of names for his book like Leviathan Rising, Dreadful Silence, Dark White and Edge of Gloom before settling on Jaws.

2.   The producer spent $150,000 for the film rights to the book.

3.  The book sold 5.5 million copies by the time the movie premiered.

I never worry when I'm in the ocean unless I hear those ominous sounds.  Then I get out.

See What happens When You Go Swimming in the Nude.  --DaCoot