The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz **** (1974, Richard Dreyfuss, Micheline Lanctôt, Jack Warden, Randy Quaid, Denholm Elliott, Joseph Wiseman) – Classic Movie Review 10,135

Director Ted Kotcheff’s outstanding 1974 Canadian comedy drama The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz stars Richard Dreyfuss, who shows early signs of excellence as Duddy Kravitz, an ambitious youngster from Montreal’s Jewish ghetto in the late-1940s, who sets off on some get-rich-quick schemes. However, Duddy’s older medical student brother Lennie (Alan Rosenthal) is the favourite of their father Max (Jack Warden) and rich Uncle Benjy (Joseph Wiseman).

This long, uneven but often very funny, intelligent and trenchant comedy propels along dynamically with the help of a fine cast. Denholm Elliott stands out in one of his long gallery of faded eccentrics, this time a film-maker Kravitz gets to shoot Bar Mitzvah footage.

Oscar-nominated Mordecai Richler co-scripts the fine screenplay (with Lionel Chetwynd) from his own novel, What Makes Duddy Run?

Kotcheff is the winner of the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival (1974), while Mordecai Richler and Lionel Chetwynd won the 1975 Writers Guild of America award for Best Adapted Screenplay. It was nominated for Best Foreign Film (for Canada) at the 1975 Golden Globes. Richler and Chetwynd were Oscar nominated for Best Screenplay Adapted from Other Material.

Also in the cast are Micheline Lanctôt, Jack Warden, Randy Quaid, Denholm Elliott, Joseph Wiseman, Henry Ramer, Joe Silver, Robert Gooder, and Barry Pascal.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,135

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