The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz

Summary

“Good night, suckers.”

Fun City Editions has recently released the 1974 dramedy The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz. Directed by Ted Kotcheff, the film’s screenplay was adapted by Lionel Chetwynd and Mordecai Richler from his novel of the same name. In Canada the novel is considered to be a minor classic. It is still in print today. The picture benefits from a very good cast with Richard Dreyfuss in the lead role and Jack Warden, Randy Quaid, Denholm Elliott, Micheline Lanctot, and Allan Kolman in supporting roles. I am always happy to watch movies based upon literature, and I have not had a bad experience yet watching films released by Fun City Editions, so I checked out the film the other night.

In Montreal, Duddy Kravitz (Richard Dreyfuss) is a younger son of a middle class Jewish family. His father Max (Jack Warden) is a taxi driver and a sometime pimp, and his older brother Lennie is in medical school. Duddy is a bit of a black sheep in comparison. Max occasionally does some dealings with a gangster character named Dingleman (Henry Ramer.) Duddy is constantly scheming for ways in which to better himself. He wants to find a way out of the little leagues and into a fortune of his own making. This is partially because of advice he receives from his grandfather that the only way to respect is through the ownership of land. Duddy gets a job at a summer camp as a waiter. The other waiters, who look up to Irwin (Allan Kolman) are well educated and pompous. Duddy is a “regular” waiter from impoverished circumstances. Duddy finds a way of winning over the staff and making great tips off the patrons, much of which through hard work and chutzpah. He runs abreast of Irwin. Duddy gets cleaned out in a roulette swindle orchestrated by Irwin. He loses all the money he had made over the summer. In better news, he finds himself in a relationship with Yvette (Micheline Lanctot) who also works at the camp. Irwin, after cajoling from some of the older men, gives Duddy back the three hundred dollars, and the other patrons of the camp all chip in and give him a good amount as long as he will stay away from roulette. One day, Yvette takes him to a beautiful lake hidden in the woods. He sees his future in that moment. He offers her fifty dollars to not tell anyone about the lake. He endeavors to hire a blacklisted Hollywood director named Friar (Denholm Elliott) to help him film weddings and bar mitzvahs, and thus he begins creating small enterprises and side hustles with the intention of purchasing the property that holds the lake. The film follows his adventures and examines his relationships and friendships as he does anything he can to make it in the world and acquire the land.

The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz is very much in tune with the times in which it was made. Bittersweet comedy-dramas and character studies were given the green light and modest budgets during that decade often, which is partially why that decade feels so lush for folks who love literature and movies. Duddy Kravitz is comedically ambitious, but it also never shies away from the damage that the oversized ambition of Duddy causes. I enjoyed the dramatic and comedic steps that the film took and was satisfied with the film’s story. The script of the film made me curious enough about the novel that I ordered a copy off eBay.  

Dreyfuss plays the role of Duddy with a manic glee. It is an interesting performance that often demands for Dreyfuss be unlikable. In fact, when he saw his performance in the film he believed that his acting career might be over. It definitely took a little bit of warming up for me to get into the rhythm of his performance, but it is really a good performance. Jack Warden is great as Max, but he was always a welcome presence in any film. A young Randy Quaid shows up two thirds into the film and plays an extremely affable and sympathetic character. Denholm Elliott is hilarious as the drunken film director Friar. Micheline Lanctot is also very good as Duddy’s love interest.

Ted Kotcheff was a gunslinger of a director who managed to tackle a number of diverse genres well throughout his career. It is crazy to me to think that the director of this film also directed First Blood, Weekend at Bernie’s, and Wake in Fright. He handled the lightly budgeted and low key picture well by working with cinematographer Brian West, who had previously worked with him on Wake in Fright. The film was well lensed and brought out the best of the Canadian locales. It is worth pointing out that the film is thematically much more mature than the PG rating would convey today. Overall – The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz is an enjoyable dramedy that examines the theme of unchecked ambition and the consequences it can so easily create. It’s a well made character study led by a fearlessly abrasive performance by Richard Dreyfuss.

Video

The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz comes to Blu-ray with a brand new 2K transfer from its 35mm interpositive. The film is presented in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio with an MPEG-4 AVC encode in 1080p. This is a really healthy presentation of the film. The film is a softer focused affair, but the transfer seems to have brought the film elements to high definition while respecting the original cinematography and color timing. Grain is filmic and occasionally becomes fairly apparent but was not distracting.

Audio

Fun City Editions has provided a DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono track in English. Clarity of dialogue is solid. The track is true to the original sound design and faces the  limitations of all mono tracks. I had no issues with this track. 

Supplements:

• Commentary – film historian Adam Nayman discusses the picture.
• Booklet – contains an essay by Nathan Holmes.

Overall Scores:

Video – 4/5

Audio – 4/5

Supplements – 2.5/5

Overall – 4/5

The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz is a well made character study of a fairly unlikable protagonist. The film examines the theme of ambition and the costs that it can toll out well. The screenplay was adapted from a novel that is considered a minor classic in Canada by the author Mordecai Richler himself with the assistance of Lionel Chetwynd. Fans of bittersweet dramedies from this era will find a lot to enjoy about the picture. The performances are all solid with a particularly (and appropriately) abrasive performance by Richard Dreyfuss. He played the role fearlessly, and then worried that it would end his career. The next year he starred in Jaws. Fun City Editions has done right by the film with a solid transfer from an interpositive and an enjoyable audio commentary. Fans of the picture will be pleased and film collectors will enjoy discovering this minor gem.