The problem with Rodney Dangerfield’s starring films is that Dangerfield is too funny – he’s such an extreme life of the party that the production stalls and stagnates whenever he’s not on the screen.
“Back to School” is typical of this problem. As Thomas Mellon, the cheerfully vulgar owner of a chain of plus-size clothing stores – “Fine woolen, and woolen-blend suits and sport coats, in all the larger sizes: husky, stout, extra-stout, and the new Hindenburg line” – Dangerfield enrolls in the same college where his unhappy son is struggling and turns higher education on its head. Whether clashing with high-minded academics on the realities of running a business or partying with a distinctive rendition of “Twist and Shout” or reciting Dylan Thomas’ poetry with a brilliantly inappropriate coda or performing the “Triple Lindy” in a diving competition, Dangerfield was never funnier on the screen.
To his credit, Dangerfield was comfortable enough to share the laughs with the right talent. This is especially grand when he is going up against an excessively bellicose history professor (the great Sam Kinison at his high-decibel best) or having his conscience realigned by his gruff bodyguard/chauffer (a wonderfully deadpan Burt Young) or having his agenda-driven philanthropy absorbed by the unctuous administration named Dean Martin (Ned Beatty, enacting a perfect sycophantic laugh). And, arguably, the funniest moment in the film belongs to a surprise appearance by the celebrated novelist Kurt Vonnegut Jr. – when I saw “Back to School” on its opening weekend in 1986, Vonnegut’s appearance generated the longest laugh by an audience I’ve ever experienced in a theater.
Unfortunately, “Back to School” loses its charm and verve when it switches away from Dangerfield to the plotline involving his struggling son, played valiantly by Keith Gordon. It’s a dollop of pathos that doesn’t belong in this bowl of madcap nonsense, and it makes the viewer impatient for Dangerfield to return for more shenanigans. (Robert Downey Jr. is on hand for the comic relief in those sequences, but he isn’t amusing.) Too bad the screenplay couldn’t have been recalibrated to focus fully on Dangerfield’s character without the heartstring-tugging situations involving his dreary son.
Oh, a shout out is needed for an early scene in this film when Dangerfield’s character dumps his gold-digger second wife, played by the peerless Adrienne Barbeau. She doesn’t have much screen time but, damn and va-va-voom, she does the impossible in stealing the scene from Dangerfield.