The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz

(Canada)

International Cinemedia Center. Director Ted Kotcheff; Producer John Kemeny; Writer Mordecai Richler; Camera Brian West Editor Thom Noble; Music Stanley Myers (sup.) Art Anne Pritchard

Richard Dreyfuss
Micheline Lanctot
Jack Warden
Randy Quaid
Joseph Wiseman
Denholm Elliott

Director Ted Kotcheff has taken Mordecai Richler's novel by the scruff of the neck and worked a zesty but somewhat muted nostalgic look at a nervy Jewish kid on the make in the 1940s [adaptation by Lionel Chetwynd].

On screen, Duddy Kravitz remains as it was when first published in 1959 to outraged cries from Jewish groups across North America and more particularly from Montreal where it is authentically set. That is an at-times bitter, satiric portrayal of a 19-year-old who gets his money, women and power by emulating the richest of those around him, selling everyone, closest friends included, out.

Kravitz, played by a continually-grinning, scratching, nervous-making yet vulnerable Richard Dreyfuss, comes across effectively and with force.

1974: Nomination: Best Adapted Screenplay

(Color) Widescreen. Available on VHS. Extract of a review from 1974. Running time: 120 MIN.

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