Back to School (1986) * * *

 

Directed by: Alan Metter

Starring:  Rodney Dangerfield, Keith Gordon, Robert Downey, Jr., Burt Young, Sally Kellerman, Paxton Whitehead, William Zabka, Terry Farrell, Adrienne Barbeau, Sam Kinison, M. Emmet Walsh, Ned Beatty

While Back to School doesn't match Easy Money in sheer comic brilliance, it is funny and touching when it needs to be.  It's almost impossible to watch Rodney Dangerfield and not laugh, which I mean of course in the best possible way.  He not only doles out the jokes, but he's a ball of infectious nervous energy with the goofiest facial expressions.  Underneath it all, though, is a man who wants to be loved.  His character, multi-millionaire clothing store chain founder Thornton Melon, is a crude man who has money but doesn't behave well among the rich and snobby.   He is a widower (with a gold-digging second wife he can't wait to divorce) who has been searching for another woman he loved as much as his first bride.  And he dearly loves his son, Jason (Gordon), who unhappily attends Grand Lakes University as an unpopular towel boy who can't make the swim team.  

Thornton feels so badly for Jason that he decides to enroll in the university to support him.   An endowment for a new business school greases the skids for someone who is "fifty years older than our average freshman".   Thornton throws money around, has his son's dorm room remodeled, and even helps Jason make the swim team.  Jason, however, seeks further into despair watching his father become the Big Man on Campus.   Thornton also initiates a romance with his English professor (Kellerman), while making an enemy of his economics professor (Whitehead), who loathes Thornton mostly because he likes Kellerman also. 

Like Easy Money, Back to School is full of funny supporting performances, including Burt Young as Thornton's loyal driver Lou, Robert Downey, Jr. in an early role as Jason's rebellious best friend Derek, and Sam Kinison as a history professor who screams at his students (very much like his stand-up act).  There are subplots including Jason's love for a young lady who is dating the prick swim team captain, but they don't subtract from Dangerfield, who can carry subpar material with the sheer force of his humor and personality.   Not that Back to School is subpar.