Movie review: ‘Fletch’

FloridaGator80

I absolutely despise films that take a novel I enjoy from an author I truly respect and change it. They almost without a doubt turn out to be crap and the changes are usually nonsensical. However, comedian Chevy Chase made me a fan of “Fletch,” as filmmakers took a wonderful, dramatic novel about journalism (my real career) and gave it the classic, iconic humor and lines that is the reason you remember it today. Of course, Chevy on screen will forever be funnier than pithy comments from a snarky reporter on the pages of a book. In any case, you know and fondly remember “Fletch,” unless you’re a teenager … or someone with no discernible sense of humor.

‘Fletch’
(1985; 98 minutes; rated PG; directed by Michael Ritchie and starring Chevy Chase, Joe Don Baker and Dana Wheeler-Nicholson)

FROM ‘MOON RIVER’ TO MURDER, ‘FLETCH’ IS THE MAN

(NOTE: I updated links in this review on April 16, 2016. I also expanded the review on Sept. 6, 2017, with additional opinion, more trivia and the further updating of links. I again expanded the review on March 12, 2022. I again expanded the review on March 21, 2025. I updated the review on May 20, 2025, with the death of a supporting cast member.)

I’m sure doctors got tired of hearing “Moon River” at a certain point during annual physicals from patients who enjoyed the film “Fletch.” The exam that spurs Chevy Chase’s “Moon River” isn’t done as much today by doctors, but it managed to be one of the early and funniest scenes in a film full of them. All are courtesy of Chevy as the title character and, while Chevy hasn’t always done great comedy in film, he sure hit a grand slam home run with “Fletch.”

Chase and director Michael Ritchie take a serious novel and inject Chevy’s considerable talent to deliver his brand of comedy to make us laugh at him, ourselves and especially someone else. It’s no wonder that “Fletch” is in the same comedy pantheon with Chevy’s “Caddyshack” (click here for my short look at it), the original “National Lampoon’s Vacation” and “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” (click here to read my review).

“Fletch” the novel isn’t the funny-bone wracking story that the film accomplishes. Gregory Mcdonald, who died in 2008, wrote his “Fletch” as the story of a serious journalist who skates the edge of ethics to pursue serious stories. His “Fletch” character is pithy and sarcastic, but in a serious way and not as a comedian. Even so, Chevy and Ritchie took a chance and Chase successfully makes his own mark. Fans of the book simply cannot be in any way disappointed, despite the change(s).

Chase as “Fletch” is newspaper reporter “Irwin Fletcher” (the character was “I. M. Fletcher” in the book, with the “I” being Irwin and “M” is Maurice). He’s staking out the beach of his southern California community as he works to close out a story about drug traffic there. While on the beach, he’s singled out by an executive who asks Chase to kill him because he has cancer – that way his family will get the insurance that they wouldn’t if he killed himself. Of course, Chase is suspicious and now he has two stories to investigate.

Naturally and stereotypically, both stories finally intersect to a conclusion, but not before Chase must deal with an ex-wife’s attorney, crooked cops, a car chase and scamming lobster lunches at an uppity tennis club and a particularly snooty club member.

Now, here’s my look at some of the principal cast:

  • A two-time Golden Globe nominee and two-time Emmy winner, Chase plays his character is similar to what he did in “Foul Play” (click here for my review) and “Seems Like Old Times” (click here for my review), but is just a couple of degrees further out there. He lies to everyone and is also funny in every single scene. The best thing is that he is so smooth in his delivery that you just know he’s this way in real life. Chase has also been in the nasty sequel “Fletch Lives” as well as “¡Three Amigos!” “Modern Problems” and the horrid “Dirty Work” in possibly his worst role in cinema (click here to read my review). Both his Globe nominations were for “Foul Play.”
  • The initial bad guy here is “National Lampoon’s Animal House” veteran Tim Matheson, who is a two-time Emmy nominee for “The West Wing.” He plays rich executive “Alan Stanwyk.” He does a good job with the character’s cold, efficient nature and “Stanwyk” needs a stooge for a criminal ploy to work. Matheson is solid, but the film is Chase’s vehicle, so his part is marginal. Matheson has also been in the pitiful “Up the Creek” (click here to read my review) as well as better efforts in Clint Eastwood’s “Magnum Force” as a killer cop (click here to read my review). Frankly, I liked him best in “A Very Brady Sequel” (click here to read my review) because he wound up “trippin’ with the Bradys” after eating mushrooms.
  • Joe Don Baker, who was the good guy in the original “Walking Tall,” is the leading bad guy here and, like Matheson, has a pretty much marginalized role. He is OK, but it’s still Chase’s film. Baker has also been in several “007” films including “GoldenEye” (click here to read my review) and “Tomorrow Never Dies” (click here to read my review) as well as “Cape Fear” and “The Natural.”
  • Dana Wheeler-Nicholson plays “Gail Stanwyk,” who is Matheson’s wife and becomes the love interest for Chase. Her role is pretty much window dressing, but she’s competent and is smooth in her delivery, especially the comedy scenes at the tennis club. She has also been in “Tombstone” and “Fast Food Nation” after her first film, “The Little Drummer Girl.” I especially liked her effort in one of her several episodes of “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” (click here for my look at the series).
  • Emmet Walsh plays “Dr. Joseph Dolan” and continually pokes incisive questions as Chase’s lies mount up about himself and his relationship to Matheson. Walsh might be puzzled, but he never loses control of the questions and answers and it’s a solid effort. Walsh was also in “Blade Runner,” “Christmas with the Kranks” and was also on two episodes of TV’s “Home Improvement.” Although, he was in the cast of the crappy remake “Wild Wild West” (click here to read my review), you’ll better remember him as the dive team coach in “Back to School” with Rodney Dangerfield (click here to read my review). Walsh, who notched 236 acting credits in a career spanning seven decades since the first in 1968, died of a heart attack at 88 in 2024, just three days before his birthday.
  • A six-time Emmy nominee, George Wendt, who earned them all for work during his 269 episodes on TV’s “Cheers,” plays “Fat Sam” and is the drug dealer on the beach who Chase has befriended. Wendt is just like other supporting actors here: The role isn’t big but he does a good job with it. His “Fat Sam” is one that could have been expanded to help the film or eliminated as unnecessary. Wendt has also been in “Forever Young” and “Man of the House” (also with Chase – click here to read my review). He was also in the underrated sci-fi thriller “Dreamscape.” Wendt died on May 20, 2025, at 76 of natural causes.
  • Richard Libertini plays “Frank Walker,” who is Chase’s longsuffering editor. He does a great job as the clueless supervisor who nearly gets Chase killed by telling crooked cops that “Fletch” knows about the source of drugs on the beach. He has also been in “Awakenings,” “Days of Heaven” and “Nell.” Libertini died at 82 of cancer in 2016.
  • A future Oscar winner and nominee as well as a future Golden Globe winner and three-time nominee, Geena Davis, who plays “Larry,” is the newspaper’s researcher and works with Chase. It’s another small role that’s a setup for Chase’s next joke. Davis has also been in “A League of their Own,” “Beetlejuice” and “The Fly.” I’m not going to write about any of her winning films or nominations.

Although you wouldn’t consider the supporting actors a group of actors’ actors, they do their job and help make “Fletch” become an instant classic for many.

In my final evaluation, there’s no getting away from one fact: Chase’s comedy is what you know is coming, you wait for and you get the prize in every scene.

For those who haven’t seen “Fletch,” here’s what happens … at a certain point in his physical exam (he’s there so he can question the bad guy’s doctor) he’s talking but looks up quickly and pseudo-sings, “Moon River! Whew! Thank you, Doc. You ever serve time?” Then he adds, “You using the whole fist, Doc?” Or his droll humor in ordering steak sandwiches, caviar and champagne and charging it to a stranger at a club. It’s like nothing ever fazes him other than to make the next joke at the expense of another person. He also continually uses a string of made-up names.

And so it goes …

Chase gets everything together by the end and walks off into the literal sunset with Wheeler-Nicholson after the fatal showdown between Matheson and Baker. “Fletch” is a good film from an outstanding book and it’s too bad this doesn’t happen more often – especially when the film completely changes the tone of the novel.

“Fletch” was the 12th ranked film at the U.S. box office in 1985 with $50.6 million in ticket sales, according to Box Office Mojo. It was right ahead of “007’s” “A View to a Kill” and Chase’s “European Vacation.” “Fletch” was made on an $8 million budget and its worldwide take was $59.6 million, according to Wiki. The No. 1 film of the year was “Back to the Future” with $210.6 million. Here are the other films from 1985 that I’ve reviewed on my blog:

Assorted cast and film notes (via IMDb.com):

  • Hollywood is filled with actors not blessed with height. Just take Dustin Hoffman at 5-foot-5¾ or Mickey Rooney at 5-foot-2. So, here’s a rundown of this film’s rather tall cast: Chase at 6-foot-3½; Baker at 6-foot-2¼; Wheeler-Nicholson at 5-foot-9; Libertini at 6-foot-1½; Matheson at 6-foot-2; and Geena Davis at 6 feet tall.
  • The novel’s author reportedly had final say on casting and rejected Mick Jagger (Mick Jagger?) and Burt Reynolds. Whew! Talk about potentially stupid mistakes in casting. Reynolds would have just been a mistake, but Jagger would have proved that someone was delusional, mentally ill or had dropped some acid. I’m glad that McDonald had the power over casting and was the intelligent author he was and made the correct pick.
  • Directly from IMDb.com: “The award banquet Fletch interrupts is in honor of Fred Dorfman. Fred Dorfman the name of Kent “Flounder” Dorfman’s brother in National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978), which was originally going to feature Chevy Chase as Eric “Otter” Stratton. Otter was eventually played by Tim Matheson, who also appears in this movie as Alan Stanwyk.”
  • One scene for the mansion where Matheson lives is the home of the movie producer who crosses “Don Corleone” in “The Godfather.”
  • The simply worst idea of all ever mentioned about “Fletch:” Director Kevin Smith wanted to do the remake (I refuse to call one a “reboot”) with Jason Lee in the starring role. I respect Smith, especially for “Dogma” (click here for my review), but Lee is no leading comedian (he’s no leading actor in any film genre, for that matter) and Smith would be bound to fumble it because it’s not his comedy style – and he doesn’t have the raw talent to pull it off.
  • Finally and directly from IMDb.com: “Chevy Chase has mentioned in interviews that Fletch is his favorite of his movies, because it gave him the ‘opportunity to be himself.’”

© Chuck Curry and A Gator in Naples,
©2014, ©2016, ©2017, 2022, ©2025
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without
express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner
is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that
full and clear credit is given to Chuck Curry and A Gator in Naples
with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Unknown's avatar

Published by FloridaGator80

Leave a Reply