Would Fletch (1985) Have Worked if Chevy Chase Wasn't an Asshole? (Part 2)

Guest post alert (again)! If you missed last week’s newsletter, James Francis of Adventures in Indie Gaming (a very good newsletter chronicling new video games) pitched me on a deep dive into Fletch, and his Chevy Chase manifesto was too long (and too good) to limit to one installment. So, in back-to-back weeks across two different months, James is our very first repeat guest writer. (And yes, I am enjoying my holiday break. I bet my editor John is too. [I edit these things when I don’t write them, you know.]) If you liked last week’s piece, I have a feeling you’ll love this one even more. Take it away (again), James!

"Is everything a joke to you, Fletch?"

"Everything, Sam."

By the mid 80s, Chevy Chase was on a high. He was so well known that he featured prominently on the poster for Foul Play, a forgotten but fun Goldie Hawn vehicle, even though he was a supporting character.* In Caddyshack, he held his own against comedic juggernauts such as Bill Murray and Rodney Dangerfield. His character in National Lampoon's Vacation, Clark Griswold, became a cultural touchstone.

But many people are most fond of Fletch, the 1985 comedy about a roguish investigative reporter who gets tangled up in a murder conspiracy. The producers and director Michael Ritchie considered several actors for their lead before they landed on Chase.** That casting would remove any remaining hopes of faithfully adapting Gregory Mcdonald’s original novel.***

The Movie vs. the Book

Fletch is based on a popular 1974 novel featuring a salty investigative reporter trying to get to the bottom of a drug syndicate. While doing so, he's approached by a rich executive who, mistaking Irwin M. "Fletch" Fletcher for a drifter, asks Fletch to kill him so his family can claim the insurance money. What follows is a tandem story about the two cases and how our hero uncovers the truth.

The book is what I'd call “journalism porn,” an interesting fetishization for investigative journalism (perhaps a popular topic because of the recent Watergate scandal). The author once said he got the idea "from other people in the newsroom about other reporters doing these things for stories." It mainly revolves around the sexy scaliness of Fletch, who lies and cons his way into information, battles his idiot editors, and acts more like an antihero private detective than a newspaper columnist.

The movie and book share a similar structure but not the same spirit. The book is earnest, not intended to be funny. Fletch is quite sociopathic, happy to lie, cheat, and manipulate anyone to get his story. Even the novel's ending cements that he doesn't care about anyone but himself. He's only the nicest person in the room because the other characters are often more dislikable.

That's not Fletch in the movie. Movie Fletch is a wisecracking smartass, not a manipulative con artist. The audience supports him because he's likable, not because he monopolizes the narrative perspective. The biggest differences between the novel and the movie are how the latter changed story elements to make the character come across as less callous and nasty.

For example, in both versions, Fletch impersonates the guest of a country club member. In the book, he uses a name he skims off a membership locker, a means to an end for his investigations that he casually abuses several times with no consequence. The movie, however, shows said club member mistreating the staff and being an entitled dick. Fletch sees this and starts intentionally adding expensive items to the bill. His revenge is poetic and justified to the audience.

Injecting Chase's Comedy

Several characters were also removed or consolidated into one. The movie does away with Fletch's misogynistic battle against his inept editor and his affair with an underage drug user. Notably, the movie adds Larry, an unofficial assistant to Fletch played by Geena Davis. Though some lament that her character is underused, in reality, Larry has a bigger role in the movie than any woman in the book—a clear attempt to move away from the novel's treatment of female characters.

But the most striking change is in the execution, and this is where the Chevy Chase difference is most obvious. While the book's Fletch conducts most of his subterfuge through phone conversations, the movie instead features on-location skits that allowed Chase to play different characters.

The iconic medical visit in the movie, where Chase croons “Moon River” when the doctor probes his prostate, is a droll phone conversation in the book (with no crooning or probing). The frantic burglary of the real estate office is another phone call. So is the visit to the elderly parents of the executive. Even all the information gleaned about the airplane ticket and mystery flights.

I can't say I really enjoyed the book. I thought it was shallow and unfunny. But maybe I'm more of an Elmore Leonard fan. However, objectively, the movie needed something special to make this character likable—and that was through a Chevy Chase who'd happily burn bridges to get his way. 

The Chevy Chase Difference

Director Harold Ramis once said "If Chevy Chase had not been an actor, he might have been a very popular guy in advertising, or whatever field he would have gone into, because of his charisma."****

However, Chase was fine with breaking some eggs if it got things done his way. Accounts vary on how well the shoot went. Chase had just returned from rehab and the producers were worried he'd get out of hand. Ritchie was hired partly to manage the mercurial star. Some reports claim that Chase got along with the director. But other stories indicate that he chafed against the restrictions of the script, and eventually Ritchie agreed to shoot two takes for every scene: one based on the script, and one where Chase improvised.

It's a matter of legend which versions made it into the film, but enough of Chase’s takes did for him to proclaim "[Screenwriter] Andrew Bergman didn't write Fletch. I wrote Fletch. I don't take screenwriting credit because I don't need it. People who know me recognize my lines."

Fletch in the movie is more Chase than anything resembling the novel's hero. But that's a good thing. Movie Fletch is a bit of an asshole, but he knows how to make us laugh. Calling the book's Fletch an asshole would be a kindness.

As I noted last week, Chase flourished in a highly aggressive comedy culture.***** He asserted himself in many of his hit movies and often burned bridges to get his way. This is not to say that Chase's comments were always right or even proper, just that his success was not due to timidity or humility.

Frankly, Fletch has not aged well. The jokes now feel staged and disjointed, and the only thing holding it together is Chase's riffing. These issues are more obvious in Fletch Lives, the sequel that followed a few years later. But even National Lampoon’s Vacation does not hold up well anymore in my opinion—at least not as well as Foul Play or Caddyshack. But Fletch was funny in its day and a big hit. It's better than the novel too.******

It's a pity that Confess, Fletch bombed, as I like Jon Hamm and appreciate the effort that went into that movie. It has its fans, though, and it’s an amicable comedy. Maybe Confess, Fletch would never have worked because tastes have changed.

But I think the real issue is the character. Fletch is not a nice person, and it takes superior wise-ass energy to elevate him into something likable. Hamm plays a decent version of Chase's Fletch—snarky and sarcastic yet disarmingly charismatic. But it lacks the wisecracking spark that rescued the first movie from its source material. Maybe because Hamm is, by all accounts, a nice guy.

Chevy Chase often wasn't. And in this case, it worked to bring Fletch to life.

*To Chase’s credit, he did earn a Golden Globe nomination for his performance. His film career has earned him plenty of award nominations along with lots of money.

**When Mcdonald presented a list of changes that he was unhappy with, Ritchie bought him dinner. "Despite filming all day, Ritchie found the time to take me out to dinner," Mcdonald recounted. "He is a great man. Point by point, he showed me where I was wrong. I was beautifully chewed out."

***While Chevy Chase's buffoonery (thanks for the reference, Melissa Reagan!) solidifies Fletch, the departure from the novel's character began sooner. Numerous actors were considered for the role, including Burt Reynolds, Jeff Bridges, Barry Bostwick, and even Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger (who built a small acting career for himself in the 80s)—all whose devil-may-care personas are more in tune with movie Fletch than novel Fletch.

****Ramis did have to reshoot the entire finale of National Lampoon's Vacation, where Chase kidnaps a security guard played by John Candy. The original cut also had Chase become a home invader, which didn't play well with audiences.

*****The book Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live is a fantastic look at early SNL and is free on the Internet Archive.

******There are many people who find the novel to be funny, but I only recalled laughing once throughout the entire work and being a bit horrified at several of its moments and characters.

Fletch is not streaming anywhere for free, but it was when James pitched this assignment. Also, it is available to rent pretty much anywhere.