Chevy Chase, one of the original Saturday Night Live team and the embodiment of laid-back Los Angeles 1980s humour, stars here in the first of two outings as the investigative reporter with a sideline in disguises and witty repartee.
Fletch is uprooted from Malibu beach (where he is disguised as a beach bum) by millionaire Alan Stanwyk (Tim Matheson) who says he is dying of bone cancer and asks Fletch to murder him so that his wife will benefit from the insurance.
Stanwyk it seems has arranged the perfect crime – a feigned robbery, a getaway Jaguar, and a first class ticket to Rio.
But something doesn’t seem quite right so Fletch pretends to agree and finds himself caught up in bizarre and dangerous circumstances as he stumbles and bumbles through a corkscrew plot that fits his comic frame like a bespoke suit.
Sleek, glossy and often very funny indeed, it also features Joe Don Baker, M Emmet Walsh, and Geena Davis. The inventive script (based on a novel by Gregory McDonald) is by Andrew Bergman who cut his teeth as a co-writer on Blazing Saddles(1974) and went on to direct Honeymoon in Vegas(1992).
IM ‘Fletch’ Fletcher
Chevy Chase Chief Karlin
Joe Don Baker Gail Stanwyk
Dana Wheeler-Nicholson Alan Stanwyk
Tim Matheson Dr Dolan
M Emmet Walsh Fat Sam
George Wendt Stanton Boyd
Kenneth Mars Larry
Geena Davis Speaker
Bill Henderson Mr Underhill
William Traylor Gillet
George Wyner Frank Walker
Richard Libertini
Director
Michael Ritchie
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Fletch is uprooted from Malibu beach (where he is disguised as a beach bum) by millionaire Alan Stanwyk (Tim Matheson) who says he is dying of bone cancer and asks Fletch to murder him so that his wife will benefit from the insurance.
