Episode 9: Fletch (1985)

Weird. Hello everyone, and welcome to the Chasing Chevy Podcast. I'm one of your hosts, Christashie from the Culture Casts, and I'm joined by my two good friends all the way from Cambridge and with Sean and Wake Up Heavy, Mark Begley. I have no interesting quote this time with this movie. You didn't have a quote.

I know, Jesus and also go ahead. I was just sitting there watching it and going, oh, I gotta remember to get my quote, and then I never did. And also joining us all the way from the Projection with podcast Mike White. You can call me ten new Gent for this episode. Victor Hugo, maybe God, oh, Jesus Christ, and Yes, on this episode of the Chasing Chevy Podcast, we are going to be talking about nineteen eighty five's Chevy Chase vehicle comedy thriller based on the book of the same name, based on in the heaviest of quotations, because in this movie, he doesn't have sex with a fourteen year old.

We're talking about nineteen eighty fives fletch. So the film is directed by Michael Ritchie, written by Andrew Bergman, based off the book of the same name by Gregory MacDonald. It is a long running series of books. This is based off of the first book, not the chronological first book, because he would release two more prequel books before this book explaining how he got himself into this situation. And the character in the film is played by Chevy Chase.

The film also stars Jodn Baker, Dana Wheeler, Nicholson, Richard Libertini, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, and Tim Matheson. George Went is in there as well as Fat sam And. The film is about Chevy Chase playing the titular Fletch, a investigative journalist who stumbles upon a beach drug front problem and that is hired to kill a man sight unseen who has been looking at him all week on the beach and he thinks he's a drifter, so he hires him to kill him. And that's where the intrigue begins. So I'm going to kick it to you first, Mike thoughts on Fletch.

So it took me a long time to finally watch Fletch, and I knew that this was a favorite of yours, So I finally sat down and watched it. Yeah, just a couple of years ago. Maybe I could go through letterbox. I don't pay for letterbox, so I don't know if I can actually see you when the last time out, I think you can. Yeah, you can tell.

But this was my second time watching it. Yeah, put up my Chasing Chevy Chase hat and sat down and watched this one. Also listen to the book and always wanted to hear how the book was. I was very familiar with the books for Fletch, just because Gregor and McDonald is pretty close to John D. McDonald, and it's been looking around and used bookstores and kept coming across these Fletch books.

But how do you think I read John D. McDonald by accident? It's a literally that. And then I don't know where Ross McDonald fits on this whole thing. But at some point we're gonna have to talk about a Ross McDonald project here.

But yeah, I think that that Avery Bergen did an amazing job adapting this. I think that he really outdid himself with the way that he crafted this screenplay, the way that he changed up what was going on in the book. And then we'll talk about that later on a little bit more. But yeah, I had a lot better time watching this the second time than the first time, and this is another one of those kind of like vacation where I'm like, oh, I can see where this could be somebody's favorite movie easily, especially if you grew up with it. I could see where, you know, it's very cool and really, I think this might be the ultimate Chevy Chase movie.

What about you, Mark. I think I've mentioned that it's one of the ones that I haven't watched all the way through. I have seen quite a few of the scenes on their own in various ways. I feel like I may I may have, although last night when I was watching it, there was a lot that was totally unfamiliar. I may have seen it at a friend's house back in high school or college, because I know a couple of my high school friends this was their movie.

Caddyshack was kind of my Chevy Chase movie at the time. This was their Chevy Chase movie, and they would quote those lines steak, sandwich, et cetera, et cetera all the time, and I feel like I, at some point one of them had to have had it on when all of us were over. But I never actually have sat myself down to watch it on my own on purpose. Before doing it for the show, and like Mike, I can see why this would be a favorite, and especially for teen boys that sort of I'm the smartest man in the room attitude, but not really the smartest man in the room, and I think that works well with teen boys in particular. Not that teen girls or older women or old men can't like this movie, but it hits that that demographic I think pretty hard.

It's not of the movies that we've seen. It's definitely one of the better, but it's not my It's still not my Chevy Chase movie. I enjoyed it, I get a little tired of his constant sort of over the shoulder remarks. It just doesn't They don't hit with me very very hard. I don't know, I can totally see that.

I just think that this role matches his skills, yeah, better than anything that we've seen so far, and I believe he feels that way too. Yeah, how about you, Chris, tell us your long and sordid history of Fletch sorted. This is one of those movies that I saw on DiveX growing up, and there was like a large group of movies that I remember seeing on DiveX growing up that have made a significant impact on me. This was one of them. Maul Rats was another, Basketball was another.

I mean, yeah, this is one of my favorite movies. I you know, just to get it out in the open and out in front of it. I've done an episode on Fletch before on the Culture Cast with Father Malone. We did an episode on I think Fletch Fletch Lives, and then I know we did Confess Fletch, the one that came out with John Hamm I think two years ago. Yeah, I mean this is one of my favorite movies.

I think this is up there for one of my favorite comedies. I mean, I agree with both of you that Chevy Chase. I think this is the best he's been. I think this is the best. I think I agree more with you Mike than Mark, but I can see where you're coming from.

Mark. Obviously, I think this is the best thing we're probably gonna watch the whole time we watch anything here in terms of it being the fit for Chevy Chase, because I think that this. Role is the role for him. He's a single guy, he's a smart ass, he's motivated at his job but not too too much, and he has a devil may care attitude about pretty much everything. So I like the character a lot.

I think chevy Chase works in this role. I mean again, I think we talked about it when we did vacation, like, it's hard for me to take this guy seriously as someone's dad, but I can take him seriously as a single investigative journalist who's been divorced and his ex wife hates him and you know, all these things. I could believe all of that because. I don't know. Chevy Chase just has that energy, which is fine.

I mean some actors just have that energy. Another actor that I think about when I think of having a specific kind of energy, as William Hurt, he always has a very specific kind of energy and everything that he's in and it is always very muted for the most part, and very reserved. Chevy Chase, he always is kind of doing the same thing. I mean, at this point, we've all said as much or alluded to as much in our show, but this is the first time where it's like, yeah, he's he's kind of just the solo man doing his own thing, and I think for whatever reason that works. I mean, it's again, he needs to be kind of aloof at all times for his style of characterization to work, and I think it works here.

And yeah, I mean I understand also mark where you're coming from with the like over the shoulder comments being a bit much or anything like that, Like, yeah, I mean there's a lot of pupp and taco you know, don't talk to me like that, ass face. I don't work for you yet, Like there's a lot of that in the movie. And obviously it can become a lot, a lot too much for some people to handle because again it is just kind of here, do you own rubber gloves? I rent them? Like shut the fuck up, dude, Like but like I get it.

But at the same time, that for me is the appeal of the character. But I understand also like just finding it to be at times grating, if not just like can you just. Stop for two seconds. It's like the thing that we've seen with Chevy Chase where he bumbles and fumbles around. It's like, Okay, we've seen this before and we don't need to see you do it every movie that you're in, and he does it here too.

But yeah, unfortunately, you know, again I'm a little biased, so I'll be as unbiased as I can in this episode, and I've been able to do that before when we talked about Fletch. But yeah, I mean, it's one of my favorite comedies and I would put it at the top of the pile for stuff that chevy. Chase has done. Yeah, and yes, I saw it as a teenage boy, Mark, So thank you for calling me out directly. Hey, at least there was no gazuntite line in this one.

Yeah. Yeah, I was waiting for that. Did he drop something and then like hop back up from the bottom of the frame and like kind of bobble it because I don't remember that. That's another thing that I gets his head. He gets his head, He gets his head caught in that like ceiling lamp at one point.

There you go. That's about as That's about as much as we get in terms of like prat falling nonsense and at the tennis court. I guess yeah, you know. It's it's interesting that you mentioned that about not being able to see him as a husband and dad and I I think I don't know if it was after the last recording, it was sometime fairly recently. I stumbled on either a post on Instagram by him or by his wife or by his daughter, and I was not aware of this, but he has been married to the same lady since nineteen eighty two and they have like two or three daughters.

He has a house of women, he's a girl and and his Instagram is just like all about them. And I was like, it just didn't jive with the image that I think you're kind of you know, reporting on here that you get from his films. And it was interesting. It was just a it was interesting. I had no idea, not that I thought, you know, he had, you know, was running through the divorce mill in the eighties or one of those types.

But I don't think I've ever heard anything about his family life in you know, since I've been a fan of his since the late seventies early eighties, and that he's now longtime spouse and girl dad like like Mike said, well, it's interesting because again I think, uh, the way he has portrayed himself and been portrayed in things would lead us to believe otherwise. But I don't know. I don't know if he's ever been problematic for any reason other than his own reason. Yeah, he writes in it all the time. Yeah, it is only I think that's why you would think that he's a fuck up in his real life, because it's like, oh, well, I'm going to leave SNL because I'm bigger than the show.

I'm going to hell carry grant names on the television show. I'm going to you know. I mean, if he didn't have a drug problem, surprised. But it feels like Chevy Chase was probably doing some Bollidian marching powder during the eighties. Yeah, somebody owes candy.

I'm pretty sure that's. But the thing about Fletch that I really clicked with this time is that it's a very solid story, and I think you know that all of that, well, a lot of that goes back to I almost MacDonald. Why am I blanking Gregory. Greg Gregory McDonald or Andrew Bergman. Okay, all of that goes back to I guess it is McDonald.

All that goes back to McDonald. But then with Bergen Bergman, he really does a great job of pulling it together, even more so in the book. It's two very separate mysteries, but it's very smart that he takes that separate mystery makes it into part of the first mystery, so that it's just one big story, and that it helps Fletch move into the story from a different angle rather than the one that he had where he just was completely stuck being out on the beach this whole drug story that is investigating. Eventually when he gets approached by Stanwick. Alan Stanwick, that the Tim Mathsen character that suddenly opens up another way into this mystery because he tied the two things together.

Bergmann tied the two things together in the book. They are two very separate things, and they eventually get tied together. Spoilers for Fletch the book. They eventually get tied together because in the book, Fletch's blonde and Stanwick is brunette. That's right, and then Stanwick dyes his hair so that he can basically impersonate Fletch.

He's going to fly to Buenos Aires with his childhood sweetheart and her son, and then that's when the Jodahn Baker character shows up and just shoots right through the chest of Alan Stanwick thinking that he was Fletch, so he didn't get a good look at him, and that's how the two cases come together. Yeah, otherwise they were completely unrelated. So I'd like that say that Bergman combines those two things, and really, I think that's very smart. I always like that these two cases are actually related type of thing. I mean, I'm a big fan of La Confidential.

You know, your case is my case, but it's just one case. And I like that about the movie. I mean, you're you're completely right. I mean, I think at the end of the day, if you if you actually take Chevy Chase out of this movie and put someone else and who was not nearly as comedic, and I'm not saying with the same script. I'm saying, take the fact that it's a comedic actor out, which means the script will not be nearly as comedic, if at all.

And I think it's just I think it's just a solid, like journalist story really like because again, I mean, there are times where he is threatened with his life that don't feel like put on, especially with the Jodahn Baker character. And yeah, there are some stakes to it, and like you said, they do have this kind of through line between the two, which I am, like you, I appreciate that immensely. I think that that's well done storytelling. And yeah, Andrew Bergman, I think a lot of the credit for this movie has to go to him because, like you, like you've alluded to, the book's great, but the book is very different. The book is very dark.

I mean, he fucks a fourteen year old in the book, like and he has really no compunction about it, Like it's it's just kind of part and parcel of the job is the way he makes it kind of sound when he's describing it, because in the book, it's just he's he's a very different character. And I don't even when i've when i've because I listened to all the books couple of years ago, I don't even see Chevy Chase in the role in the book. It's such a different character. And it's you know, the first couple books existed before the movies came out, and then the other books start coming out after the movies have come out, and so the character feels a little more in line with Chevy Chase once you get past the movie books or after you get to the books past the movie.

But yeah, I never see him as that character when I read the books. It's such a different He's not as comedic in the books, and it's not as like broadly comedic. It's more riley comedic. It's a little bit of kind of you know, oh, he's you know, yeah, Ted NuGen or something, but that he's not showing up like a giant fucking ten gallon hat and a mustache. I mean, you know, that's the thing in the movie.

There's a lot of the physical comedy is added into it, which kind of allows for chevy Chase to there is some physical comedy. Actually, you know, there's a thing where he's stepping on the where he's like fumbling and bumbling around. Getting dressed up as like a nurse and stuff. I mean, there is some of it. But for the most part, this movie leans heavily on the fact chevy Chase is a comedic actor and takes the narrative in a direction that the book would never have gone, because that character is very different.

It is strange though in the movie, just the level that he goes to, like, yeah, he puts on some scrubs at one point, and okay, puts on some scrubs at one point, and but for the most part, it's you know, oh, I'm this name, I'm that name kind of thing. And then suddenly he puts in the big fake teeth in the wig. Yeah, like oh, Okay, really up in your game here for no real good reason other than just to be funny, I guess. And then he goes for a few more like, oh, I'm so and so you know I hit a water buffalo. Can I borrow your towel?

All these things, and then suddenly at the end dresses up. Is basically it looks like Richard Libertini he when he's in that like guru skating pointing or roller skating outfit. I'm just like, Wow, you really outdid yourself just to go back to the beach, dear Fletch. And I don't even know if there was a reach of the reason why Fletch had to be a disguise to go back and talk with Gummy at that point. Well, I think it went back to the last time when the cops kind of beat him took Gummy away.

That was my But the get up itself seemed a little excessive because he hadn't really other than the airplane mechanic or whatever he was trying to do. I'm like, why are you These people don't know you Stanwick does. I guess maybe it's in case Stanwick was there or something. But I always think in my head that every scene is gonna include a costume or disguise, because I have seen those particular bits where he is or they were in the ads, or you know, they show clips from the movie, they show the Lakers game, which is really just a fantasy, but you always see that image of him in the afro. Thank god they didn't put him in blackface.

Oh god, Yeah, because they mentioned something about him growing up in Harlem and the in the voice over the you know the commentators sports commentators lines there, and I'm. Like, oh, thank god they didn't do that. Yeah. I always felt like, oh, he's in a disguise every time, because that's just part of his stick. But it's really not.

It's it's sometimes he's that. Sometimes he's just dressed a little differently. But yeah, when he rolled back into the office with that beard, I'm like, oh, was he supposed to be his boss? You know, Libertini in this with the patch and the big glad. It wasn't just me.

Yeah, oh yeah, he kind of looks like him, but the outfit sort of threw me off. You know. I was just gonna say that point you made about the end of the book where the cop shoots Stanwick on accident is is so much more poetic, and but it makes me think of how Silence of the Lambs was streamlined and streamlined so well for a movie where they kind of cut some of this and you know, took out a lot of the Catherine stuff and added to this other character because it makes more sense than I'm like, Okay, it makes sense that these converge at the end, because I was like, are they going to shoehorn these together or do these stays separate? And then when they showed Jodhn Baker in the car that Stanrick was walking back to him, like, oh okay, so we're connecting these right, had no idea about whether they were in the book or not.

But when Burton gillim is like, oh yeah, he drives so much he could be flying to South America, I was like, oh, okay. Right, right, right, yeah, he uses so much fuel. And then I was like, oh, well, that's what he's part of. He's part of the thing too, right. So then was it by chance that he caught that he picked Chavy?

I guess it was. I guess it was. It's supposed to be literally, it's supposed to be chance. Yeah, right, oh, and that's another thing that they change, which is well, for better or for worse, which is so In the movie, it's Missus Stanwick that gives Chevy a suit and says, oh, you're about the same size as Alan. You know, you're about the same height.

In the book, it's after they fuck she goes, oh, you've got the exact same bone structures. Alan. She's much more chased in the film, which I think just speaks to the era that we were in at that point. She was not, you know, out there for hunting for bear as it were, and which she definitely is in the book. She is flirting with him incredibly much in the first time that they meet, and then yeah, of course they end up getting together.

But I have to say I haven't seen nearly enough Diana Wheeler Nicholson, because I thought she was great in this movie. She had a real genuine like effervescence or something, and it seemed like she was genuinely cracking up at just you know, sort of out of character cracking up. And I don't know if that's just good acting or if she really was, but she just had a pleasant demeanor and put up with the snarkiness really well. Plus, she also has a subtle kind of similarity to Beverly D'Angelo, So I that's you said. It go on down the line here.

I actually prefer her chemistry with Chevy Chase to Beverly DiAngelo's because I feel like she actually pushes back on Chevy Chase a little bit. Yeah, which I appreciate because again, the thing about the character of Fletch really is the best characters are the ones that push back on his bullshit and don't let him just kind of walk. All over them with it, right, right, So she's great. I mean, everybody in this movie is great. I mean you've already mentioned Burton Billiam, who many of.

Us thrown those said that time movies. Yeah, many of us from North Texas will will recognize Burton Gilliam as the guy who sells Fords now, which is a real thing because in Texas he goes doesn't matter how you get here, folks, just get here, And it is literally Burton Gilliam dressed up like his character from Blazing Saddles too. On top of every else. Take a letter to the main office and tell him, I said, oh, saying why our main office tell him? My said, ow, it.

He's great, He's great. I mean mm At Walsh has a great scene with Tibbie Chase the Moon River. I mean, my god, Kenneth mar Is another person we've seen in a bunch of things. What kind of name is poon? Twoyes looked up at me and he said his name at the beginning of that scene.

I'm like, yeah, I think you heard that correctly. Jeeves Avery showing up in here too, I love that man. William Sanderson's in here too? Is swarth that of all things? Just like a there's a random cutaway to William Sanderson on the phone.

For a second, I thought it was our man, Tracy Walter, and I was like, oh, another one. And then I was like, oh no, it's the other guy. It's the other guy. And then we Tony Longo. Tony Longo, just a year prior, was playing a high school senior in sixteen Candles.

Wow, And how strange is having Geena Davison here. Her role is Larry and there is no Larry in the book. So I was like, was she Larry in the screenplay? And they just gender swapped, like just brought her in because he doesn't have an assistant, doesn't have anybody, it's just him. And also going back to the book story to keep doing that.

He fucking hates his boss and she does that stupid thing that Libertini doesn't here by putting out like feeling out the story and seeing if the cops have something to comment on, which almost gets him killed. And in the book he's super angry at the woman editor. But I think he barely does anything to Richard Libertini in here, and I think Libertini, his character should have been way smarter. Yeah, as was it telling the coughs, just outing chevy. Yeah, it's so weird.

That's one of the weirdest stories beats for me because like you're this, you're in an you know that this guy does investigative journalist under a pseudonym and just gonna be like, hey, by the way, La. Why would you tip your hat? Yeah, it didn't make any sense to me either. I'm like that seemed really really dumb. Yeah, it's the one part of the movie that I mean, I like the scene with Jodn Baker in his office.

I hate Tommy Lasorni punches the fucking thing like that's all that in Those interactions are great, but it always, in my mind, feels really forced because of Richard Libertini's character making a bizarre decision that makes no no, no logical sense in the in the scope of the script, and especially given if this were a serious story, your editor would not do that. It's almost like it's done because it's a comedic story. But that scene is like, oddly not comedic. When he's like in the jail side, like I'm gonna stick myself with this knife. I'm gonna shoot you in the head.

Oh wuch, whoa, whoa whoa movie like, what the fuck? Calm down? But that's the thing, Like it's weird because those two kinds of things don't rub well together. And it's those scenes in this movie that for me watching it this time, they didn't work because I was like, why is this in this movie? Like this is not needed to The steaks are already there.

We know that there are stakes here, and I don't think his editor outing him is a good idea, and it makes no sense in a story from a story perspective, even. It's he gets a little heavy for the rest of the tone of the movie, but I thought, yeah, I mean I can I can handle those versions. Every once in a while and if it makes sense, but yeah, it was. It seemed a bit much up to that point that to the rest of the tone of the film. It's just give me a little PTSD.

The first time I ever got into a car accident when I was sixteen, and the cops are questioning me, and they apparently didn't like my attitude. So they're like, you know, we could take you out someplace and beat the shit out of you and it would just be your word against ours. I'm like, wow, that was I was sixteen years old at the time. Really didn't like cops ever since then, so they wow, Yeah. Yeah, dude, I don't like cops either, and I really don't like him now Jesus.

Yeah, yeah, I mean this is also I mean again, the LAPD dirty cop thing. I do like that bit, I mean I do. I do like the idea that you know, these I mean again, cops don't get paid enough, right, So this is how cops. You know, at least these kind of corrupt cops make up the differences selling those drugs on the side. But it's amazing.

Sorry, real quick, I was just looking at Geena Davis's career and before this, she was just doing tiny little things like you know, showing up in riptide Buffalo Bill, you know, which we said like in all these episodes a Buffalo Bill, nice rider, family ties. And then it's like she hits Fletch. And then the next movie, our favorite Chris Translving, the six five thousand, and then boom, it's like the Fly Beetlejuice Earth Girls are easy and accidental tourists, and I think she gets an Oscar nomination for as accidental tourists. It's like, what a run. She just speaking of William Hurt.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, she's great. I mean, she's great in this, but this comes so early in her career, Like yeah, but but but she has a standout in the movie, which I think also helps with where she would be going with her career, because yeah, Jana Davis is one of the I consider her to be one of the I mean, she's one of the great actresses period. But yeah, this this seems to be kind of a turning point for her career. Now.

George Weiner, on the other hand, maybe not so much. I love George Weiner as the as the attorney who's just waiting out on the Lunai as one would say. Yeah, there's I don't know if you guys had a chance to look at the extras, but there's some really good extras for this on the Keno Blue ray, including one I mean that's the really great making of but they have this rapping story of Oh, I'm going to be Fletch and I'm going to track down all these people and they know it's just really embarrassing. The interviews are great, but the host and just the way that the host is kind of shoehorned in there, because you can tell he's not where all of these interviews are taking place. And I just I wonder if something happened and they had to hurry up and replace them.

But yeah, that was bad. But yeah, I was amazed at how many people they got for these extras to talk with them. I mean, they didn't get Geena Davis, but just about everybody else. Yeah, oh and Chevy Chase. Of course I couldn't get Chevy Chase.

But this was when Leberghini was still with us, so that was good. The extras helped me with was so in the poster, there's all of the little IDs of the people and you see everything other than the hockey one. I think, right, you don't see him play hockey in the movie, right, Okay, And I know that on the extras they had deleted scenes. There was one of him with Tommy Lesorda, there's him in the hockey outfit, so there was a lot more to that. So it kind of goes there what we were saying, Mark as far as I expected disguises all the time.

Well, and then I think Libertini mentions when he's kind of running through the checklist that the item I the itemization that there was a gorilla suit, So I wor hereious, I'm like, was that a cut scene? Well? Well, and then you have the the I would say, the part of the movie that feels like again another like why is this here? The thing with Kareem abdul Jabbar. Yeah, yeah, Jimmy.

Chase all of a sudden just starts daydreaming that he plays for the Lakers six foot four with the afro six foot seven. Uh. It's so weird because again like it's what does it have to do with anything? I don't know, but just talk about the Lakers, right, Well that's yeah, but this isn't any place for the Lakers. No, No, definitely not.

Yeah, the thing on the wall in his apartment. I always wanted that as a kid growing. Up, was like that is the coolest ship where he just has the basketball fall down. It's like this guy's like an adult man child like yeah, yeah, I don't understand, go ahead, No. I was like, say, I wonder how many takes it took for him to do the wish when he's walking through the door with the beer.

I don't know how they never thought Ryan Reynolds couldn't play Fletch, Like. You know, I could see that because like in the day and age that we live in now, where you and I are going to record an episode talking about the latest Deadpool movie after we're done with this, Pithy's smart ass characters are still than They're more a thing now than they probably ever have been, given how popular a character like Deadpool is, And in a lot of ways, this version of Fletch in the movie is Deadpool adjacent. Like again, he doesn't necessarily break the fourth wall, but he does because he narrates it, so that's technically like fourth wall breaking. So I don't know why they never went to that, you know, well, I mean it makes sense.

Who they got. I mean, John Ham's great in the role, but chevy Chase, I think embodies the role in a way that it's hard to divorce him from this role in terms of all the things that he's done. This is the chevy Chase role for me, and I understand why for so many other people it is too. But it is a specific note. It's almost one note that he is playing the whole movie, which is fine, but that one note just seems to work better than I think a lot of the other notes that he's being forced to play in something like Modern Problems or Under the Rainbow as it were.

Very true. Yeah, yeah, and the end of the Rainbow episode just dropped, so I was kind of listening through and I was like, yeah. Well, and the other thing is and we talked about veneration again, right and Mike, you and I does a couple of weeks ago. This movie also is very similar to Beverly Hills. Cop, Like, oh yeah, like he's he's he's a journalist in this movie, not a cop.

But I mean Axel is doing all of the you know, the he's doing the disguises without the disguises, I. Guess, you know, impersonation. Yeah, like, yeah, making up characters on the spot. But chevy Chase takes it upon himself to dress up like the characters. Axelf never does that at times.

That's yeah. We were talking about that when you were off off camera. The sometimes he's disguised and sometimes he isn't right right, that's fair. Yeah, yeah. Well the other thing that really helps tie these movies together is that incessant Harold Faltermeyer's score too.

God, Okay, I love the Harold Faltermeyer score. I mean it's great, but it is very much yea of the things that I remember about this film. Once that started playing, I was like, oh my god, this I know this, I know, and you know some of the scenes rang a bell. But and I by the end, I was like, I'm ready to put a screwdriver in my ear. Wow, Jesus, it's funny to see the incessant Oh I get it.

I mean it is like they don't they don't go back to anything else really other than a couple like songs made for the movie. So it's funny that the one person they were talking about possibly casting because they threw around like Jeff Bridges gls Groden even early on Bert Reynolds and Mick Jagger, it seems weird George Siegel, but the one that they threw run was Richard Dreyfus. And it's funny because as I was watching it this time, I kept thinking of The Big Fix, the Richard Dreyfus movie from seventy eight, I want to say, where he played a character named Moses Wine and he has that same kind of quit hatter, like his arm is broken in that movie, and whenever somebody asks him, how'd you break your arm?

He comes up with a different story that kind of ingratiates him to the person that he's talking to. So reminds me of this whole You know, I'm going to keep bluffing and bluffing and bluffing and coming up with crazier things. The thing I liked again, desire to keep doing this, But going back to the book, he doesn't. Some of the names he chooses are crazy as far as like the last name will be really long or something very difficult to say, but he doesn't go with the like Ted Nugent or you know, the names that. People would know.

Yeah, right, movie he says, Victor Hugo, that's that. Yeah, it's like or no, is it this movie? He says Victor Hugo. Now he says it to Jim Swarthow. He goes, I'm Igor Stravinsky, Like there's no universe where someone would be like, your name is Igor Stravinsky?

Like right, really, parents are big fans of classical music? Or yeah, yeah, I like a better win. He makes them up, like with her with the what is it? John Kokotojayes and John Kosten Scotch it's Scotch Romanian, right, it's a weird combination. So were my parents.

Yeah, yeah, it's yeah, I think that's I mean that's the other issue. I mean when you when you were when. You take this idea and update it, you can't do those names anymore. You can't have John Ham saying my name is Axel Rose, Like what the fuck are you talking about? Like you so, yeah, the new movie ends up being more like the original books because it, like you said, Mike, it's it's more about like just making a character that's a Axel in Beverly Hills.

Cop never said, oh, I'm Richard Prior. Like there's none of that. He just makes up a character on the spot and goes with it, and yeah, That's that's why I think chevy Chase is at his best in this movie. And that's when the character is at his best, is when it's you know, with Kenneth Mars or with Burton Gilliam. And again with m m at Walsh.

It's great. But yeah, then there are some of those like Ted Nudge. It's like Stanwick would look at him and be like, your name's Ted Nugent? What the fuck? Like well, and I wonder if his name is Stanwick just because it's such a double indemnity type plot, you know, right, well I wanted to kill me kind of thing.

I mean, it's very classic fil noir, which I thought was great. Yeah. I mean again, if this weren't a Chevy Chase movie, this would be a lot more hard boiled and a little bit more noir facing, because I think it's noir adjacent. It's light on it. I mean, it wants to get there.

But I think in terms of what it's actually trying to do, it's just trying to be a funny movie, not like a thriller. But the thriller parts are so kind of intriguing and well done that I kind of wish there was more of it, which is again, what kind of the New Fletch movie does. It kind of makes a case that like, yeah, the character can be reinterpreted in an interesting way because Greg Matola does a great job of taking the character and not just having it be a you know, gag best every five seconds, you know, saying wild nonsense. And the other thing is Chevy Chase. I feel like he plays it straight for the most part.

That's the other thing. When he it doesn't work when he's not playing it straight, when he's kind of like Riley staring at the audience and like winking at them about these names, like the Ted Nugent thing, It's like this just doesn't work as it just doesn't work as well logically for me. Anyways. Well, the Stanwick to go back to that real quick bese that made me think of he and it's in the script they put a point on he spells it out WYK no C and didn't Barbara Stanwick's name have a C in it. It's almost like like they're pointing it out that you know we're going there, but not quite.

Yes, it does, yeah, good good call Mark, And. I didn't notice there's no is there narration at some point in the script that didn't make it all the way through because as I was reading and I was like, oh, this is like almost exactly like the movie. The final draft was at least but no narration, So I don't know if it kicked in at some point and or if it was just added in Toto afterward. I think there was just added afterwards. Yeah, I think it works for the most part, Like you know, when the film opening on the beach and then you know him kind of starting the narration in the movie, I think it sets the tone in the right direction.

I don't. I mean again, I think that's like a noir thing, and I don't think it ever really gets back there. But the fact that they even kind of attempted or approach it, I think is they at least understood the source material's basic ideas, because the source material is humorous, but it's not haha funny, and that's the choice that's being made here. Is like, again, would this movie have been as successful if it had not been a comedy? Probably not realistically.

I mean, the movie made a ton of money. Million dollar budget, made sixty million dollars, Like that's a lot of money. At the time, I mean even, I mean even now, if you made a movie for ten million dollars, you'd be happy to make six times. Your budget back. But I don't think this would have been as successful if this had not been like a straight comedy either, especially in the eighties, which is like the height of this kind of comedy being a thing.

I felt like the narration kicked in a little too early because in the script, you're not sure what his deal is until he gets back to the newspaper room, and so you know right away that he is an investigative journalist and undercover. Yeah, so that I was like, okay, well, I feel like it would have worked for the audience a little better to not know what he was. Is he a bum too? Is he an undercover cop? Those would have been my two thoughts.

I wouldn't have thought of journalists right off the top of my head. But he just comes right out with it. Yeah. Actually, I know, I actually agree with you. I think if if they had held it back, it might have actually worked a little bit better, because, yeah, you're just kind of in d he gets yeah, have it start as.

He gets to the to the paper. Yeah, you were kind of inundated with his bullshit immediately as it were. Right, which I mean, I think a lot of the narration is there because it's Chevy Chase and he gets to add some more of those lines. Yeah, more color, more color, just more color to the script. And I think for for someone like Chevy Chase, you know, I'm not going to say like less is better, but I think more specific is better with him, Like give him a specific direction and go with that, because I mean again, like with this character he is, I don't know, this is the one character that I've seen him play so far where I'm like, I am having a hard time distinguishing between chevy Chase and the character.

It almost just feels like, in a lot of ways, just he's in the movie, if that makes sense. It's it feels like of all the characters we've seen him play so far, this feels like the least put on character that he's played. Really like maybe and again, maybe the closest would have been his character in Foul Play, which this character is kind of close to in terms of characterization, but a little this guy's a little bit more dialed in the nick was in Foul Play. But yeah, I have this is one of those roles where it's like he just kind of strikes me as chevy Chase, just being like, hey, Chevy, just do the chevy Chase thing throughout, which, yeah, when you said, Mike, like this is the chevy Chase movie, Like that's why I think it is similarly to yourself, because like this is just him being him, at least the most distillant version of him that I think anyone in the nineteen eighties would have been writing a script for.

This is what you want from chevy Chase, this specific thing, and you're getting it. And I don't think he ever reaches these heights again, which is a shame. And you know, for me at least, because I love Chevy Chase as an actor, but this is the really, for me, a high water mark in his career. And for those of you listening to this show and haven't seen any other chevy Chase movies, pass this. This might sound like I'm damning the rest of his career, but if you had this high of a water rest in your career, but if you had this high of a watermarks in your career, like it's it's hard not to acknowledge it.

I mean, we'll acknowledge it now or we can acknowledge it when we're done. But it's just one of those things like he ends up getting cast in more things because of this, and further, I think revealing his weaknesses as an actor, because this is what everyone keeps trying to recapture for a while after this movie. Even the sequel can't recapture the magic of this movie. As much as I love the sequel, it's odd that with the sequel that they didn't adapt another one of these McDonald books correct, that they just went all out on their own. It is interesting that too, that this was one of free performances that Michael Ritchie directed of Chevy Chase.

So does that feels like an odd marriage to me. I'm a big fan of Michael Ritchie's other stuff, especially Smile, but you know, even things like Hanada, Canada. Yeah, he did a lot of great things. Sad News Bears. One of my favorite of that movie.

And I know you don't like this movie, but The Survivors is a nostalgic favorite of mine. Maybe I should had another shot. I don't know. I mean, I haven't seen it since it was out at the theater, so oh well. I appreciate it a little bit more.

I just like, I like Walter Mathow and yeah, I just remember watching it a ton as a kid, and the Golden Child is kind of a hoot. I remember speaking Eddie Murphy. Yeah, yeah. I think the only other director he worked with as much. And I could be very wrong about this, I want to say, is John Landis.

And I don't even know if he worked with him that much. I think twice at least. Yeah. Well, and that's the other thing I mean, if you look at so this movie comes out in eighty five, right, which is center of the eighties. Fletch Lives comes out in eighty nine.

We have so far in between now and Fletch Lives. We have Funny Farm, Caddyshack two, Three Amigos, Spies like Us, European Vacation. We have a bunch of stuff in between now and Fletch Lives. Is it not surprising that Fletch Lives didn't just come out like the next fucking year. It almost half a decade to release another one.

And then, like you said, Mike, when we get to it, we'll get to it. But diminishing returns is a is probably is being nice to the movie because as much as I like it, I have no preconceived notions that it is a hale comparison to this film's successes. Well, it's kind of like when he had foul Play, it's like, Okay, immediately followed this up with another golden Horn vehicle that you can be in and make this a thing. But it takes two years for it seems like old times. And then that's not what we wanted.

If that wasn't another murder mystery, that was something completely different. I mean, there was a little miss not really mystery involved in that with the bank robbery. But yeah, it's like, no, listen to what people want here, So continue on. Do Confess Fletch next and whatever that one is, which I think is the John Ham one, right, Yeah, yeah, like that's the next book. Just fucking do the next book.

I don't know why they didn't, because the plot of Confess, Conflesse, Confesse, Conflex Come Fletch Fletch. The plot of that book has to do directly with the money he makes from the end of this movie. It's yeah, and. What's I think the thing that's actually again not to kind of give it away, but the movie's been out since eighty nine. I'll just let you guys know, because I don't think either one of you know, guess what Fletch Lives does it even address this movie at all.

So that's fun. There's one line in reference to this there's one line in reference to the events of this movie in that movie, and it is essentially in the closing minutes. Of the movie. I believe, Yeah, it's it's it's it's unfortunate because again, you had an opportunity to turn this into a serialized thing. Even given that that's what John D.

McDonald of Jesus Gregory McDonald was doing with the books, we've never gotten to John D. McDonald's adaptation contemporary either. They talk about things that they'd been kicking around forever. They've been talking about doing those books as long as they'd been talking about doing a fucking Fletch sequel. Well even before we started to record the MCU And for a while he was on the hook, he was going to be Travis McGee, he was going to do a whole adaptation.

I could see Robert Downey Junior being a much better Fletch just because he can do those little equips and one offs, I mean, kiss kiss Bang Bang would really show you just like how great he can be at that. That's still my favorite Robert Downey junior performance. Really. Yeah, I just I don't see him as Travis McGee. And the other person that was trying to do it was lean Andrew DiCaprio, and I just again, he has to me has no gravitas, and really Travis McGee really needs that grit belly.

Yeah, And I mean again, like obviously we saw with Fletch being recast, like they didn't go with the comedic actor at least not one that's like, you know, baseline comedic. I mean, John Hamm is a funny actor. Don't get me wrong, his personal issues aside, but he's not a guy that I consider a comedic actor. He's someone that I think is more kind of just an actor who can live within different spheres. But the fact that they spent so long trying to reboot this series and having no ability to do it when there are actors who we could literally rattle their names off from the eighties, nineties, twenty and twenty tens, like two or three actors from each of those ten years that could have done this as good or better.

Yeah, I don't understand what they didn't understand about the success of this movie. That's kind of what I've never been able to understand about Fletch as an adult, as someone who's you know, critical and watches films a lot, is what did you not see about what made this film successful that never translated to anything else and had people waiting like damn near forty years to see another one. Like I just I've never been able to understand because the movie speaks for itself, like it's what works with this movie is on screen, it's there's no there's no trick here. You have a comedic actor who you wrote a comedic script for and it works like Gangbusters, and then all of a sudden they just don't care anymore.

And I never get it because this movie made so much money and it was a Chevy Chase vehicle, and then they just stepped in and at every other time from here on out in terms of trying to give him a movie where it's just him. Doing something at Fletcher Lives, because I have not seen it. I always wanted to see if anybody returned from this, and it looks like Libertini and the attorney yep, that's it. I don't even know. I don't even know if he's playing the same character.

Yes he is. It's a George Weiner and Richard Libertini are the only characters that come back. Yeah, I like I said, And it takes place in Louisiana for some reason? Is is J. D.

Pepper there? No, But there are characters like that. Randal TeX's Cobb is in the movie. Oh yeah, everybody's good. Oh good?

Said like said nobody? Yeah a fan of Aura, Come on. I mean I am too. I mean, I just know about Randall text Cobb in real life. Not a great person.

It's it's a vastly different movie. It's almost like they don't care about the detective part of it, which is the part of this movie that I think does I think works maybe almost to the chagrin of the people writing this movie. It's like, we have to write the detective story into this Chevy Chase movie. But I think it works here. I just think they don't care about it moving forward, which that may be the missing part here is you needed to have there be an actual mystery and then flesh out the comedy within the mystery.

It's not just about chevy Chase saying Victor Hugo and poppin Taco over and over again, like that will get old and that will go nowhere. And in a lot of ways, that's the state of a lot of modern comedy movies is just bullshit. I mean, like the improvisation of comedies now without flawed. I mean, you know, that's a thing that people have been lamenting for a while now. This like just put a camera on people and they'll improv and it'll be funny.

Like or you could write a script and the script be funny and have those actors deliver your funny lines and then improv from time to time like and and this, I mean, this is a good This is a good case study in that because I think that the lines that are delivered, like we both or like we've already all said, given that we read the script, they're all in the script. It's like chevy Chase was coming up with these things out of his ass, like they're in the script whole claw. He's just quoting the script. And that's what you would think, is that that that was all ad lebbed from chevy. Chase, right, I mean in this day and age, like there's kind of that weird expectation now where it's like, yeah, they're just.

They're funny people. It's like being funny, does it necessarily mean you can like be like that. Some comedians aren't improvisational comedians. They're just they work within the confines of what they know. And I think when chevy Chase is at his best, it's when someone knows what he is needed to do in the movie.

And again, he's the lead here, so they really had to knock it out of the park, and I think they did, but I think it also sets an unreasonable expectation for chevy Chase's abilities moving forward with other people who do not. Understand how to write for him as well as Bergmann did. Well, it seems like it was written, at least the final draft was written for him, because I know at the end mention him by name and say, you know some other chevy Chase will add lib here basically is what see? It's like okay, yeah, but yeah, those those throw it against the wall and see what sticks movies that we get these days. It's just like, I mean, some of them work.

I love Step Brothers, and I know that a lot of it was done that way, and you just keep saying a different line each time, and then Pete cobbling it all together. And but if you don't have at least an outline of a story and some idea of where things need to go, that's going to be, you know, just a bunch of funny lines. Then you get Ghostbus just twenty sixteen. That was what I was going to say. I didn't want to keep using it as them.

I mean, look at the blooper reels for so I recently rewatched Anchorman and they are like ten different versions of the sweet Odin's beard line that he just says like ten different things, and it's in the bloopers and it's like, Okay, I'm glad you went with that one, but I don't think you needed to show all ten because nine of those aren't funny. You know why, because they weren't in the movie. Because they literally weren't in the film. And this isn't anything new. There's you can watch at the end of Grumpy Old Men Burgess Meredith rattle off right fifteen different lines.

Oh you know, uh, this is what the expectation is different, though, it's the way it's being handled is different. Well, it's not every line them all done. Yeah, yeah, just keep them all yeah, it goes bus just twenty sixteen. Look like with all of that footage left, it'd be like a twelve hour movie or just people did all right, let's do it again. I mean they just rewatched the original Deadpool and the whole thing of TJ.

Miller's describing how Ryan Reynolds looks. I mean, yeah, you can tell they use like two or three ad libs too many in that section. You look like a. Scroed them that bucked that avocado. Yeah, I man, I was just rolling my eyes.

I'm like, fuck this shit. Who likes like? Who likes this anymore? But you still but no, like no, no, not not not that specifically talking about exactly what you're lambassing, which is like leaving them in, like leaving one or two more in, Like sometimes less is better, and in comedy, sometimes you don't have to bombard the audience with a thousand jokes. Actually it would be better if you didn't, because then it shows that you actually have some sort of wherewithal to understand the timing of comedy, because timing is everything with comedy, it really is, it really is, and just ignoring the timing and just plowing through.

It is not that that's Robin Williams, and very few people can do that well, which is just go go, go, go, go go. Not everybody can. Do that unless they're on cocaine. Well it was eighty five. If only we have been able to get this Kevin Smith version with Jason.

Oh my god, thank you for bringing that up. That would have really sealed the deal and made a real solid entry to the franchise. I was gonna say, before we bring this episode to a close, I think to mention the amount of people that were going to play flats at one point, Jason Sudeikis, Jason Lee, who else I think, Zach Brath at one point, Brad Pitt, Jimmy Fallon, Ben Affleck I think was also mentioned in the Kevin Smith discussions. None of those people would have worked at all. The only one I could maybe see is Jason Sudeikins.

Maybe Ben Affleck would have been like, no, God, I mean he's fuck he can he can be funny. Yeah, he's funny. And Kevin Smith's stuff. He has some of the best lines in Jay and synd Bob strike Back. Fictional characters he's funny when he wants to be.

But what in God's name what Kevin Smith's Fletch looked like? Just like there was a version of me a long time ago, because that's the other thing. Fletch came out in eighty five. The most recent Fletch movie didn't come out until I was thirty two years old. So there was, however, many years in between of me just being like, when are they making a Fletch movie.

They're making a Fletch movie. At some point. Is that Fletch movie happening at any point? Because I mean, again, it was my favorite movie. It is one of my favorite movies, so of course I wanted another one.

And yeah, I mean I've been looking at the Wikipedia for fucking Fletch sequels for twenty years now, is what it feels like. And then it finally comes out and it's actually good, which is the other thing, because all these other things that had been mentioned would not have been There's no universe where Jason Lee would have been a good Fletch and Kevin Smith directing it would have just been dick and fart jokes, which is fine, but I don't think that would have suited the character of Fletch and then go watch a movie like cop Out, and I think the ability to write something like this maybe is made a parent that we dodged a. Bullet as it were. And you know, I would say, anybody who likes Fletch, go check out Confess Fletch.

Honestly, like we're going to be doing an episode on Fletch lives on this show. But I would say go check out Confess Fletch if this movie is something that you enjoyed, because the Confess Fletch is more more of the things that this movie does right than it is the things that this movie doesn't succeed at, and it fleshes out more of the investigative stuff that this movie does do. It does even more of it, which I think again, it sounds like the three of us are somewhat in agreement that those parts are good and some of the better parts of the movie. So Confess Confess Fletch leans into that even parder, which I think works in its favor. And Fless Fletch.

Yeah, to say, fucking Christ, I just want more Fletch movies with John Hamm now, because like he's so good as the role that I'm kind of like well, I mean, you know, again, with the movie industry the way it is, and it just kind of got unceremoniously dumped on streaming. I don't know how in a lot of gotta work. It got a lot of good notice when it shouted out. I noticed people were talking positively about it, and so you expect that. Well, and it's Greg Matola.

I mean I like Greg Mottola a lot. Greg Matola directed the only uh Simon peg Nick Frost movie that Edgar Wright hasn't done that almost feels like an Edgar Wright movie with Paul. I mean, Paul is like the the fourth Coordnetto trilogy movie that you know isn't but is so Greg Matola knows knows what he's doing. And he wrote the script too, which I think is even more impressive for confessed. So I'm good, Yeah, me too?

What about you? Bagley? Sorry the rest, I got my window open. Somebody was yelling at their kid outside. I'm good cool?

Anything else we want to say? Are we good? We're just good good. So on the next episode of Chevy the Chasing Chevy Podcast, we are going to be taking a look at Orange County, which is a more recent film that barely has Chevy Chase in it, but it's a bonus episode, so we'll be taking a look at that. It has Jack Black and Colin Hanks in it, all right?

Is that the one that's written by our own Mike White? I think so, Eve it is? Did you write that movie? Mike? Yeah?

I sure did. I'm rolling in money Workless Yeah, hey man? So uh and on trick it down as we were talking about, Yes oday, you're else. So until then, where can people find you and the things that you work on? Mark Begley?

You can find my two other podcasts, Cambridge Mishaun and Wick Up Heavy over on Weirdingwaymedia dot com. About you, Mike, Right, I'm do the same thing. You can also find all the stuff that I do over at Waingwaymedia dot com, including the Projection Booth and Life and Time So Captain Barney Miller, The Chabby Detective, yet another Lumbo podcast, all kinds of good stuff. How about you, Chris Weirdingway Media. That's the That's the place.

Go check it out. All the audio diversions that I work on and even the ones that I don't, But I definitely advocate for our overt Weirdingwaymedia dot Com, adestv Ladies, Cambridge of Mahan, the Projection Booth. I could go on, but you should just go and find out for yourself at Weirdingwaymedia dot com. Like rate and review the show on iTunes please. Anywhere else doesn't help us as much as iTunes, so iTunes would be the place to go if you're listening to this show to help other fans of Chevy Chase and maybe Chevy Chase find our show.

I've gotta assume at some point he may listen, just based on the fact that I don't think anybody else is doing what we're doing. And you know, if you're listening, we hope you're enjoying it. If not, we'll catch you on the next episode. S