Forty years ago today, Chevy Chase ordered a steak sandwich(and a steak sandwich) and charged it to the Underhills. If you're a middle-aged male with fond memories of the pre-streaming, all-entertainment bonanza that was TNT/TBS in the 1990s, you know I'm talking about Irwin M. Fletcher, better known, of course, simply as Fletch. I don't know that you can call it a GREAT movie, in the same way that "The Godfather", "Jaws", and "Back to the Future"(released the same summer) are great movies. But it is a highly-quotable, strangely-addictive comedy that stood out even at a time when Hollywood knew how to make those. It's almost as if director Michael Ritchie("The Bad News Bears") knew it's episodic structure would prove irresistible to channel surfers and could later be chopped up perfectly on Youtube. "Fletch" made a respectable $50 million at the U.S. box office, but it's afterlife among a like-minded cult was the real victory.
Chase was 40 years old and at the peak of his wise-ass powers when the film entered production. The SNL original was basking in the goodwill of Goldie Hawn romcoms, "Caddyshack", and "National Lampoon's Vacation"(with a sequel soon to follow). There was no reason to believe that his comedic leading man brand wouldn't survive the next decade. This was his moment, with a character much closer to his true self than Clark Griswald. Roger Ebert seemed to miss the point in a lukewarm review, calling Chevy's performance "an inflexible mask of cool detachment". I don't see the problem, Rog. Like Axl Foley in 1984's biggest hit "Beverly Hills Cop"(I don't think it's a coincidence that both contain a Harold Faltermeyer score), Fletch's appeal is his quick wit, supreme confidence, and total disregard for what others think. Gregory McDonald wrote eleven "Fletch" novels starting in 1974, and when Burt Reynolds, George Segal, and Richard Dreyfuss rejected the part, Chase was chosen to make comedy history.
Before there was Ace Ventura and a "Big Lebowski" fest, there was Fletch(oh, Jeff Bridges was in the running too). He walked, so Ryan Reynolds could run. Now is a good time to bring up the mystery plot, engagingly adapted by screenwiter Andrew Bergman. Ritchie keeps the audience guessing about the motives of Tim Matheson's murky millionaire, to head up an underrated supporting cast- Joe Don Baker(scary), Dana Wheeler-Nicholson, Richard Libertini, M. Emmet Walsh, George Wendt, George Wyner, and a young Geena Davis. But it's the Chevy Chase show, and his many disguises and improvisations that Ritchie rightly allowed, is the reason it's so beloved. Unfortunately, the Fletch magic only lasted 98 minutes. The 1989 sequel "Fletch Lives" is much less popular, and further installments(Chase once hoped for a five-film franchise) never materialized. 'Fletch 3' had been in development hell for 25 years when Jon Hamm won the role- 2022's "Fletch, Won" was well-received but a follow-up feels unlikely. That's because there's only ONE Fletch in my life and my DVD rack, and today's kids don't hold onto anything in this increasingly-atomized, disposable pop culture hellscape. They don't even know what they're missing. Bit by bit, a lot of old movies became classics. That doesn't happen anymore, and may never again. What was the last comedy that college kids had memorized? I think I found Fletch's next case.
