Watching the Detectives: Chevy Chase is Fletch
OK, Fletch isn’t really a detective he’s a reporter but this is definitely a detective movie, albeit a funny one. Drug dealing, crooked cops and a fake murder plot are all staples of the genre and all are present here.
Made back in 1985, when not only Chase was still funny but also Steve Martin, Eddie Murphy and Robin Williams (actually Williams is still funny, just not in films), this was a great time for comedy movies. Chase is perfect as the smug but likable Irwin “Fletch” Fletcher, never overplaying the comedy but taking the comic opportunities when they present themselves, “Moon River” will never be quite the same again after M. Emmet Walsh’s medical examination. In fact, apart from Chevy Chase, everyone plays it straight and that adds to the comedy and means that Chase gets all the laughs.
The film has a great cast; Joe Don Baker as a crooked police chief, Tim Matheson as the man who brings the films two plot threads together, George Wendt as drug dealer Fat Sam, and a young pre-stardom Geena Davis as Fletch’s girl Friday (the following year she starred in The Fly).
The ‘80s is often looked on as the worst decade for film but it was a golden age for comedies. Chase was never my favourite comedy actor of the era but in the right part he was more than capable of carrying a film and he does just that here.
