Revisiting Fletch and the Original Fletch Novel!

As a kid I loved the 1985 Fletch film starring Chevy Chase.  There was a period in my life in which I didn’t think anything was funnier than that movie!!

Recently I decided it was high time that I read the original Fletch novel, from 1974, written by Gregory Mcdonald.  Mr. Mcdonald wrote eleven Fletch novels, as well as a number of spin-offs focusing on Inspector Francis Xavier Flynn (who appeared in Confess, Fletch, the recent, vastly-underrated Fletch sequel starring Jon Hamm, where the character of the Inspector was played by Roy Wood, Jr.).

I quite enjoyed the novel!

It’s a very brisk read.  It’s not very long, and the story blows by at a rapid clip.  It’s a very engaging read.

I was surprised to discover that the novel was written in a very interesting and unique manner: the novel is mostly dialogue.  There is very little additional text or description of any kind.  There is almost no internal monologue or description of what Fletch or any other character is thinking or feeling.  The novel is mostly just dialogue in conversation (often without even the standard sorts of indications of who is saying which line!).

It’s a very memorable and attention-grabbing approach.  It works well, because Mr. Mcdonald’s dialogue is sharp and funny!

The novel isn’t exactly laugh out loud funny, but it’s amusingly wry.  I quite dug the tone.  (This wry tone without too many obvious punchlines reminds me very much of the tone of the Jon Hamm Confess, Fletch film.  That’s a very different tone than the more slapstick, silly Chevy Chase films.  I was surprised and intrigued to discover that the tone of the Confess, Fletch film was much closer to the tone of these Fletch novels!)  My favorite jokes in the novel are the escalatingly insane last names Fletch adopts for his aliases.

For the most part, the character of Fletch is consistent with how I knew Fletch from the films.  He’s a little tougher-edged, and there are a few moments in the novel that haven’t aged well.  Fletch in the book is somewhat dismissive and sexist towards his female boss, Clara, at the newspaper.  That didn’t sit so well with me, nor did the suggestion that Fletch is sleeping with a fifteen year-old girl he befriends when he’s undercover with drugged teens at the beach.  The women in the book aren’t depicted particularly well.  Fletch’s two ex-wives are both cartoonishly dim and somehow both still in love with him, as if he’s an irresistible adonis.  I rolled my eyes at that.  I was also somewhat surprised by Fletch’s behavior at the end!  (SPOILERS ahead if you’re not already familiar with this story from the Chevy Chase movie.)  I was a little surprised that in the novel, Fletch did nothing to help Sally Ann Cavanaugh and her young son, left abandoned in an airport and not yet realizing the man Sally loved had been murdered.  And Fletch keeps the three million!  I guess that’s what most people would do, but still feels surprising to me for the book’s hero.  I’d thought at least Fletch would leave a little money for Sally or have come up with some other scheme to help her from having her whole life ruined.  Guess not…!

After reading the novel, I decided to go back and revisit the 1985 Chevy Chase film.  While I’d adored this movie as a kid, the last time I watched it, about a decade or so ago, I was somewhat shocked to discover that I didn’t much care for it.  The humor didn’t land for me; I thought perhaps the film was just too dated, too much of its time, and perhaps I’d outgrown its more juvenile humor.  Interestingly, rewatching the film again now, I found that I loved it again!  Somehow I was back in tune with the film’s rhythms.  I found myself able to forgive some of the film’s more dated aspects and enjoy the performances and the sharp writing.

The film is more accurate to the novel than I’d expected!  There are changes, of course, but I was pleasantly impressed than many of those changes were very smart ones.  For instance, Fletch’s relationship with his young female assistant at the newspaper is portrayed far better in the film.  The character is played by Geena Davis, and she’s fantastic in the small role.  I like that in the film it’s Fletch’s male boss who screws up and gets Fletch in trouble with the cops, rather than this female assistant.

The film wisely avoids the suggestion that Fletch is sleeping with a young female drug-addict at the beach; in fact, in the film Fletch’s junkie friend is a boy, not a girl.

In the film, Fletch actually DOES pay his wife’s alimony to her lawyer, making him less of a deadbeat than he is in the novel.

That in the film the rich Stanwyck is the one who supplies drugs to the chief is a bit silly.  Similarly, the car chase they threw into the movie is ridiculous, but Chevy’s performance makes it fun.

After watching and enjoying the 1985 Fletch, I decided to rewatch 1989’s unfortunate sequel Fletch Lives.  Every time I watch Fletch Lives I keep hoping it’ll be better; it sadly never is.  Chevy Chase is still funny, but this sequel just doesn’t work.  Chevy’s Fletch making fun of Southern people just isn’t as funny as the filmmakers clearly thought it would be.  A beautiful, innocent woman is murdered and no one much seems to care.  The great Cleavon Little (Blazing Saddles) has to spend much of the movie pretending to be an ignorant goofus.  It’s a borderline racist character.  The character — who has the terrific name of Calculus Entropy — is eventually revealed to be in on the joke and faking that persona.  But still, we the audience have to watch that persona for much of the film, and presumably we’re supposed to be finding it funny.  It made me deeply uncomfortable.

I then decided to skip ahead in the novel series and read Confess, Fletch.  It’s a terrific novel and I was again pleasantly surprised how faithful the film adaptation was.  Now’s a good time for me to repeat how much a shame it is that the film adaptation starring Jon Hamm was so ignored when it was released last year.  I’m not saying the film is a masterpiece, but it’s a delightful piece of comedic entertainment.  (Click here for my review!)  The mystery is compelling and the cast is terrific, led by Jon Hamm who is perfect as Fletch.  I wish we could see multiple Fletch sequels starring Mr. Hamm.  Oh well.

This was a fun trip down the Fletch rabbit hole!  I need to find the time to read more of Mr. Mcdonald’s Fletch novels…!

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