FLETCH LIVES
US, 1989, 95 minutes, Colour.
Chevy Chase, Hal Holbrook, Julianne Philipps, R. Lee Ermey, Richard Libertini, Randall ‘Tex’ Cobb, Cleavon Little, Geoffrey Lewis.
Directed by Michael Ritchie.
Fletch Lives is a sequel to the 1985 comedy thriller Fletch, starring Chevy Chase and directed by Michael Ritchie - who teamed together for this film.
The film was based on characters by novelist Gregory Mc Donald. Fletch is a newspaper reporter and columnist who gets involved in murder mysteries. This time it is in Louisiana and the film takes shots at many aspects of southern life, including faded gentry, tele-evangelists, the Ku Klux Klan. Hal Holbrook is good as the villain, R. Lee Ermey (Full Metal Jacket, Mississippi Burning) as the tele-evangelist.
The film moves at a leisurely pace. It is not a thriller in the action-packed sense. However, it gives Chevy Chase an opportunity to do several disguise turns as a Dolly Parton maid, a healer at a revival session, a nonentity who passes himself off as the heir of the Harley Davidson estate.
1. Popular thriller comedy? Piece of Americana? Mystery? Chevy Chase film?
2. The Los Angeles setting, the contrast with Louisiana and its old style, the new Louisiana, the reality and the tradition of films in the south? The tele-evangelist atmosphere? Costumes, decor, stunts? Score and songs?
3. Chevy Chase and his comic presence and style, the voice-over, his work as a reporter, his imitations? The introduction and his comment as Peggy Lee, the gangsters, the car chase?
4. At work, Frank and his debts, his wife's alimony lawyer, and his humiliating him, the news of the will, his resignation, his continuing to get help from Frank, the return to the office?
5. The flight to the south, his fellow passenger and her nose job? His imagining the musical number of 'Zippidy Doo Dah' at the old plantation with Frank and the lawyer both there, the touches of animation meeting Amanda, seeing the beautiful mansions, seeing his rundown inheritance? The meal with Amanda, in bed, her death? His arrest, the attitude of the police, his smart remarks, his being put in the cell with the homosexual bikie, his getting out?
6. Looking over the mansion, its dirt, Calculus and his seeing to business, the information about the sale? The arrival of the Ku Klux Klan and their ineffective protest, his joining them?, The burning of the mansion? Going to stay with Calculus? Their investigations, the morgue and his frightening the attendant? The bikie taking his watch? Being invited on the coon hunt and his comment on the sweating, drinking hunters? Being shot at, his shoes and the toxic waste and his getting Frank to investigate?
7. The Farnsworth television show, his aunt changing her will, going to the session, the healing, his being called up, the interaction with Farnsworth? Farnsworth's style, greed, self-importance? The tour of his Bible land and
his phobias? The session with the healers, Fletch pretending to be Claude, going to the central area and seeing how the information was given by microphone, his taking over and the joke of the man with the haemorrhoids, his healing the man with the migraine?
8. Ham, at the jail, his advice and help? The old south? Devotion to his mother? Attacks on Farnsworth?
9. Becky, her work, help, the truth about her father, going to the bikies, Fletch pretending to be Harley, dancing with the bikies, the bike-ride, riding through the train? The encounter with Becky?
10. The visit to the factory, his pretending to be Elmer Fudd Gantry, finding out about the toxic waste?
11. The party, the southern uniforms, the confrontation of Ham, the bikie, getting the ashes of his mother and her photo, provoking a fight, the escape? Ham pursuing them to the TV show, the confrontation and shooting on television?
12. The happy ending back in Los Angeles? Humorous murder mystery, satire on the south?
