Fletch Lives (1989)

After receiving an inheritance in Louisiana, Los Angeles reporter Irvin Fletcher heads to the Belle Isle plantation where he gets himself into hilarious trouble.

Director:

Michael Ritchie

Writers:

Gregory McDonald (character), Leon Capetanos

Stars:

Chevy Chase, Hal Holbrook, Julianne Phillips

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Chevy Chase	...	Irwin 'Fletch' Fletcher
Hal Holbrook	...	Hamilton "Ham" Johnson
Julianne Phillips	...	Becky Culpepper
R. Lee Ermey	...	Jimmy Lee Farnsworth
Richard Libertini	...	Frank Walker
Randall 'Tex' Cobb	...	Ben Dover
Cleavon Little	...	Calculus Entropy
George Wyner	...	Marvin Gillet
Patricia Kalember	...	Amanda Ray Ross
Geoffrey Lewis	...	KKK Leader
Richard Belzer	...	Phil
Phil Hartman	...	Bly Manager
Titos Vandis	...	Uncle Kakakis
Don Hood	...	Tom Barbour
Dennis Burkley	...	Joe Jack

Storyline

Ailing Los Angeles newspaper reporter Irvin "Fletch" Fletcher, in debt, inherits from a aunt "Bell Isle", a sprawling 80-acre Louisiana plantation estate, quits his job and moves east expecting to live like a Dixie king. But he failed to inspect the run-down inheritance, leaving him only a shabby mansion with a shifty caretaker instead of reliable staff. Having celebrated anyway with an attractive lawyer in bed, he wakes up finding her mysteriously murdered and himself jailed, soon to be bailed, as prime suspect. Undaunted by a neighborly lawyer's warning to leave town, he waves foxy real estate agent Becky Culpepper's persistent offer well above the apparent value from a third party and starts snooping why with Becky. That proves a dangerous activity for him and almost anybody around, everything pointing to local magnate Hamilton "Ham" Johnson and his 'Confederate' circle of friends; including TV preacher Jimmy Lee Farnsworth and a dodgy chemical plant.

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Plot Keywords:

inheritance | louisiana | disguise | wisecrack humor | sequel | 

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Taglines:

When there's more trouble than one man can handle...there's more than one man for the job.

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Genres:

Comedy | Mystery | Crime

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

17 March 1989 (USA)

Also Known As:

Fletch Saved

Filming Locations:

Kaufman Astoria Studios - 3412 36th Street, Astoria, Queens, New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$8,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$8,045,760, 19 March 1989

Gross USA:

$35,150,960

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$39,450,960, 31 December 1989

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures, Vincent Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Fletch's complete list of disguises and aliases is: Peggy-Lee Zorba, Nostradamus, The Colonel, Geometry Fletch, Billy-Jean King, Claude-Henry Smoot, Peter Lemonjello, Ed Harley, Elmer-Fudd Gantry, Henry Himmler, Eldridge Cleaver, Victor Hugo, and Bobby-Lee Schwartz II.

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Goofs

During the opening scene, as the camera is zooming in on the men sitting at the table, Richard Belzer is facing the camera, and its movement causes him to look directly at it. He then immediately looks away, realizing his mistake. He also does it again very briefly as the camera is about to pass by his shoulder, again looking away almost immediately.

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Quotes

Calculus Entropy: How do you do? I be Calculus Entropy, you be Mr. and Mrs. Fletcher?
Fletch: I be Fletch, Geometry Fletch. She be Miss Trigonometry Ross.

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Connections

Referenced in Serial Mom (1994)

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Soundtracks

Ain't No Use, Baby
Performed by Buckwheat Zydeco

User Reviews

My fave film when I was a kid

Peggy-Lee Zorba, Nostradamus, The Colonel, Victor Hugo, Billy-Jean King, Claude-Henry Smoot, Peter Lemonjello, Ed Harley, Elmer-Fudd Gantry and Bobby-Lee Schwartz II. Not to mention Fletch himself. Has Chevy Chase ever played so many people in one film? I love Fletch Lives, it is so damn funny and cackles with hilarious dialogue. It's a bloody shame that the critics were beastly, when it first came out. Chevy Chase, once again, nails the role of Fletch and only he can deliver the deadpan sarcasm in a way no other actor can.

Fletch quits his job as an investigative reporter after he inherits a plantation mansion in Louisiana. But he stumbles upon another mystery and does his best to unravel it. Compared to the first the plot may be a little weak but it works fine. The focus seems to have shifted to Fletch's disguises and working set-pieces and gags around them rather than working on layers of mystery. And why the producers commissioned a brand new screenplay instead working from one of Gregory MacDonald's novels is beyond me.

His disguises will, however, make you grin from ear to ear (Claude Henry Smoot steals the show) and they way he comes out with the most ridiculous of things when he's talking to people makes you wonder why they ever believe it. As Peter Lemonjello, Fletch tells a studio camera operator that his house is on fire. The guy believes him! I do wish that they had used more of the Bibleland sets as it seems so much for so little screen time but the presence of R. Lee Ermey as the eccentric TV Evangelist makes up for it.

And to any of you who are puzzled why Mr. Underhill is credited in the cast of characters but not actually in the film, he IS. Look closely at the Zipedee Doo-Dah sequence and you can see him as one of the dancers.

Had the producers treated Fletch like James Bond we might have a new Fletch mystery every two years since 1985 if they followed the order of MacDonald's books (not chronologically, of course, as they're all over the place). It could have turned into Chase's signature roll.

There's been talk of a sequel for years and with various names attached as Chase seems to have been ejected from the role. Though he is the ONLY Fletch in my opinion. At the very least, if a sequel IS made, they cannot dispose of Harold Faltermeyer's brilliant score, which I found to be nothing short of awesome when I was a kid, and little has changed since then.