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Fletch
When investigative reporter Irwin "Fletch" Fletcher goes undercover to write a piece on the drug trade at a local beach, he's approached by wealthy businessman Alan Stanwyk, who offers him $50,000 to murder him. With sarcastic wit and a knack for disguises, Fletch sets out to uncover Stanwyk's story.
1985 · Directed by Michael Ritchie · 98 min · Comedy · Crime · Mystery · Screenplay in the scene database · 6 frames
Tagline
Meet the only guy who changes his identity more often than his underwear.
Plot
Los Angeles Times undercover reporter Irwin M. "Fletch" Fletcher (who writes as "Jane Doe") is writing an article exposing drug trafficking on the beaches of Los Angeles. While posing as an addict, he is approached by Boyd Aviation executive vice president Alan Stanwyk, who assumes Fletch is a real junkie. Stanwyk claims to have bone cancer with only months left to live, and wishes to avoid the suffering. Claiming suicide would nullify his expensive life insurance policy but murder wouldn't, Stanwyk offers $50,000 for Fletch to kill him at his mansion in a few days' time, stage the scene as a burglary, then flee to Rio de Janeiro.
Fletch, not completely convinced of the truth of Stanwyk's story, agrees to the plan. Along with his colleague Larry, he begins investigating Stanwyk instead of completing his drug exposé, much to the chagrin of his editor Frank Walker. Disguised as a doctor, Fletch goes to the hospital where he accesses Stanwyk's medical records and learns he does not have cancer.
Fletch visits Stanwyk's wife Gail at her tennis club. Pretending to be Stanwyk's friend, he flirts with her. Looking into Stanwyk's finances, Fletch finds that Gail recently converted $3 million of her personal stock in Boyd Aviation into cash for her husband, to buy a ranch in Provo, Utah. Fletch travels to Provo and breaks into the realtor's office and discovers the sale price was only $3,000.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Screenplay: Andrew Bergman
- Cinematography: Fred Schuler
- Edited by: Richard A. Harris
- Music: Harold Faltermeyer
- Production design: Boris Leven
- Produced by: Peter Douglas, Alan Greisman
Cast
- Chevy Chase as Irwin 'Fletch' Fletcher
- Tim Matheson as Alan Stanwyk
- Dana Wheeler-Nicholson as Gail Stanwyk
- Joe Don Baker as Chief Jerry Karlin
- Richard Libertini as Frank Walker
- Geena Davis as Larry
- M. Emmet Walsh as Dr. Joseph Dolan
- George Wendt as Fat Sam
- Kenneth Mars as Stanton Boyd
- Bill Henderson as Speaker
Production
- Country: United States of America
- Language: English
- Studios: Universal Pictures, Vincent Pictures
- Budget: $8,000,000
- Box office: $59,612,888
- Themes: journalist, rio de janeiro, sarcasm, insurance fraud, dirty cop, police corruption, disguise, assumed identity, heroin addict, cabana
More by Michael Ritchie
On this film
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