Last week I had a chance to screen again the action-comedy, “Fletch,” starring Chevy Chase, and accompanied by a host of excellent supporting actors. The character, Irwin “Fletch” Fletcher, is an investigative reporter for a Los Angeles newspaper, who writes under the by-line of Jane Doe. Fletch is impersonating a bum, living on the Santa Monica beach, trying to find out about the drugs being sold, and whose dealing them. He’s approached, and offered a large sum of money to kill a millionaire, who claims to be dying of bone cancer, so his wife will get the insurance money. Fletch really doesn’t buy his story, and starts to investigate the man, by assuming different characters with very clever identities.
When I first watched the movie, luckily, I was alone, because I started to laugh out-loud at some of the routines. After, I was determined to find out who wrote the original book, and read it. I found it was written by Gregory Mcdonald, and that there were a series of these popular Fletch novels. Unfortunately, I was totally disappointed as I read them. It wasn’t that the story was that different, it was the collaboration of Andrew Bergman, who wrote the script, Michael Ritchie, who directed the film, and of course Chevy Chase, who brought the character to life, which made all the difference for me.
I started to think of other instances I’ve encountered, where I felt the movie was better than the book. There weren’t many, since I always read the book first, but there was one where I was a little disappointed when I read the book. The Movie was “Jaws.” You all have to admit, the movie, especially, when you don’t see the shark, but heard the music which depicts what is going to happen, a great technique, also reminiscent of the movie, “Psycho,” really frightened people from going into water, for months, maybe years. Since, I’m an avid scuba diver, and photographer, I wanted to read other books written by Peter Benchley. I found two that were finally made into films, “The Deep,” and, “The Island.” Both were enjoyable to read, and when brought to the screen, with excellent casts, were very good representations of both books.
The problem with bringing a book, especially if it’s long and complicated to the screen is, how to write a successful screen play, with all the excitement and depth of the original story, and make it work for a two-and-a-half-hour film. It’s not easy, and it reminded me of the editing job I had on the syndicated series “The Canned Film Festival.”
It was a comedy series with Laraine Newman playing the owner and sole usherette at the Ritz Theater which was undergoing economic and cultural decline due to lack of a customer base. She took extreme measures to attract moviegoers by adding laundry facilities to the lobby, and showing B movies. My part was to edit these ninety-minute films, down to sixty-minutes for the series. At first, I wasn’t sure how to tackle the edit. When I finally screened the films, I saw the obvious solution, you have to cut out the sub-plot. So, I started by editing both ends, the beginning and ending, the main plot, until I brought the time down to sixty-minutes, and found a bridge to make the story cohesive.
There are instances where the story is expanded, and adding a new story-line not in the original book. Case in point, “The Hobbit.” When, Peter Jackson brought to the screen, “The Lord of the Rings,” I was a little worried that the original story would be changed. These were some of my favorite books, which I first read back in the late 60’s. But, when I watched the first one, “The Fellowship of the Ring,” it was excellent, and my fears of not a faithful portrayal of the story, was alleviated. I knew, the next two books in the trilogy, would also be wonderful. When it was announced, that he was making the “Hobbit,” into three films, I knew major additions to the original story was inevitable. Yes, when I viewed them, the original story was greatly changed, but it did work for me.
I find movie-making is never easy, there are always so many challengers that you encounter, as you journey from script to final edit. That’s why I always enjoy every minute, it’s never dull.
