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The In-Laws


            Los Angeles Times reporter Irwin "Fletch" Fletcher (Chevy Chase) is writing an article exposing the drug traffic on the beaches of Los Angeles. Posing as a homeless addict during his investigation, he is approached by Alan Stanwyk (Tim Matheson) who mistakenly assumes Fletch is a junkie. Taking him to his luxury mansion in Beverly Hills, Stanwyk formally introduces himself and that he works for Boyd Aviation as the executive vice president. Stanwyk claims to have bone cancer, with only months left to live, and wishes to avoid the pain and suffering. Stanwyk offers $50,000 for Fletch to come to his mansion in a few days time, kill him, and then escape to Rio de Janeiro, staging the murder to appear as the result of a burglary.Fletch is suspicious but ostensibly agrees to the plan. Along with his colleague Louisa Larry (Geena Davis), he begins investigating Stanwyk instead of completing his drug trafficking exposé, much to the dismay of his impatient boss and editor Frank Walker (Richard Libertini).Fletch endures a rectal exam from Stanwyk's doctor, Dr. Dolan (M. Emmett Walsh), in a failed attempt to talk Dolan into divulging medical information about Stanwyk. Later that same day, disguised as a doctor, Fletch accesses Stanwyk's file at the hospital and learns Stanwyk lied to him about having cancer.Fletch visits Stanwyk's wife Gail (Dana Wheeler-Nicholson) at her tennis club and, pretending to be a friend of her husband's, flirts with her during an impromptu tennis lesson. He doesn't uncover very much from her and leaves.Next, Fletch poses as an FCC agent where he visits Gail's father, Stanton Boyd, who is the head of Boyd Aviation to inquire about 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 returns to his apartment for the day and finds that his ex-wife's lawyer Marvin Gillet (George Wyner) is waiting for him to collect unpaid alimony. Fletch gives Gillet the $1,000 cash bribe money that Stanwyk gave him earlier to make him leave. Fletch then goes to sleep and has a dream of being a major league basketball player playing for the Lakers and scoring a hoop.Fletch travels to Utah where he breaks into the realtor's office and discovers the deed lists the sale price as only $3,000. He barely escapes from the office while being chased by a guard dog.Meanwhile, LAPD Chief Jerry Karlin (Joe Don Baker) gets wind of Fletch's soon-to-be-published drug article. He sends two thuggish detectives to Fletch's apartment and they arrest him after they plant heroin on him. The two take Fletch to meet with Karlin, who tells Fletch he's jeopardizing the lives of undercover cops he's planted on the beach to bust the drug trade. When Fletch insults Karlin by smashing a picture of Karlin with Tommy Lasorda, Karlin threatens to shoot Fletch and place a switchblade in Fletch's dead hand to claim self-defense. Fletch tells Karlin he's going to work on another story about off-track betting in the Himalayas instead. Karlin is amused and lets Fletch go. Fletch finds out that Karlin had Fletch arrested at the request of Fletch's boss, who wants Fletch to stop investigating what he considers a ludicrous story about drug-dealing cops. When Fletch confronts his boss about the incident, Frank refuses to believe Fletch's story about Karlin's plan to kill him. Fletch storms off, angry but more determined than ever to break the story.Disguised as a redneck airplane mechanic, Fletch shows up at Stanwyk's plane hangar and learns from two mechanics that Stanwyk has been using the plane to travel back and forth between California and Brazil on a weekly basis for several months.Back at the tennis club, Fletch meets Gail at her cabana. He treats her to an expensive lunch which he charges to the credit account of a snooty and obnoxious club member, Underhill, whom Fletch'd overheard being abusive toward the staff. Fletch gives her a little information about the investigation but has to flee when Mr. Underhill shows up at Gail's door, demanding the several hundred dollars the lunch had cost.Fletch spies on Stanwyk making a suspicious briefcase exchange with Chief Karlin, but is unable to determine the nature of their relationship. He returns home to find LAPD officers lying in wait at his apartment and flees and manages to avoid being caught after a harrowing car chase when Fletch steals a Alfa Romeo from a young car thief and roars off, with several police cruisers and cycle officers in pursuit. He manages to stay ahead of them and is only able to shake them when he distracts them all at a lodge club dinner.Fletch returns to Provo to hide out and, under the guise of an insurance investigator, interviews Stanwyk's parents. Fletch discovers Stanwyk has been secretly married to another woman for eight years, having used Gail for her money. He returns to Beverly Hills and shares what he's found with Gail, who's very upset about her husband's bigamy. Fletch asks her not to call the police until he can confront her husband when he goes to their home to carry out the murder he'd originally been hired for.Fletch arrives at Stanwyk's mansion on the night of the plotted murder only to find Stanwyk armed and ready to kill him instead. In the trunk of Stanwyk's car Fletch finds several cans of gasoline. Fletch reveals he is aware Stanwyk's real plan was to fake his own death by killing Fletch and burning his body beyond recognition and dressing like Fletch himself, all detailed in a statement that Fletch's paper will print if Fletch doesn't report for work the next day. Stanwyk would then escape to Brazil with his other wife as well as Gail's $3 million. Stanwyk was also using his private jet to smuggle cocaine from South America to supply Chief Karlin who in turn profited by blackmailing ex-convicts like Fat Sam (George Wendt) to peddle drugs on the beaches. Chief Karlin unexpectedly shows up and, upon learning of Stanwyk's intentions to flee with $800,000 of the Chief's drug money, kills Stanwyk. Chief Karlin then turns the gun on Fletch but is knocked unconscious by Gail when she clubs him with a tennis racket.Some time later, Chief Karlin is indicted due to Fletch's investigation. Fletch begins dating Gail and in the final scene, takes her on a vacation to Rio, Brazil. Fletch jokes that he'd placed the expenses for the vacation on Underhill's credit account and offers the audience the number.
    

Fletch


            Nell is a young woman whose upbringing has been in the sheltered, isolated woods with her mother whose speech is impaired (supposedly by srokes?) and her twin sister who has passed away, it is thought, some 12 or more years ago. As a result, Nell's own speech is a rather mangled mixture of "twin speech" and learning from her mother's own impaired manner of speaking. When her mother dies & is found by a teenage boy who it appears is delivering food, Nell is discovered by the local doctor. Dr. Jerome Lovell is intrigued by Nell & begins a journey of discovering how she has come to be this "feral" or wild child. He surmises from a newspaper clipping found in the cabin that Nell's mother was raped; from Nell's fear of going out in day time that she's been taught to stay out of sight & from her description of "e'al do'ers" (evildoers) that the reason for this is to avoid being raped as her mother was.
Nell looks in the mirror and "spee's" (speaks) to her deceased twin sister, Mae (Mary?) and dreams of running through the forest & playing with her when they were young. Memories of Mae seem to be a great comfort to Nell.
The female psychologist that Dr. Lovell had come out to observe Nell wants to study her in a laboratory setting, and her boss, a noted psychiatrist, pushes for this to happen, but Dr. Lovell objects & at court, a judge decides to give 3 months for observation of Nell in her own surroundings to see if she is competent to give "informed consent" to be studied.
As Dr. Lovell, who moves into a tent a short distance from Nell's forest cabin, begins to interact with Nell...she subsequently comes to trust him and refers to him as her "gah-anj" (later Lovell determines this to mean "guardian angel") and calls him "Jay" in her way of saying Jerry.
The psychologist, Paula Olsen, has also come out to observe, living in a lab-funded houseboat. She has sneaked in and put a video camera in Nell's cabin so she can watch her without the personal interaction. (it's unclear if this the sole intent or if it is just "easier" to do this way)
Eventually, outsiders inadvertently learn of Nell & a journalist makes his way to Nell's cabin & frightens her with his flash photography, which Nell has never seen of course. Jerry runs him off but a story comes out in the newspaper & soon a helicopter arrives, frightening Nell to the point of collapse. In an effort to shield her from gratuitous exposure to ruthless media, Paula, who now sees Nell as a real person who is sweet & needs no state intervention and Jerry decide the only place she can be safe from the press is at the hospital where Paula's boss wants to make a lab rat out of her.
The arrival at the scary hospital along with the traumatic fleeing from media helicopter shocks Nell into a catatonic state which both doctors know will send her directly to an institution when her 3-month evaluation comes up. Jerry impulsively breaks out of the hospital with Nell & holes up in a hotel where she continues to refuse to speak or interact with him. At one point, Nell is alone on the balcony outside the hotel room door looking down into the neglected pool and daydreams of Mae. This scene seems to imply that Nell is suicidal, but that is never made clear.
Finally at the competency hearing, Jerry becomes frustrated at how Nell is being "railroaded", knowing how she really is, and Nell suddenly "comes alive" and seems to come to Jerry's defense by basically explaining herself, asking Jerry to "spee' fo' Nell". The things she says and emotions she expresses are very beautiful & the movie ends with Jerry & Paula driving with their young daughter to a gathering of some sort at Nell's cabin, where there are quite a few other people including the sheriff and his wife, who are fond of Nell throughout the film as well. Nell has a scene with the young daughter, teaching her the chant she and Mae used to say and telling her "You 'member dat"...
I love this movie, even if it is a bit far-fetched. The scenery is breathtaking and the emotions are beautiful & ultimately, the "moral"... leave well enough alone... is appealing to me.
    

Richard Libertini

Richard Libertini Movies or Tv Shows (upto Dec 2024) - Watch Online

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