Clue
The story concept of having a bunch of various characters gathered together in a old, dark spooky mansion is one that has been around since the days of silent movies (usually involving some sort of nefarious schemes) and many of the oldschool detective stories also embraced the idea of the detective gathering all of the possible suspects together in a room before embarking on a long winded explanation of not only how he figured the murderer’s plot out but also announcing which of the people in the room was the actual murderer. This 1985 release famously drew inspiration from both of those concepts in bringing its characters together in an old dark house before literally spending the whole movie savoring the explanation that finally becomes clear in the end. Or did it? The film was actually given a wide release with no less than 3 different endings tacked on that any of which literally could be seen by whoever happened to be in any given theatre at any given time with literally a different murderer (or murderers) being the guilty party at any particular screening (a fourth ending was also filmed but not used due to it being considered especially grim) with a special version that edited together all three endings into one being used for both cable and home video. The real X factor though (and what was expected to be the main draw despite a tough critical and box office reception at the time) was in this being an adaptation of the world famous board game that would take the idea of solving a murder to the level of a children’s trifle where the kids would not only have to figure out who did it, but also which weapon was used and in what room it took place in! Thankfully, the filmmakers realized this patent absurdity and smartly decided to make this film into an outright comedy (not to mention a spoof of old dark house movies and the arrogant preening of movie detectives like Hercule Poiret) and to this end, put together a cast that not so much consisted of big A list comedy names, but rather those who were more well known as being versatile, dependable comedic character actors who could just slide into the well known by their name roles (Mustard, Scarlett, Peacock, Plum, Green and White) and basically impose their own schtick in order to bring them to cinematic life. To that end, we get Martin Mull, Lesley Ann Warren, Eileen Brennan, Christopher Lloyd, Michael McKean and Madeline Kahn, all of whom were known to be specialists with a wide variety of different characters in both film and television that were brought in here to act as a near seamless ensemble. But the wild card was in the risky creation of a butler character (who was not in the game) to act as the catalyst for the events in the story with the casting combine giving us Tim Curry (easily one of the most underrated performers of the 20th century) to play the part, having him start the movie as being fairly serene before putting him into manic overdrive for at least the entire second half of the film and wind up stealing the whole thing away from everybody else involved (indeed, next to Curry it appears that almost none of them were really able to keep up). The film starts with Curry’s Wadsworth The Butler arriving to work at the big old mansion where there appears to be a dinner party planned, going over final instructions with both the sexy French maid (Colleen Camp) and The Cook (Kellye Nakahara) all while awaiting the guests who have not only been invited there but have also been instructed to use assigned aliases (thus the names from the games). First we have Col. Mustard (Mull) who really is a Colonel and is a stalwart type with heavy connections to military secrets, Mrs. White (Kahn), a predatory black widow type with a history of having her husbands wind up dead, Mrs. Peacock (Brennan), a jovial Senator’s wife who always winds up having the most hysterical panic attacks, Mr. Green (McKean), a nervous jittery type whom it turns out is a closeted homosexual working for The State Department, Professor Plum (Lloyd), a psychiatrist who got into hot water for screwing his female patients (and who displays creepy, lecherous behavior throughout the whole night), and Miss Scarlett (Warren), a brunette bombshell who also happens to be Washington D.C.’s most successful madam in the escort industry. The final guest yet to arrive is one Mr. Boddy (Lee Ving, lead singer of the punk rock band Fear) and obviously any fan of the game can easily guess his fate. The reason why Curry has gathered everybody together there is because of the subject of blackmail, namely the fact that all of the guests are being blackmailed by Boddy and now is the time to expose him. But the tables get turned, Boddy meets his expected demise, and the whole story turns into a murder mystery (with more murders and victims to come) all while Curry has indicated that there is a time limit in place until the police arrive in droves (originally to arrest Boddy but now to arrest a murderer) and that they must get to the bottom of things quickly so that an explanation can be prepared once the cops arrive. And explanations turn out to be a BIG part of a movie like this, one that has a LOT of dialogue in trying to explain the twists and turns of the night’s events while seeming to make it only MORE convoluted for the viewer to understand. And this is where the bulk of the movie (and the script) thus falls onto Curry’s shoulders as we can tell that his mind is going a million miles an hour as he rapidly tries to break everything down to the most minute detail as the rest of the cast that being Mull, Kahn, Brennan, McKean, Lloyd and Warren all find themselves playing off of Curry even more than they do each other but thankfully Curry’s Energizer Bunny performance here is not only just right for the material, but more than up to the challenge of running the rest of the cast ragged as well all while leaving the viewers’ heads in a whirlwind for the purposefully designed goal of comedic effect. But as much as Curry just dominates the movie, the others do manage to get in their own little bits and pieces of comedy gold. Mull plays Mustard as someone who wants respect but is really just a sniveling weasel who seems to have acheived his military rank and status through good old fashioned asskissing and political brokering. Kahn’s White is an obvious viper trying badly (and hilariously) to hide that fact from everybody else so that she can appear to be a decent woman. Brennan’s Peacock IS a respectable woman solely by virtue of her Senator husband as she always tries to play the voice of moral outrage while hiding her own cunning nature but her aforementioned bouts of hysteria whenever things get chaotic is so over the top that they effortlessly draw laughs and smiles from the audience. McKean’s interpretation of a gay Mr. Green makes him into the go to slapstick guy of the bunch, being physically (and unwillingly) sucked into Curry’s long winded tirades along with constantly shrieking about his own perceived innocence and even being slapped around from time to time as well. Lloyd’s Plum would appear to be the laziest of the main players, taking his sexual pervert schtick to the hilt but not really doing much else with his character. And Warren’s Scarlett does the unrepentant harlot routine to the max, not being afraid to act openly sexual and flirtatious in front of Lloyd and the other males (with McKean mining even more laughs in pretending not to be interested) while still coming across as being as dangerous and capable of murder as any of them. In the end, the story strangely enough comes off as being a goofy morality play, as each character winds up being stripped bare and having their various misdeeds exposed while the one who usually winds up being the LEAST guilty (in every possible way) generally also winds up being the hero (a conceit that is true of all three endings which features different perps and different heroes). At times it is an uneven mix (and having everything take place in one location gives it a bit of a boxed in feel), but Curry at his out of control best is almost worth the price of admission by itself as we realize (particularly on repeat viewings) that all of the overexplaining and plot points don’t necessarily have to add up because it’s all supposed to be in sheer good fun, a comedy about murder where the victims of those murders aren’t really supposed to be anyone that significant and thus Tim Curry can confidently lead a cast of seasoned old pros through the ups and downs of a genuine comedy clinic…
8/10