Film review by Kevin Patterson
Clue Rating: *** (out of four) PG, 1985 Directed and written by Jonathan Lynn. Story by Lynn and John Landis. Starring Eileen Brennan, Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd, Michael McKean, Martin Mull, Lesley Ann Warren.
The 1985 movie "Clue," based on the popular Parker Brothers mystery board game, follows the basic outline of the game pretty closely. Six suspects - Mrs. Peacock (Eileen Brennan), Mrs. White (Madeline Kahn), Professor Plum (Christopher Lloyd), Mr. Green (Michael McKean), Colonel Mustard (Martin Mull), and Miss Scarlet (Lesley Ann Warren) - gather at a mansion, six potential weapons are thrown into the mix, and Mr. Boddy (Lee Ving) is killed. The premise that sets this in motion is fairly interesting: Mr. Boddy has been blackmailing the six suspects for various reasons, and his former butler Wadsworth (Tim Curry) has decided to report him to the police and has thus invited the six in the hopes that they will provide evidence against him. Mr. Boddy then tries to turn the tables on Wadsworth, but his plan goes awry and he is killed. Soon others arrive at the mansion, for reasons I won't give away in this review, and before long the body count is rising. Since Wadsworth has called the police, the guests undertake to unmask the murderer(s) before they arrive.
Still, "Clue" doesn't work very well as a mystery per se. The movie has three separate endings, each revealing a different solution to the various murders. Only one was shown at a time when the movie was released in theaters, but on video we get all three of them, and as a result it becomes obvious to the viewer that the solution is completely arbitrary and that the clues that had accumulated thus far were ambiguous at best. Fortunately, it more than makes up for it with a wicked sense of humor; it would be fair to say that the movie is a comedy first and a mystery second. The script supplies some hilarious one-liners, such as when Wadsworth reveals that Professor Plum used to specialize in treating homicidal lunatics with delusions of grandeur. "Yes, but now I work for the United Nations," Plum explains. "Well, your work has not changed," Wadsworth replies.
Basically, "Clue" is a great example of a comedy that is hilariously entertaining if you just turn your brain off long enough to let yourself laugh at what's unfolding on the screen. The actors aren't quite on the same page, for example: Curry plays his character like someone who knows he's in a murder mystery spoof, while the rest of them play it fairly straightforward (with the occasional exception of Lloyd, who sometimes slips into his "Dr. Emmet Brown" persona from the Back To The Future series). Still, all of them manage to make their individual moments extremely funny; the other standouts besides Curry and Lloyd are Warren, who plays a sleazy, sarcastic Washington, D.C. madam, and McKean, whose Mr. Green is a hopeless clutz ("I'm a little accident prone," he explains on several occasions) and is so naive and innocent that he exclaims "I didn't do it!" with near-hysteria every time another body appears. Similarly, the plotting is rather unfocused and illogical at times; a door-to- door preacher draws big laughs in a scene in which he arrives to warn the guests that "Armageddon is near!" ("It's already here, buddy!" Professor Plum retorts), even though the character's behavior is almost inexplicable once it becomes clear who he really is.
Why, then, does "Clue" get three stars, when this kind of movie normally would only get two or two and a half from me? Well, for one thing, it's more consistently funny than the average comedy; usually, in movies like this, some of the jokes not only don't make that much sense in terms of plot and character but also misfire or downright flop on occasion. "Clue" pretty much hits the mark every time, no matter how little sense some of it makes. And to be fair, some of the humor is also fairly original and unique. Writer/director Jonathan Lynn's screenplay may be mediocre, but his handling of corpse- disposal humor is more skilled and deadpan than similar attempts in otherwise better films like "Fargo" and "Shallow Grave": a scene in which the guests hide the deaths from a policeman by cuing up some music and dancing with the bodies is one of the most hilariously twisted things ever to hit the silver screen.
And, last but not least, I have a sentimental reason for this one: "Clue" was my favorite movie when I was eight years old, loved any detective story I could get my hands on, and played the board game constantly. In fact, young sleuth wannabes with a weird sense of humor are perhaps the ideal audience for this movie. Still, there's plenty of laughs for everyone, and I'd recommend this movie to anyone willing to sit back and enjoy an hour and a half of pure silliness.
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