Clue (1985) Rating: 4.0 stars out of 5.0 stars
Cast: Eileen Brennan, Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd, Michael McKean, Martin Mull, Lesley Ann Warren, Colleen Camp, Lee Ving, Bill Henderson, Howard Hesseman Written by: John Landis and Jonathan Lynn Directed by: Jonathan Lynn Running Time: 96 minutes
Clue is an unfairly ignored comedy, very similar to 1976's Murder by Death. This big screen version of the classic board game (what's next... Chutes and Ladders:The Motion Picture?) is filled with slapstick antics and silly dialogue. The plot, for what it's worth, has all the characters from the game (in this case, the names from the game are used as aliases) meeting in an isolated mansion to confront Mr. Boddy (Lee Ving), the man who's been blackmailing them all. When he turns up dead, everyone (including the audience) must figure out whodunnit... and in what room, and with what object.
While not as witty as Neil Simon's Murder By Death, Clue definitely has it moments. It has so many moments in fact that I use a lot of the lines from the film when I'm joking around with my friends. To this day, whenever someone says the phrase "Well, to make a long story short" I have the follow up phrase "Too late" ready to go. The cast (all very good comedic talents) play well off one another, while the late Madeline Kahn (as the dark and sultry Mrs. White) sometimes steals the film away from the rest. And Colleen Camp, as the French maid Yvette, displays some of her natural talents as well.
Clue is available on DVD from Paramount Home Video. It includes the film in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 (and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions) and features the original theatrical trailer. A French language audio track is also available.
The trailer holds up well considering most previews from that time do not, and it even includes a scene not in the film itself (a scene that should have been in the film, as it's a good joke). Also, the trailer is scored to the music from Airplane!, which was an interesting choice.
When Clue played in theaters, it ran with the gimmick of three different endings. If you wanted to see all three, you had to go to the movies three separate times. So when the film was released on home video, rather than releasing three separate videos, all three endings were included on one tape... the first two endings being "What If?" endings and the third ending being the actual ending. Now for the DVD release you get two choices. You can watch the film as it was presented on home video or you can select to watch it with one of the three endings randomly chosen for you. (Note: there's an easter egg hidden in the disc pertaining to this. After watching the film with a randomly selected ending, when you return to the menu screen you will be able to highlight the large magnifying glass and select it. When you do, a secret menu opens, allowing you to watch any of the three endings by themselves.)
Now while I applaud the effort of Paramount here, as they clearly tried to do something special with the disc, it just doesn't work well. First, why not give the VIEWER the choice of what ending we want to watch? Maybe someone like myself who's seen the movie hundreds of times would like to sit down and show it to someone with the second ending only. I'm no technical DVD expert, but I can't imagine that being too hard to accomplish. Secondly, the delay between when the film itself ends and one of the endings begins is too long and too obvious, thereby becoming a distraction right when you definitely don't need a distraction. Finally, the back of the DVD case states "And now, with this special DVD version, you can see all 3 surprise endings". I have no idea why they would word it that way, since that's not a special feature in the slightest. The video has been out for fifteen years now (good lord, has it been that long?) and it's played on television with all three endings all the time.
These are merely minor complaints however, seeing that I've watched the home video version hundreds of times and have no problem watching the film as such on the DVD. The picture and sound are wonderfully improved over my worn out VHS copy, and I'm thrilled that Paramount agrees with me that Clue is a film worthy of being preserved on this great digital format. [PG]
Reviewed by Chuck Dowling - chuckd21@fdn.com AOL Instant Messenger: FilmJax The Jacksonville Film Journal - http://www.jaxfilmjournal.com/
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