CLUE
Review by John Beachem
* * * *
Directed by: Jonathan Lynn Written by: Jonathan Lynn, John Landis
It's the 1950's, the height of McCarthyism, and six strangers have been invited to a mansion in middle of nowhere, New England. The strangers are Colonel Mustard (Martin Mull), whose mother's health is questionable and who drives an expensive car for a man on a Colonel's pay; Mrs. White (Madeline Kahn), who has had many husbands, both her's and other womens'; Professor Plum (Christopher Lloyd), who works with the paranoid delusional folks at the UN; Mrs. Peacock (Eileen Brennan), who does her senator husband's dirty work; The timid, accident prone Mr. Green (Michael McKean); and Mis Scarlett (Lesley Ann Warren), who has helped men find the company of a young lady for a short while. These six strangers all have one thing in common, they're all being blackmailed. They have been invited to the mansion by Wadsworth (Tim Curry), the butler, to meet Mr. Boddy (Lee Ving), who knows something about each of them that they don't want made public. The plan is to confront Mr. Boddy and make him stop blackmailing them. Unfortunately, things don't go quite as planned, and Mr. Boddy is soon dead. With only the six guests, Wadsworth, and the maid, Yvette (Colleen Camp) in the house, they now have to determine who killed Mr. Boddy, where, and with what.
I have to admit, I'm a big fan of the "Clue" board game from Parker Brothers. It's probably because I love mysteries, and "Clue" is the closest I can get to solving one in real life without getting shot at. So, I'll get this out of the way right now. As a mystery film, director Jonathan Lynn's ("The Whole Nine Yards") "Clue" fails miserably. I'll let your gasps of disbelief subside. Okay, how can a movie called "Clue" fail as a mystery? Because the writers thought up an interesting little idea where there are three endings. Since there are three different endings, and thus different killers, there is no way to guess who the killer is. Afterall, if you guess it right in one ending you're wrong in the other two. So if "Clue" fails as a mystery, why did I give it a four star rating? Because it succeeds on every level as a comedy. All the various types of comedy are used in the movie (except that irritating romantic kind) to full effect. We get a healthy dose of slapstick, with people running into each other and various objects. We also get some great banter, particularly in a scene where Colonel Mustard is grilling Wadsworth about who is in the house. We even get some satire in a scene which takes a jab at Agatha Christie's "Murder on the Orient Express".
Obviously a film like this is going to be entirely dependent on two factors: the script, and the actors. I'll get into the script in a minute, so let's cover the actors. Tim Curry ("Legend") leads the cast with a manic, over-the-top performance like you've never seen (unless you're a fan of John Lithgow). The performance is, in fact, so manic that Curry is sweating and out of breath during a few scenes. Sounds like a painful thing to watch, right? Strangely enough, it's not at all. His manic performance fits the part so well, you can't picture Wadsworth being played in any other way. The other cast members display great comic abilities, but two stick out in my mind as turning in really memorable performances. Martin Mull ("Mrs. Doubtfire"), playing the dim-witted Colonel Mustard, has some of the best comic timing I've ever seen. He even manages to pull some humor out of an otherwise stupid scene where Miss Scarlett says, "Search me" and he proceeds to frisk her. The other stand out is, obviously, the late, great Madeline Kahn ("Blazing Saddles"). This great woman could make anything funny, and when she gets truly funny dialogue she's a riot. My favorite scene with her is one where Colonel Mustard says, "There is only one admitted killer here and it is not me, it is her!" Madeline backs away, panic in her eyes, and says, "I've admitted nothing."
The biggest point in this movie's favor is certainly the hysterical script from Lynn and John Landis ("The Blues Brothers"). I'd say no more than three minutes go by at a time before we get hit between the eyes by another uproarious joke. Some of my favorites are Wadsworth re-creating the crime using Mr. Green as a prop; Mrs. Peacock expressing her fear that the brandy is poisoned; and the revelation of what each person is being blackmailed for. This is also the kind of movie you'll find yourself quoting for weeks, months, even years after you've seen it. For example, whenever anyone says "To make a long story short," I still say "Too late." What really makes the comedy work is that Lynn and Landis never re-use jokes till we're tired of them. Even the funniest lines and scenes are only used twice at the most. These are guys who know how to avoid wearing out their welcome. The other way the avoid wearing out their welcome is by changing the types of jokes. You'll seldom get several slapstick jokes in a row, you're more likely to get a couple slapstick jokes, a scene of great banter, a snappy one liner or two, and then maybe some really dark humor (watch for the singing telegram girl for a great example of that). I wish modern comic writers would try this approach rather than throwing ten gross-out jokes at us in a row.
The primary reason I've decided to go back and review a movie like "Clue" is because I recently got it on DVD. The disc's special features may be rather limited, but it does contain the theatrical trailer. Why do I point this out? Because for some reason there are a few scenes on the trailer not contained in the film. Normally these sorts of cuts make perfect sense since they aren't funny, but these scenes were really quite good. For example, Mr. Green is screaming and Colonel Mustard slaps him across the face. Colonel Mustard: "Why are you screaming?!" Mr. Green: "Because I'm frightened!" Colonel Mustard: "Of what?" Mr. Green: "Screaming!" Trust me, it sounds much funnier when Michael McKean says it. Clue's soundtrack is a pleasant combination of old, fifties songs ("Shake, Rattle, and Roll" for example) and a lively little musical number composed by John Morris ("Dirty Dancing"). "Clue" runs a nice, quick 97 minutes, and I actually wouldn't have minded it being a touch longer. I'd recommend the movie to those who enjoy eighties style comedies, and to fans of both Tim Curry and Madeline Kahn since both really shine here and give it four out of five stars. If you enjoy "Clue", I'd also recommend going back and checking out Neil Simon's "Murder by Death" from 1976.
Comments? Send to: johnbeachem@dependentfilms.net
Past reviews can be found at: http://www.epinions.com/user-elerad? or http://us.imdb.com/ReviewsBy?John+Beachem
* * * * * - One of the best movies of the year. * * * * - Great flick, try and catch this one. * * * - Okay movie, hits and misses. * * - Pretty bad, see it at your own risk. * - See this one only if you enjoy pain.
Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at http://profiles.msn.com.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews