Throwback Thursday: ‘Clue’

The 1985 murder comedy ‘Clue’ is a rare breed.  It is one of the few films that whenever I stumble upon it as I flip through channels, regardless of how far into the film it is, I have to stop and watch.  Sometimes five minutes.  Sometimes until the next commercial break.  Sometimes all the way to the end.  It’s a kind of fix that only a film as funny and as timeless as ‘Clue’ can provide.

It wasn’t the first comedy to broach the subject of murder.  It wasn’t even the first murder mystery comedy.  Screenwriter and director Jonathan Lynn (‘My Cousin Vinny’ and ‘The Whole Nine Yards’) was definitely influenced by classic films like ‘Arsenic & Old Lace’ and even more recent murder mystery comedies like ‘Murder by Death.’  However, there is an intensity to ‘Clue’ that is unmatched.  The comedy thrown out at its audience comes a mile a minute and just as consistent.  Not only do the jokes come fast, they come nonstop and just about every one it hit out of the park.  Some are campy.  Some are witty.  Some incorporate the best sight gags since the silent era.  ‘Clue’ is a comedy that has something for everyone, and each brand of humor is executed just as flawlessly as the next.

More than 20 years later, the idea of taking a board game and turning it into a feature film is becoming a trend.  With feature film adaptations of ‘Battleship,’ ‘Ouija,’ and ‘Monopoly’ just on the horizon, you have to give credit to ‘Clue’ for being the frontrunner on the trend more than two decades prior.  Lynn takes the best elements of the board game (the creepy house, the eccentric characters, the various weapons, etc.) and puts each one to good use.

The casting in ‘Clue’ is flawless.  Michael McKean plays the dorky Mr. Green who keeps insisting he “didn’t do it”.  The late and great Madeline Kahn plays the melancholy Mrs. White, who may or may not have murdered her husband. Eileen Brennan plays the somewhat senile and overly naive Mrs. Peacock.  Christopher Lloyd plays the sex-crazed Professor Plum.  Martin Mull plays Colonel Mustard, who seems tough until he is faced with death and who misses his mommy and daddy.  Lesley Ann Warren plays the seductive Miss Scarlet.  Each actor is phenomenal in their own way, bringing the equally phenomenal characters to life.  Every actor brings out the best in the character, and none of them fall behind in the laughs department.  I dare you to not, at least, crack a smile during the scene where Madeline Kahn’s Mrs. White goes off on how much she hates Yvette, the maid.

However, the real standout performance in ‘Clue’ is for a character that is completely made up for the movie.  Tim Curry stars as Wadsworth, the butler, who has brought the other six to the mansion.  Curry is a force within this film, hardly taking a breathe for seemingly minutes at times.  The film’s final act, where Wadsworth essentially runs through every event leading up to that point, is a juggernaut of comedy and Curry keeps the pace of the film without effort.

Of course, what ‘Clue’ is most notable for to the general public is the idea that three, different endings were shot.  Random endings were shown depending on what theater you attended.  It was a bold attempt at marketing, sadly one that didn’t work all that well in ‘Clue’s favor.  The film was anything but a box office success, pulling in just over $13 million in its entire run.  It didn’t help the film’s chances that it came out on the same day as ‘The Jewel of the Nile,’ the sequel to ‘Romancing the Stone.’  Audiences had a choice between comedies, and most headed for adventure instead of mystery.

Despite its box office receipts, the various endings for ‘Clue’ is probably what the film is most remembered for.  When it was released on VHS, all three endings were included.  It wasn’t until the film was released on DVD in 2000 that I had the opportunity to watch it with a completely random ending.  In more recent years, the film has gained a cult following, particularly among fans of Tim Curry’s other, famous film, ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show.’  Theaters will sometimes acquire a print of ‘Clue’ and show the film, once again, as it was intended to be seen with a completely random ending.

No matter how you watch it, on VHS or DVD, in theaters with a crowd of hundreds or late at night starting an hour in, ‘Clue’ is a hilarious film that is just as funny today as it was nearly a quarter of a century ago.  It is an intensely fun movie that, despite its central theme of murder and blackmail, is anything but a “dark” comedy.  If you’ve never seen ‘Clue,’ do yourself a favor and check it out.  If you have seen it, go back and watch it again.  I guarantee it to be just as funny now as it was when you first watched it.