Now bear with me people. Yeah I hear you saying ‘Steve man!, this ain’t no horror movie’ and ‘What the hell are you thinking? This is mystery-comedy you maniac!’. I hear you, but I’m paying no attention. It’s about murder and that’s good enough for me. I have a soft spot for ‘Clue’, it’s one of my old favourites. It was one of those movies I caught one rainy afternoon when I was younger and it’s a movie that’s stuck with me ever since.
Tim Curry (IT) plays Wadsworth the Butler in Jonathon Lynn’s adaption of the popular board game of the same name (well here in the UK it’s actually known as Cluedo’, why? Who the hell knows). It’s a madcap romp as guests and the character namesakes from the original game show up invited to a spooky house one by one. But after a fairly peaceful dinner together the secrets of why they are there become all too apparent. But then murders start taking place and it is up to the guests to find out which of them did it.
Eileen Brennan (Jeepers Creepers), Michael McKean (Spinal Tap), and Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future) head just a selection of the comical ensemble cast in a movie where overacting, and cornball fun is on the menu in this entertaining whodunit.
UK viewers will just have to get past the ‘yet another British accented butler’ and sit back and enjoy the madness. As previously mentioned the use of the games characters, weapons and rooms are used throughout the fairly head-scratching premise of the movie. We being with Reservoir Dog-style pseudonyms for the characters and end with 3, yes count them, 3 different endings. Although the cinematic release back in 85 came with a random ending depending on the theatre you were in the DVD and video release kindly provides all 3 equally thought out endings.
French maid Yvette played by hottie Colleen Camp keeps the adolescences and let’s be fair, the more maturing viewers thoroughly diverted with her sexy maid’s outfit and spilling cleavage. Michael McKean and Tim Curry put in some top performances and it’s still hard to imagine how Tim ever got that ‘Pennywise’ gig with these kinds of wacky routines.
OVERALL SUMMARY
Clue isn’t likely to win any awards but it is puerile fun and well worth a look. There is an onslaught of verbal madness and excellent comedic performances, which we should credit writer/director Jonathon Lynn as there is little action for most of the film but an absolute array of dialogue and comic timing which just has to have been set out in the script stages. Goofy fun all round.
