Clue (1985; dir. Jonathan Lynn), based on the beloved board game, sucks like a lamprey. Regarded by many as a cult classic, it’s a movie I remember fondly—but one I see now with sharper eyes.
By setting loose a game gaggle of gifted comedic actors (Tim Curry, Eileen Brennan, Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd, Michael McKean, Martin Mull, Lesley Ann Warren, Colleen Camp) on a wonderful set—a mansion filled with secret passages, ancient furniture, grimy decanters that hold amber delights, and hungry guard dogs that patrol the outside perimeter—the movie has great potential. Working hard, the cast playacts at tired, Agatha Christie-inspired treacle. We’re presented with six guests/suspects—folks invited for dim reasons to a private gathering at Chez Boddy (wink wink)—a limp dinner party for strangers, an event that soon gives way to murder and blackmail.
Who done it? And should we care?
Ok, I love that mansion. I especially dig Curry (who plays the butler, with insouciant flair). The ensemble prevents Clue from being a total mess.
After a good start, though, the movie becomes a tiresome, barely enjoyable time-waster. Creepy or mysterious, it’s not. Nor is it witty or frothy. No lines of dialogue stand out; no moments of hilarity reach the inspired, screwball heights to which Lynn and the cast aspire. The plot convolutes, and beyond a few scattered occurrences, it’s just not that funny. Clue needs a lighter or heavier touch—a hot dose of camp, of satire. With a darker Tales from the Crypt vibe, it might have been more gripping. Rian Johnson’s Knives Out movies take a similar drawing-room conceit (albeit with a newfangled Southern Hercule Poirot at the center). They’re more satisfying. They do more to keep us amused, keep us involved.
Lynn had his work cut out for him. The challenge, I suppose, in adapting Clue to cinema lies in stoking our desire to guess the outcome, in being ‘x’ number of steps ahead of us before the final reveal. To make us delight in the teasing pull of the mystery, the actors’ interplay, and the gothic atmosphere without letting the tone become too sinister, bitter, bawdy, or crude (lest it alienate a cross-generational, more family-friendly demographic).
Here lies the movie, Clue. A trifle that drags. The scene of the crime—my living room. The prime suspect—Mr. Lynn. The weapon?
A bad, rolled-up script.
Shout! Studio’s 4K UHD + Blu-ray set is a pretty package. The 4K transfer is based on a 2023 4K scan of the original camera negative. The sound quality is ok, but the picture quality disappoints. I expected a more vibrant display. Disc two, the Blu-ray, uses the same transfer and has three new special features for the Clue connoisseur: an interview with Lynn, an interview with Associate Producer Jeffrey Chernov, and an interview with film music historian Daniel Schweiger about John Morris’s score. The theatrical trailer is also available on the Blu-ray.
Note to buyer: In 1985, Paramount released the movie in three versions, with different ‘surprise’ endings, across various local markets. A fun gimmick, that. Both the 4K UHD and Blu-ray include the finales side by side. (The first is my favorite.) The Shout! release also gives you the choice to watch the movie with a random ending.
