Remembering Clue

I've been a vocal proponent that in the right hands, video games could be made into good movies, though I didn't really have very much evidence to support this claim. Yet, whenever this line of discussion arises, I've always failed to remember that back in 1985, Paramount made the board game Clue into a movie, and ended up doing a more than serviceable job at that.

I mean, look at the casting of the six main characters: Christopher Lloyd as Professor Plum, Madeline Kahn as Mrs. White, Eileen Brennan as Mrs. Peacock, Martin Mull as Colonel Mustard, Lesley Anne Warren as Miss Scarlett and Michael McKean as Mr. Green. Having these six people just show up for a movie in 1985 was a good sign. And add to that the wondrously comic performance of Tim Curry as Wadsworth the Butler, as well as a story written in part by John Landis, and you have a great screwball comedy.

The movie recounts the story of the six game characters above on a particularly dark and stormy night at a country manner house, where they've been gathered under those oh so colorful pseudonyms by the promise that they would finally be able to confront their mutual blackmailer, their host, Mr. Boddy(Lee Ving). But when Mr. Boddy ends up dead after the lights go out, they are all suspects, and as the body count rises, the mystery of whodunit deepens.

Of course, with this cast, you know that even in the midst of all these murders, there are still a lot of jokes, innuendo and slapstick. And because the main cast is very good at what they do, the movie has really stood the test of time. Granted, it is set in the late 1950's, so that may also have something to do with it as well, but to me, it feels very much like it is a comedy from an era other than the 1980's.

And at the time the movie was released, the filmmakers also added a gimmick to the whole experience by filming three endings to the movie, and then distributing the film with those different endings during the winter of 1985, so if you liked the movie, you could see it again, and see the clues come together in another way. When the movie was released on video, they put all three endings together at the end of the movie, in a creative way, and as a package I think it came together very well. Apparently the DVD versions have a feature where you can start the movie and it will randomly choose one of the endings, so you can have a little bit of the theatrical experience.

All in all, if you haven't seen Clue, you should pick it up the next time you see it. And, I'll certainly have to remember it the next time the subject of game based films pops up.

Tags: clue, 1985, christopher lloyd, martin mull, tim curry, eileen brennan, madeline kahn, lesley ann warren, michael mckean, board game, video game, screwball comedy, mustard, peacock, scarlett, green, plum, john landis, lee ving, fear