Today’s quick review: Clue. Six strangers (Eileen Brennan, Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd, Michael McKean, Martin Mull, and Lesley Ann Warren) are invited to a New England mansion for a dinner party. The butler Wadsworth (Tim Curry) informs them that they have been brought there by Mr. Boddy (Lee Ving), who has been blackmailing each of them. But when Mr. Boddy is murdered, everyone becomes a suspect.
Clue is a “dinner and a murder” whodunit with a comedic twist. Based on the classic board game, Clue sees a cast of colorful characters navigate their way through a tangled web of means, motive, and opportunity to find the identity of the killer. The movie is a faithful adaptation of the board game, plausibly working in its characters, its weapons, its mansion, its premise, and its ambiguity.
Tim Curry as Wadsworth holds the movie together, acting as host and de facto leader of the group. His performance as the polite, sarcastic, and resourceful butler is the high point of the movie. His costars are a talented crop of actors and comedians in their own right, including Eileen Brennan, Christopher Lloyd, and Madeline Kahn. The characters bounce off each other well, and enough are always onscreen at a time to keep the dialogue rolling.
Clue’s greatest weakness is its devotion to its premise. The movie has three different endings, each shown in a different group of theaters during the film’s initial release. To make sure that each of its endings makes sense, Clue has to jump through hoops, withholding information and working to give each character motive and opportunity. Combined with its long setup, these decisions make the plot of Clue feel messy and arbitrary.
Still, Clue funnels these efforts into a chaotic, entertaining second half with an excellent sense of comedic rhythm. Watch it if you are a fan of eccentric comedies. The humor is hit-or-miss, so those with a different taste in comedy should not expect too much. For a very similar movie with an all-star cast of comedians, check out Murder by Death.
7.3 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 7.0 to 7.5 for good comedy and an unusual premise.