Clue (1985)
Directed by Jonathan Lynn
Produced by Debra Hill
Starring Eileen Brennan, Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd, Michael McKean, Martin Mull and Lesley Ann Warren
The film is set in 1950's America, and is based on the board game of the same name (although the game actually originates in Britain where it is called Cluedo).
How can a film be based on a board game? Well, all the key characters of the film are the characters from the game (with a few extra people thrown in such as the cook, maid and Wadsworth the butler).
Each person has been invited to a dinner party in a large mansion; although none of the guests appear to know why they have been invited. It becomes apparent that a Mr Boddy has been blackmailing everyone present and the butler wants them to confront him as Mr Boddy is also a guest at the party. Wadsworth gets his wish as Mr Boddy is murdered, although the secret of who killed him and with what murder weapon is not revealed.
If you are familiar with the board game then you should of recognised everything so far (apart from the fact that Mr Boddy is called Dr Black in the board game outside of America).
The guests then take it upon themselves to find out who is the murderer, revealing dark secrets about each other and the reasons they have been blackmailed. More characters turn up at the house (and usually are murdered) which does nothing to help the guests suspicion of each other.
I played a lot of Cluedo as a child (although the exact version I had was called Cleudo: Passport to Murder – similar to the original game but set in a train station). This meant that I enjoyed the part near the beginning where their back-stories were revealed to each other as a sort of nostalgia trip back in time to rain soaked afternoons sat on the living-room floor. It is a shame that this was one of the rare few bits I liked.
When Colonel Mustard suggests that they all split up into couples to search the house to ensure that they are the only people present, another enjoyable section takes place; with the guests still distrusting each other so not wanting to give the other member of the couple an edge. The maid and Mr (Reverend in the UK) Green climbing up the stairs into the attic but not wanting to be in front or behind the other was quite pleasurable. Also Wadsworth and Mrs White trying to search conjoined rooms whilst not letting the other get out of sight made me laugh. However, that was pretty much all that made me laugh in the film.
The script reminded me of such films as Naked Gun or Aeroplane, which rely on verbal and visible puns. None of the jokes really appealed to me, with lines such as:
“...and so I choose to reveal myself.”
“Please don't! There are ladies present.”This is an example of the jokes from Clue. I'm not sure what this style of humour is called, but it is not a kind I enjoy. The jokes were a bit too obvious for me, and the 'mad' guests came across as more annoying than funny.
The 'reveal' scene is a good example of this. Wadsworth claims that he knows how each murder took place and in order to explain how he came to know this takes the guests around the house in a recreation of the evenings events. He does this in a mad rush, pulling silly faces which I'm sure the viewer is supposed to love and think is quite funny, but I felt it was all a bit unnecessary. Add to that that the film has only been running for an hour by this point and it further adds to the feeling that a 'recreation/review' scene is unnecessary. I'm a big fan of programmes like Jonathan Creek and Murder In Paradise so I like the traditional (British :P) approach of everyone being sat down whilst the big reveal takes place.
There are also the issue of the alternative endings. For the game Cluedo, the game finishes by a player claiming they know exactly how the murder took place. They reveal the murderer, the weapon and the room it took place in. The player will have arrived at this decision based on clues they have gathered throughout the game, however, they could be wrong. The film brings this in by having alternative endings which present various theories as to who the murderer could be. I liked this idea, but it continues the running about of the butler and some rather contrived accusations from the guests. This means that it killed the pacing for me. After looking about on the internet I read that there was to be a fourth ending that was eventually cut from the script. I for one am glad it was cut as I don't think I could of sat through another ending.
So overall I'd give this film a five out of ten. I thought the idea of a film based on a board game was very original (Jumanji is a film about people playing a board game, Battleships is nothing like the game and I haven't heard anything about Ouija apart from that it's rubbish so I'm not counting any of these). It did have some funny bits, but they were vastly outnumbered by scenes that were just corny. Several of the guests were portrayed by great actors, but these were let down by other guests who seemed to be on the verge of saying an interesting line, but then forgot.
If you enjoyed Aeroplane and the Naked Gun films then I'm sure that this film will give you your comedy fix, but for the rest of us I think we should stick to playing the board game.
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