My Favorite Films: Clue

Clue (1985)

Director: Jonathan Lynn

Context:
In 1949, the murder mystery board game Cluedo was released in England, later to be rebranded as Clue in North America.  By 1985, the game had become a classic staple, with it's signature phrase, "It was (murderer) in the (room) with the (weapon)," becoming shorthand for any whodunit scenario.  Screenwriter John Landis (Animal House, The Blues Brothers, and Trading Places) sought the help of Tom Stoppard, Stephen Sondheim, and Anthony Perkins in adapting the story of the game into a feature length film.

Such an adaptation had never been attempted before (and wouldn't be attempted again for nearly 30 years), and Landis (joined by director Jonathan Lynn) set out to create the most faithful, yet, entertaining version of a game of Clue as they could.  The structure of the game, which allows for 324 unique final solutions, convinced Landis to create multiple endings for the film that would be released theatrically simultaneously.  This was another unprecedented film event and it made it difficult for the film to find a solid audience.

However, despite lackluster box-office results, the film became a cult comedy classic as well as my favorite film of all time.

Plot:
Six strangers are invited to the house of Mr. Boddy for an odd dinner party.  After the truth of Mr. Boddy's connection to each of them is revealed and he ends up murdered, the group is lead by the butler Wadsworth (Tim Curry) to discover who killed him, where, and with what.

Analysis:
For a film like this to work, it has to be perfect.  And while it may not quite get there all the time, you can definitely feel how meticulously crafted this script is.

First off, making it a farce-esque comedy with quick dialogue and wordplay helps keep the whole show entertaining, downplaying the tension of the murder mystery.  A board game is supposed to be fun, and this is fun all throughout.  The entire main cast really sells the comedy and I don't think a finer crew could have been assembled.  Tim Curry, Eileen Brennan, Martin Mull, Leslie Ann Warren, Christopher Lloyd, Colleen Camp, Michael McKean, and Madeline-freaking-Khan take this script and run with it.  It's not as over-the-top silly as a Mel Brooks comedy, but you can tell the cast is not shy from going for the high comedy and the low comedy that balances this film.

Next, the multiple ending structure gave a significant challenge to the rest of the plot as it has to be equally likely for any of the suspects to be the murderer when all is said and done.  And, rather than stick with one murder, we end up with 6 bodies throughout the course of the movie (other members of the house staff and unexpected arrivals all become victims).  It was only on this review that I saw exactly how they got this set up to technically work.

• Each of the victims have a direct tie to at least one of the six suspects
• There are "split up" scenes where anyone is free to commit the last 3 murders
• During one of the split up scenes, the murderer has access to the collection of evidence that connects all the victims together, adding a motive to kill multiple people
• During the first 3 murders, there is always a scene where the group goes into a room but one of the suspects is late to arrive (or never arrives).  It's hard to notice during the chaos, but they use this tactic in a couple of the endings. ("You weren't there when we went to the kitchen!")

Even with this sleight-of-hand structure to distract us, the story is filled with such creative dialogue and set pieces that it's forgivable to allow for some shortcuts to make all possibilities work.

As for those multiple endings, three were released separately, and then combined in home releases with two being possible endings with the third being the "actual" ending.  You are given an option to watch with a randomly selected ending on DVD, but the triple endings together are most enjoyable (which is probably why the film wasn't as big a hit in theaters).  You get to see more jokes and connections between the three endings (such as a few lines that get repeated in each, which may have originally just been an attempt to get the writer's favorite line into every film viewing but ends up becoming a recurring gag in of itself).

Finally, the movie managed to include nearly every aspect of the board game, yet only twice does it make a direct allusion to the game for the sake of a joke (both times it's the "who, where, and with what" line, first when then need those questions answered and again in the final ending when all was revealed").  A modern film made in today's age of nostalgia would surely have fun making many, many winking nods to the audience about their references, but Clue keeps it very subtle.  We do get to see a murder committed with every weapon and we visit every room of the house.  We even get to see both secret passages connect the same rooms that they do in the board game.  But every time one of these board game elements are introduced, it happens naturally, and it's only when you go back and try to think about it that you realized, "Oh wow, they managed to use every element from the game."

That's because the focus of the movie is not on the board game.  The focus of the movie is on the situation.  It truly sets out to be an entertaining film, even for people who have never played the game before.  Since the intention was to have people see the film three times, Landis and Lynn made sure that the movie would be enjoyable to sit through every time.

Before I move on to the ending and my final thoughts, I want to comment on how well this film is directed.  In a chaotic film with 8 main characters and a large set, it can be easy to get lost.  Yet, each shot is well framed, with interesting positions for the characters to stand in, so you always know exactly what is happening when.

There are so many scenes I can use to highlight this including the classic revelation scene where Wadsworth is flitting around to everyone in the hall and we see the maid's lifeless body framed in the room behind him as her killer reveals their motivations.  But the real scene I want to talk about is right before they all split up for the first time.

The group has decided to search the house for a possible unknown murderer and they must break into four teams of two so that no one is to be left alone.  Since the men are in disagreement about who gets to be paired with Yvette the maid, Wadsworth decides that they all draw matching matchsticks.  In the kitchen, Wadsworth silently cuts four pairs of long matchsticks into equal lengths.  Then, in one long unedited take, each person grabs a stick and wordlessly compare it to the others.  They make little gestures and smiles or sighs depending on who they end up with.  But what amazes me is how long this scene is.  Not only did everyone have to choose the correct identical-looking matchstick for their character, but we actually see everyone get compared and paired up.  There could have easily been a quick shot of everyone choosing and then a cut to everyone opening their hand with the correct stick, but there is something fascinating about watching this scene play out in real time.

In fact, the whole movie plays out in real time.  About 25 min into the film, Wadsworth says that the cops will be arriving in 45 minutes.  Every now and then, we get further reminders (39 minutes, 15 minutes, etc).  Some time is elongated here and there, but for the most part, we do see the cops 45 min later, as stated.

That 45 min time is the average amount of time it takes to play a full game of Clue with 6 people and it just shows how dedicated the filmmaker were to making everything perfect.

The Ending(s):

Three endings are included in the official film, although a fourth was made.  I assume as many as four others could have been conceived (although based on how the official three turned out, it would have been easy to see how they would have gone).  The deleted fourth ending depicts Wadsworth as the murderer of all the victims and it is included in the novelization of the film (with pictures to boot).  But for authenticity's sake, we get the Miss Scarlett ending, the Mrs. Peacock ending, and the Everybody Did It ending.  It's that last ending that I enjoy the most and it also hints to how the other endings could have gone.

For the All ending, each suspect kills the victim they were most associated with save for Plum who gets Boddy, Wadsworth who get's Plum's main connection, and Mr. Green who gets the bonus 7th kill for this ending only.  In fact, Mr. Green seems to be the least likely suspect in all cases so there probably was never a true ending for his character.  Because the All ending includes everyone, and wraps things up a lot neater, I consider it my favorite.

But for the true experience, watch all three together, as I said earlier.  Each one ends on it's own distinct joke and I just couldn't imagine experiencing the film without the Scarlett or Peacock version.

Final Thoughts:

Because of the disposability of the endings (in terms of structure, not content), it makes it hard to buy any of the suspects as the murderer.  Throughout a majority of the film, they are all equally innocent until proven guilty and, despite a few throwaway lines here and there, none of them seem to be capable of murder.  They're all too nice.  Sure, Plum is lecherous and Scarlett is snarky and White is morbid and Mustard is hostile and Wadsworth is Tim Curry, but it's hard to accept any of them as capable of murder.

With that being said, it's an excellent choice to rely on the comedy instead of the actual logistics of the mystery.  It creates a unique addition to the whodunit genre of films, one where literally anyone could have done it because, in parallel timelines, they all did.

This was the film that spawned by love of murder mystery parties which is why I selected it as my choice for my birthday week.  This film has shaped me in more ways than one and I always know I've found someone truly special in my life if they too have flames on the side of their face.