Originally published December 12, 2023. Updated April 22, 2024.
Clue, 1985.
Directed by Jonathan Lynn.
Starring Eileen Brennan, Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd, Michael McKean, Martin Mull, and Lesley Ann Warren.
SYNOPSIS:
The cult classic Clue arrives on 4K Ultra HD courtesy of Shout! Factory, which commissioned a new 4K restoration of the movie, along with an hour of new interviews that dig into the making of it. Highly recommended for fans of the film.
Movies based on board games have been hit-or-miss (mostly miss) over the years, but Clue (known as Cluedo in the UK) was an obvious candidate for such a project, given the nature of the gameplay. Each session revolves around a murder, with the players trying to figure out who committed the crime in which room and with which weapon.
So it wasn’t hard to concoct a scenario for bringing the game’s characters together in a house, with one of them being the culprit who has committed a crime. In this case, 1985’s Clue features multiple murders, along with three endings that at the time were randomly distributed to theaters.
This new 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray edition from Shout! Factory offers the ability to watch the movie with all three endings tacked on, or with one randomly inserted. That’s the way the movie has been served up on disc for a while now, although Shout! has gone the extra mile by not only commissioning a 4K restoration of Clue but also a trio of new interviews.
Clue was directed by Jonathan Lynn and stars what at the time was an all-star cast: Eileen Brennan (Mrs. Peacock), Tim Curry (Wadsworth the butler), Madeline Kahn (Mrs. White), Christopher Lloyd (Professor Plum), Michael McKean (Mr. Green), Martin Mull (Colonel Mustard), and Lesley Ann Warren (Miss Scarlet). A member of the Go-Gos even makes a small cameo, and Howard Hesseman of WKRP in Cincinnati fame plays an unnamed police chief.
Lynn’s screenplay invents back stories for the characters and a reason why they’ve all been invited to a mysterious mansion, with the story set in 1954. (I believe the game gives the characters some kind of back stories too, but I haven’t played it since I was a kid and I know they have changed over the decades, so I admit I might be wrong about that.)
The acting is over-the-top and the jokes are corny, with some being a bit cringe-inducing, as befitting a movie of this vintage. The storyline is convoluted, and I’m not sure which of the three endings I like best, but I enjoy Clue for the way a great group of actors in their prime chew the scenery. It may not be a great movie, but it’s a lot of fun, which I imagine is why it didn’t do well at the box office but has endured as a cult classic in the decades since.
I haven’t owned Clue on home video before, but I believe previous editions were pretty bare bones, aside from the inclusion of the three endings, so Shout! Factory’s inclusion of three featurettes running about an hour is a nice touch for fans. Here’s what you’ll find:
• The Perfect Motive: Directing Clue (27.75 minutes): Writer/director Jonathan Lynn discusses his involvement with the movie in depth, from the writing choices he made (it’s not an accident that the film is set during the McCarthy era, for example) when adapting a board game (quite different from adapting a book or a play, of course) to his thoughts on the finished product and why it has resonated for decades.
• The Scene of the Crime: Producing Clue (22 minutes): Associate Producer Jeffrey Chernov talks about meeting producer Debra Hill on John Carpenter’s Escape From New York and how that led to his involvement in more Hill/Carpenter movies and then, eventually, Clue.
• Not Just a Game: Scoring Clue (9 minutes): Film music Historian Daniel Schweiger discusses the score composed by John Morris, who died in 2018.
The theatrical trailer rounds out the disc.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Brad Cook
