Clue (film)
| Clue | |
|---|---|
 Poster from the movie Clue | |
| Directed by | Jonathan Lynn |
| Written by | Story: John Landis Jonathan Lynn Screenplay: Jonathan Lynn |
| Produced by | Debra Hill |
| Starring | Tim Curry Eileen Brennan Lesley Ann Warren Michael McKean Christopher Lloyd Madeline Kahn Martin Mull |
| Cinematography | Victor J. Kemper |
| Edited by | David Bretherton Richard Haines |
| Music by | John Morris |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date | December 13, 1985 (USA) |
Running time | 94 minutes |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $15,000,000 (est.) |
| Box office | $14,643,997 (USA) |
Clue is a 1985 black comedy film based on the board game of the same name. The film is a murder mystery set in a Gothic mansion. The style takes the idea in the direction of Murder by Death and other various murder/dinner parties of mystery. The film was directed by Jonathan Lynn, who collaborated on the script with John Landis. It stars Tim Curry, Eileen Brennan, and Madeline Kahn alongside an ensemble cast of characters.
In spite of marketing the film with three endings, the film did poorly at the box office and received mixed reviews. On its 38th day of release, the reported box office earnings were only $13,377,261.
Plot
In 1954, against a backdrop of McCarthyism, six strangers are invited to a dinner party at a secluded mansion, somewhere in New England. As they arrive at the mansion on a stormy night, each guest is given a pseudonym by the butler, Wadsworth (played by Tim Curry) to protect their true identity.
After dinner, the guests move into the study for drinks and Wadsworth explains that the reason that everyone is at the mansion is that Wadsworth knows not only that they're being blackmailed, but who the blackmailer is. Mr. Boddy (played by Lee Ving) attempts to create doubt among the other guests by declaring the whole situation a hoax and escape the mansion, only to find out that they're all locked in and that Wadsworth has the only key. Wadsworth reassures everybody that if they all return to the study, everything will be explained. He further gains their trust by telling them that he's gotten them all together to end the blackmailing of all of them (himself included), and tells each of them why they are being blackmailed.
Mr. Green (Michael McKean) is the only one to reveal his own story: he is a gay employee of the State Department. If this is found out, he would lose his job. Mrs. Peacock (Eileen Brennan) is a politician's wife who has been accepting bribes, and in turn, paying the blackmailer not to reveal this fact. Professor Plum (Christopher Lloyd) is a psychiatrist who has committed adultery with some of his female patients. Miss Scarlet (Lesley Ann Warren) runs a bordello, which is an illegal business in Washington, D.C., where her establishment is located. Colonel Mustard (Martin Mull) has been stealing components that are essential to the function of radios on military aircraft and selling them on the black market. He is also revealed to be one of Miss Scarlet's clients, and was photographed while a customer at her place of business. Somehow, Mr. Boddy got ahold of the negatives and threatened to send them to Colonel Mustard's mother, the shock from which he says would kill her. Mrs. White (Madeline Kahn) has had several husbands who have mysteriously died/disappeared. Lastly, Wadsworth's wife had had Socialist friends (see McCarthyism).
As the group re-enters to the study, Wadsworth reveals that they're all being blackmailed by Mr. Boddy and that, as a group, they will denounce Mr. Boddy to the police, providing them with evidence that he has been blackmailing them. There is a sudden commotion as everybody starts talking at once about how they don't want their sensitive secrets to be revealed to the police or anyone else. Wadsworth quiets everyone down, and Mr. Boddy briefly disappears to the hall to retrieve a suitcase, from which he pulls a gift for each of the six main guests. Each of them opens their boxes and finds a deadly weapon: Miss Scarlet receives the candlestick, Mrs. White the rope, Mr. Green the lead pipe, Colonel Mustard the wrench, Professor Plum the revolver, and Mrs. Peacock the dagger. Mr. Boddy announces to the party guests that, if he is turned over to the police, he will expose and humiliate all of them by revealing their precious secrets. He suggests that if the party guests use their weapons to kill Wadsworth, "no one but the seven of us will ever know" that they did, and he will not reveal their secrets, but can quietly continue to blackmail them. He turns out the lights to give the potential murderer the protection of anonymity. Two thuds, a gasp, a gunshot and Miss Scarlet's scream are heard, and Mrs. Peacock turns the lights back on, revealing Mr. Boddy lying motionless on the floor, apparently the victim of his own scheme.
It is initially assumed by the guests that Professor Plum shot Mr. Boddy, due to the sound of the gunshot. Professor Plum denies it, pointing out that there is no gun shot wound and that someone grabbed the gun from him in the dark. The guests then hypothesize that the cognac which had been served to them might be poisoned. At that point, Mrs. Peacock, who holds a glass of the cognac and has been drinking from it, starts screaming.
Down the hall, the scantily-dressed French maid, Yvette (Colleen Camp), who, per Wadsworth's request, has been tape-recording the guests' conversation from the billiard room, also starts to scream. The guests respond to Yvette's frantic screams, assuming the murderer is now attacking Yvette, and enter the billiard room. Once in the room, they realize that Yvette is merely scared, because she not only has been listening to the entire conversation, but has also been drinking the cognac which Professor Plum earlier predicted could be poisoned. Colonel Mustard convinces her to return to the study with everyone else.
In the study, Wadsworth explains his history with Mr. Boddy. Wadsworth's wife had friends who were socialists and were blackmailed by Mr. Boddy. Wadsworth's wife refused to expose her friends, and thus Mr. Boddy blackmailed Wadsworth and his wife, resulting in the couple working for Mr. Boddy in virtual slavery. This led to Wadsworth's wife's suicide. He explains that he invited the guests to the house in order to expose Mr. Boddy and alert the Police of his blackmailing schemes, and everything must be resolved before the Police arrive.
At this point, the guests must try to deduce, before the police arrive, who killed Mr. Boddy. The guests realize that the cook (Kellye Nakahara) is the only person in the house who is not currently in the study. The guests head toward the kitchen, where they find the cook, stabbed in the back with the dagger. Colonel Mustard insists no one touch the knife, but a frustrated Mrs. White overrules him, reminding him that they have to figure out who murdered the cook before the police arrive, and therefore fingerprints aren't of use to them. The group initially assumes that whomever received the dagger must have killed the cook, and suspicion turns to Mrs. Peacock, the initial recipient, but she points out that anyone could have picked up the dagger after she earlier dropped it in the study.
Wadsworth suggests they carry the cook's body into the study in order to keep the house tidy. As they troop back into the study, they discover that Mr. Boddy's body is no longer where it had lain on the floor. A quick search of the rest of the study fails to turn up the corpse, and Mrs. Peacock excuses herself to use the ladies' room.
All of a sudden, the guests hear Mrs. Peacock scream from the bathroom. The group bursts into the hall to see Mr. Boddy apparently attacking the defenseless Mrs. Peacock. After separating the two, though, they realize that Mr. Boddy is dead and merely fell out of the bathroom door when Mrs. Peacock opened it. They contemplate how Mr. Boddy could have died twice, coming to the conclusion that he wasn't dead to begin with, since there is now a wound on Boddy's head that wasn't there when he was "dead" in the study. They conclude he was killed with the candlestick since it was perched above the bathroom door (which accidentally falls and hits Wadsworth on the head).
The group, panicked now at the prospect of two murders, insist that Wadsworth lock all the deadly weapons they had been given away, for everyone's safety. Wadsworth agrees, and the weapons are locked in a cabinet in the study. The group moves to the front door, where Wadsworth plans to throw the cabinet's key away, but when they open the door they find a stranded motorist (Jeffrey Kramer). The motorist, whose car broke down, has come to the house seeking to use the telephone. The group huddles, discussing whether to admit him, then allow him in. He is locked in the lounge to prevent his discovery of what has happened; Wadsworth tucks the lounge key into his pocket, and the group returns to the front door to dispose of what they believe is the weapons cabinet key.
Upon Colonel Mustard's suggestion, and despite a high amount of distrust on everyone's part, the guests agree to split up and search the house. During the search, one of the suspects sneaks away to the study, removes a wrench from a locked cupboard where Wadsworth had put the weapons, sneaks into the lounge, and kills the motorist. Colonel Mustard and Miss Scarlett eventually enter the lounge through a secret passage from the conservatory and discover the motorist's body. The secret passage closes behind them, and they find themselves trapped in the locked lounge with the dead body. Their frantic calls for help bring the rest of the suspects, but since Wadsworth cannot find the key to the door, Yvette is forced to retrieve the gun and shoot the lock off. A stray bullet hits a chandelier, which comes crashing down right behind Colonel Mustard.
A police officer (Bill Henderson), having found the motorist's stranded car, arrives at the mansion and asks to use the telephone. Wadsworth locks him in the library, but the officer demands to be let out and allowed to search the house. To prevent him from discovering the truth of what has been going on, the guests arrange the corpses and themselves in ways that appear to be a romantic, drunken evening. The policeman, satisfied by his search, is locked up in the library again, and the guests resume their search of the mansion.
During the search, one of the suspects switches off the electricity, and three more murders are committed while the suspects stumble around in the dark. First, Yvette separates from partner Mr. Green and sneaks into the billiard room to meet someone, only to be strangled by a person she recognizes with a rope. Then, the cop is killed with the lead pipe. Finally, the doorbell rings, and the door is opened to reveal a singing telegram girl (Jane Wiedlin), who is immediately shot with the revolver.
Wadsworth, soaked from running into a dark shower, turns the electricity back on, and reveals that he knows who the murderer is, but to tell them, he must go back to the beginning to explain how he deduced it. So Wadsworth literally re-enacts the entire evening, and eventually reveals that each of the murder victims (with the exception of Mr. Boddy himself) gave Mr. Boddy vital information on all the suspects. The cook was formerly in the employ of Mrs. Peacock and informed Mr. Boddy of Mrs. Peacock's acts of bribery. The motorist was Colonel Mustard's driver during World War II, and knew that he was a war profiteer who stole and sold essential airplane parts on the black market. Yvette was one of the call girls working for Miss Scarlet, and she had had an affair with Mrs. White's husband and was presumably aware of the suspicious way in which he died. The cop, who was on Miss Scarlet's payroll, was aware of her escort service, but was bribed into looking the other way. The singing telegram girl was once a patient of Professor Plum's, with whom he had an affair, and was the reason he lost his license. Wadsworth eventually reaches the part of his performance where the lights are to go out, and subsequently he turns off the electricity.
At this point, the story proceeds to one of three different endings, which were shot and theatrically released, often identified as Ending A, Ending B and Ending C in newspaper advertisements. Based on which theater (and often which house in a multiplex) the viewer watched the film in, they would see one of the three endings. Because of home videotape's inability to show multiple endings, the endings and supplemental material were edited together to make a single ending with various outcomes. On the DVD release of the film, viewers may choose to view all three endings in the format of the video or have one randomly selected.
Ending A
Wadsworth reveals that Yvette killed Mr. Boddy and the cook, under orders from Miss Scarlet, who killed the motorist, Yvette, the cop and the singing telegram girl. Miss Scarlet then reveals that her call-girl business is actually a cover for her real work, "secrets extortion", in which Yvette participated. Miss Scarlet plans to use the information gathered that night to blackmail each of the other guests. However, as a butler, Wadsworth has no government information, and she threatens to shoot him. Wadsworth retorts that the gun has no bullets left and the two argue over how many bullets had actually been fired. The doorbell rings loudly, and a distracted Miss Scarlet is subdued by Wadsworth as the police rush in. Wadsworth is revealed to be an FBI agent, and to prove that there were actually no bullets in the gun, he fires it in the air. A bullet was left in the chamber, however, and it hits a chandelier, sending it crashing to the floor behind Colonel Mustard for the second time.[1]
Ending B
It is revealed that Mrs. Peacock is the murderer of all the victims. She pulls out the revolver and threatens Wadsworth, but he points out that she has done them all a great favor by killing Mr. Boddy (their blackmailer), and his associates. Wadsworth also claims he never contacted the police, and says that the entire evening can easily be buried and forgotten. Mrs. Peacock leaves to a chorus of "For She's a Jolly Good Fellow" from the others. Wadsworth then reveals that he is an FBI agent who set up the entire meeting as a sting operation on Mrs. Peacock, who was taking bribes from foreign powers. Mr. Boddy's murder was an unplanned but convenient turn of events. Just outside the mansion, Mrs. Peacock is surrounded by police and arrested, and Wadsworth offers the guests fruit and dessert.[1] In the home version of the film, this ending follows the first ending, with title cards in between stating, "That's how it could've happened" and "But how about this?"
Ending C
No one person orchestrated all six murders, and each of the victims was murdered by a different guest: Professor Plum killed Mr. Boddy, Mrs. Peacock killed the cook, Colonel Mustard killed the motorist, Mrs. White killed Yvette, and Miss Scarlet killed the cop. By process of elimination, the guests accuse Mr. Green of killing the singing telegram girl, despite his oft-repeated refrain, "I didn't do it!". He points out that whoever has the revolver shot the singing telegram girl. Wadsworth pulls the revolver from his coat, revealing that it was he who shot the girl, and holds the guests at gunpoint. Wadsworth then reveals that he is the real Mr. Boddy and that the "Mr. Boddy" killed earlier was actually his butler, set up to take the fall.[1]
Mr. Boddy/Wadsworth thanks the guests for getting rid of his accomplices, and in doing so, all the evidence against him. He also reveals he never called the police as he claimed, and suggests they stash the bodies in the cellar, leave quietly one at a time, and pretend the evening never happened, as he plans to continue blackmailing them. Mr. Green suddenly pulls a gun from his own coat and shoots Wadsworth dead before he has time to react. He then reveals to the guests that he (Green) is an undercover FBI agent. Backup forces rush in and surround the five remaining murderers. The chief strides in asks "Whodunit?", at which the five guests start clamoring and pointing fingers at each other, only to be silenced by Mr. Green's reply—a nod to the board game—"They all did it. But if you want to know who killed Mr. Boddy, I did. In the hall, with the revolver." This ending was established by the title cards as "But here's what really happened" in the film’s home release.[1]
Ending D
A fourth scenario was scripted and filmed, but was very different from the comedic nature of the main plot and has never been released. It survives only in the original novelization of the film, with a single photograph.[2]
Wadsworth, after pretending to be dead, says that he killed Boddy, and then reveals to the guests that he has poisoned them all so that there will be no witnesses and he will have committed the perfect crime. As he runs through the house to disable the phones and lock the doors, an evangelist from earlier returns, followed by the police, who disarm Wadsworth. Wadsworth then repeats the confession he had given earlier to the guests, physically acting out each scene himself. When he arrives at the part about meeting Colonel Mustard at the door, he steps through the door, closes it, and locks it, leaving all the guests trapped inside. The police and guests escape through a window, while Wadsworth attempts to make a getaway in a police squad car, only to hear the growling of a German Shepherd from the backseat.
Production
Clue was filmed on sound stages at the Paramount Pictures film studios in Hollywood. The set design is credited to Les Gobruegge, Gene Nollmanwas, and William B. Majorand, with set decoration by Thomas L. Roysden.[3]
All scenes were filmed within the studio lot, with the exception of the ballroom scene and the driveway gate scene, which were filmed on location at a mansion located in South Pasadena, California. Exterior shots of the mansion were enhanced with matte paintings by famed matte artist Syd Dutton, in consultation with Albert Whitlock. This site was destroyed in a fire on October 5, 2005.[4] To decorate the set, authentic 18th and 19th century furnishings were rented from private collectors, including the estate of Theodore Roosevelt.[5]
Reaction
Critics were mixed with reviews, and audiences did not seem to take to the film. It suffered financially before being pulled by the studio. It later gained in appreciation after its release onto DVD in 2000. Rotten Tomatoes rates the film at 74 percent "fresh" rating. It has been re-released to the midnight circuit and has a cult following among many Rocky Horror Picture Show fans in the U.S., who participate with Clue as they do with Rocky Horror.[citation needed]
Release
The film was released on December 13, 1985. In 1986, it was released on VHS in Canada and the U.S. In other countries, it was released on VHS in February 11, 1991. The DVD was released in 2000.
Notes
- ^ a b c d http://www.cluedofan.com/movie/movie.htm
- ^ IMDB
- ^ "Full cast and crew for Clue (1985)". www.imdb.com. Retrieved 2007-08-15.
- ^ "Photos from Filming Location - 2003". www.theartofmurder.com. Retrieved 2007-08-15.
- ^ "80s Rewind, Clue (1985)". www.fast-rewind.com. Retrieved 2007-08-15.
External links
