When I was younger the board game Clue (or Cluedo as it was also known) was a major staple of most family gatherings and holidays. For those of you not in the know it’s a detective game where the players compete to be the first to solve the riddle of Mr. Black’s murder, naming the culprit, murder weapon and location of the dastardly deed. It was all very exciting and back in the eighties someone had the brilliant idea to make it into a film. It was the first film to be based on a board game, a trend that seems to be going through a revival now with Battleship coming out in May this year and talks of a Monopoly movie circulating Hollywood. The film wasn’t a massive success, not even making back its meager budget, but has since gone on to be rated 70% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes AND to be one of my personal guilty pleasures. I don’t know which would excite the filmmakers more.
The film sticks quite close to the “plot” of the game. Six strangers, all named after their game counterparts, gather at a mansion in New England. They’ve all been invited to a dinner party by the mysterious Mr. Boddy (wonder what’s going to happen to him). When they get there they are greeted by the butler, Wandsworth (“who are you?” a guest asks. “I’m the butler” – “And what do you do?” “I butle sir.”) who introduces them to each other and offers them a seat at the dining table for some soup, as their host will be with them soon. Once the guests start talking they quickly surmise that something fishy is going on. Once Mr. Boddy arrives, Wandsworth reveals that they are all being blackmailed and that Mr. Boddy is the culprit. For some reason Mr. Boddy turns off the lights and in the darkness a gunshot is heard. Once the lights are back on Mr. Boddy lies dead (gasp!) and chaos (and hilarity) ensues.
The guests immediately start blaming each other for the murder. From here on in the film is basically a re-tread of what has transpired, only with a rising body count. Each time the characters go over previous events, someone else gets murdered. In the end six people lie dead, a higher body count than in some horror films. What keeps this from turning into one though, is the broad comedy, slapstick and sometimes pure absurdity of the characters’ actions and dialogue. The cast is fantastic, uniting crazy comics Tim Curry, Christopher Lloyd andMichael McKean with legendary actresses Madeline Kahn, Eileen Brennan and Lesley Ann Warren. The cast seems well aware of the quality of the film they were making but seem to have just run with it, delivering over the top performances with some truly weird line-readings to their obvious enjoyment, and ours.
Four different endings were filmed, in keeping with the varied outcomes of the board game. Although one was never used the other three were screened at different theatres during its run. The DVD gives you the option to either watch the film with a random ending or watch it with all three. I recommend watching it with all three, just to see how little sense any of them make (apparently it wasn’t the Communists, who knew!)
Finally, I’d like to take this opportunity to admit something to my family and friends. When we used to play Clue, I cheated. A lot. But you know what they say: Don’t hate the player, hate the game. But love the film!
Do you love the film? Did you also use to cheat at the game? Confess in the comments!
Wind in My Hair 