Rising Stars Blog

Movie Review: Clue

Release Date: December 13, 1985
Director: Jonathan Lynn
Stars: Tim Curry, Eileen Brennan, Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd, Micheal McKeen, Martin Mull, Lesley Ann Warren, Colleen Camp, and Lee Ving.

Review:

Clue (1985) is a charming movie for families with slightly older children, due to some references to sex, prostitution (although not graphic), and rough humor (again pertaining to corpses, sex, and homosexuality), and gore. Similarly to the board game, the movie has 6 main characters with pseudonyms, those being Miss Scarlet, Mrs.Peacock, Mrs. White, Professor Plum, Mr. Green, and Colonel Mustard, as well as a couple of new additions, Mr. Boddy, Wadsworth the Butler, Yvette the Maid, and The Cook (unnamed). Unlike the board game, however, we’re given a reason for the murder of a person in the mansion, which is blackmail.

Summary (Contains Spoilers):

The movie starts with a lone car on a lonely journey up a hill, approaching a mansion gate. The man in the car then unlocks the door, and leaves it open, and goes on his way. He has a short conversation with the maid, Yvette, before leaving to let the first guest in, Colonel Mustard. Mustard is introduced to Yvette, and the pattern is kept up until all the guests have arrived, sans Mr. Boddy, their host. The guests get to know each other and discover that they all either live in Washington DC or have some connection to the government. At this point, Mr. Boddy arrives, and the talking shifts to mysterious double meanings and vague references. The group moves to the study, where the real reason they’re all there is revealed. Mr. Boddy has been blackmailing all of them, for various reasons. Boddy then reveals that he will prevent scandal from befalling them if they kill Wadsworth, who was his butler, and who has notified the police and has evidence. He then flicks the light off, and a gunshot is heard. The light is turned back on, and but instead of Wadsworth, the aptly named Mr. Boddy lies dead on the floor. Professor Plum, a psychiatrist by trade, pronounces him dead and the guests set about figuring out who the murderer is.

Wadsworth then admits to summoning the guests to the party, knowing that they were all being blackmailed, as his late wife, who committed suicide, was also being blackmailed. They all check the house for clues, before finding the cook dead, stabbed in the back with the dagger, which Mrs. Peacock had dropped in a fit of hysteria, meaning anyone could have picked it up. They decide to move the body to the study, where they find Mr. Boddy’s body has gone missing. They soon find him, with new wounds inflicted by the candlestick. Wadsworth decides to lock the rest of the weapons in a cabinet. The group tells him to throw away the key, but before they could, a stranded motorist shows up at the door and asks to use the phone. Wadsworth leads him to the Lounge and locks him in before returning to the door and throwing the key out into the yard, over the blacktop. Colonel Mustard then proposes that they split up to search the house for anyone else, and they draw straws. The groups are Miss Scarlet and Colonel Mustard, Mrs. White and Wadsworth, Mr. Green and Yvette, Mrs. Peacock, and Professor Plum. They split up, and team Scarlet-Mustard (A good name, if I do say so myself) finds a secret passageway into the lounge, where, you guessed it, the Motorist is dead, killed with a wrench in the still-locked room. They begin beating on the door, and everyone rushes downstairs to try to open the door. Yvette grabs the revolver from the cupboard and shoots the lock off, freeing them from the lounge and revealing the motorist. Questioning begins: “Did you kill him? What secret passage? Can you stop screaming?” before turning on Yvette: “Where’d you get the gun? It was locked up! Yvette must be the killer!” But no, the cabinet was unlocked! Someone had the key! But Wadsworth threw away the key! No, he didn’t! The tensions rise, and a chandelier falls from a missed shot by Yvette prior, nearly killing Mustard and Co. Then the cops arrive.

Well, one cop, and he asks why they’re acting all jumpy. Wadsworth says that it was caused by the falling chandelier, before locking him in the library. The search is resumed, and all goes well. Until the electricity goes out. In this period of time, The cop is killed, as is Yvette, and a singing telegram girl that came to the door, with the pipe, rope, and revolver respectively. Wadsworth flips the electricity back on and exclaims that he knows who did it. There's 3 possibilities, 3 different endings, and that’s what makes the movie so unique.

Ending 1: Yvette Had 2 Murders, Mr. Boddy and The Cook, and Miss Scarlet told her to do it. Miss Scarlet then killed Yvette and the rest of the other victims. She wanted to extort the other guests and sell government secrets out for the right price. Wadsworth Identifies himself as an FBI agent and apprehends Scarlet, who presumably goes to jail.
Ending 2: Mrs. Peacock murdered everyone. Wadsworth decides to let her go, as she did them a service, but then she is apprehended by the FBI on her way out, and Wadsworth is revealed as an agent.
Ending 3: Professor Plum murdered Mr. Boddy, Mrs. Peacock murdered the cook, Colonel Mustard murdered the motorist (and swiped the key from Wadsworth's pocket), Mrs. White murdered Yvette, and Miss Scarlet murdered the cop. Mr. Green is accused of killing the singing telegram girl, but Wadsworth reveals he killed her, and that he is, in fact, the real Mr. Boddy (the man Professor Plum killed was his butler). With the witnesses to each of their secret activities dead and the evidence destroyed, Wadsworth now plans on continuing to blackmail them all. Mr. Green suddenly pulls out a revolver and kills Mr. Boddy. He reveals himself as an undercover FBI agent who has been on Mr. Boddy's case. He brings in the chief to arrest the others.


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