Clue (film)

Clue is a 1985 American ensemble black comedy mystery film based on the board game of the same name. The film was directed by Jonathan Lynn, who collaborated on the script with John Landis, and stars Eileen Brennan, Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd, Michael McKean, Martin Mull, and Lesley Ann Warren. The film was produced by Debra Hill.

In keeping with the nature of the board game, the theatrical release included three possible endings, with different theaters receiving one of the three endings. In the film's home video release, all three endings were included. The film initially received mixed reviews and did poorly at the box office, grossing $14.6 million in the United States against its budget of $15 million, but it later developed a considerable cult following.

Plot
In 1954, six strangers are invited to a secluded New England mansion. Met by Wadsworth the butler and Yvette the maid, each guest is given a pseudonym: Colonel Mustard, Mrs. White, Mrs. Peacock, Mr. Green, Professor Plum, and Miss Scarlet.

A seventh guest arrives—Mr. Boddy, whom Wadsworth reveals has been blackmailing the others: Mrs. Peacock was accused of taking bribes for her husband, a US senator; Mrs. White is suspected in the death of her husband, a nuclear physicist; Professor Plum had an affair with a patient, losing his medical license; Miss Scarlet runs an underground brothel in Washington, D.C.; Colonel Mustard is a war profiteer; and Mr. Green is a homosexual, a secret that would cost him his State Department job. Wadsworth explains he gathered everyone to confront Mr. Boddy.

Threatening to expose the guests if he is arrested, Mr. Boddy gives them each a weapon—a candlestick, dagger, lead pipe, revolver, rope, and wrench. Demanding that someone kill Wadsworth, he turns out the lights. A gunshot rings out, and the lights are turned on to reveal Mr. Boddy apparently dead, without any indication as to how.

Wadsworth explains that his wife committed suicide due to Mr. Boddy's blackmail (because she refused to name friends who were socialists), and he had summoned the guests to force a confession out of Mr. Boddy and turn him over to the police. The cook is found dead, stabbed by the dagger. Mr. Boddy's body disappears but is rediscovered, killed with the candlestick.

The weapons are locked in the cupboard, and a stranded motorist arrives; he is locked in the lounge, and a key believed to be that to the weapons cupboard is thrown outdoors. While the guests search the mansion in pairs, someone burns the blackmail evidence, unlocks the cupboard, and kills the motorist with the wrench. Discovering a secret passage, Colonel Mustard and Miss Scarlet find themselves locked in the lounge with the motorist’s corpse, until Yvette shoots the door open with the revolver.

A police officer investigating the motorist's abandoned car arrives to use the phone. The mansion receives a call from J. Edgar Hoover, which Wadsworth takes alone. Successfully distracting the cop, the guests resume their search until the electricity is turned off. Yvette, the cop, and a singing telegram girl are murdered with the rope, lead pipe, and revolver, respectively.

Wadsworth and the others regroup after he turns the electricity back on, and he reveals he knows who the murderer is. Recreating the night’s events, Wadsworth explains that the five other victims were Mr. Boddy’s informants. An evangelist interrupts the gathering, but Wadsworth continues his explanation.

''In the theatrical screening, audiences would be shown one of three endings. All three are included in the home media release, with interstitial titlecards stating that "Ending A" and "Ending B" were possible endings, while "Ending C" as how events actually occurred.''

Ending A
Yvette murdered the cook and Mr. Boddy on orders from Miss Scarlet, for whom she once worked as a call girl. Scarlet then killed Yvette and the other victims. Planning to sell the guests’ secrets, Scarlet prepares to shoot Wadsworth, who asserts there are no more bullets, and disarms Scarlet as law enforcement raid the house. The evangelist, revealed to be the police chief, congratulates Wadsworth – an undercover FBI agent. Wadsworth attempts to demonstrate the revolver was empty, but a remaining bullet brings down the chandelier, narrowly missing Mustard.

Ending B
Mrs. Peacock killed all the victims to conceal her taking bribes from foreign powers. She holds the others at gunpoint while escaping to her car, but is caught by the police chief. Wadsworth reveals he is an undercover FBI agent sent to investigate her.

Ending C
Professor Plum missed Mr. Boddy with the gunshot but later killed him with the candlestick; Mrs. Peacock stabbed the cook, her former employee; Colonel Mustard bludgeoned the motorist, his driver during World War II; Mrs. White strangled Yvette out of jealousy and hatred for the latter's affair with her husband; and Miss Scarlet clubbed the cop, whom she was bribing. Wadsworth reveals he shot the singing telegram girl, and is the real Mr. Boddy; Plum killed his butler. With his accomplices disposed of, he plans to continue blackmailing the guests. Mr. Green kills Mr. Boddy with another gun, revealing he is an undercover FBI agent. He brings in the chief to arrest the others, declaring, "I'm gonna go home and sleep with my wife", revealing that his earlier stated homosexuality was merely part of his cover.

Cast



 * Tim Curry as Wadsworth, a butler who once worked for Mr. Boddy and is seeking justice for his wife.
 * Lesley Ann Warren as Ms. Scarlet, a sassy Washington, D.C. madam.
 * Martin Mull as Col. Mustard, a war profiteer implied to be a client of Ms. Scarlet's service.
 * Madeline Kahn as Mrs. White, the widow of a nuclear physicist who died under suspicious circumstances.
 * Christopher Lloyd as Prof. Plum, a disgraced former psychiatrist working for the World Health Organization.
 * Eileen Brennan as Mrs. Peacock, the wife of a U.S. Senator who is accused of taking bribes.
 * Michael McKean as Mr. Green, a State Department employee and closeted gay man.
 * Colleen Camp as Yvette, a maid who didn’t like Mrs. White and formerly worked as a call girl for Ms. Scarlet.
 * Lee Ving as Mr. Boddy, who has been blackmailing the six guests of Hill House and Wadsworth's wife.
 * Bill Henderson as The Cop, whom Ms. Scarlet has been bribing.
 * Jane Wiedlin as The Singing Telegram Girl, a former patient of Prof. Plum with whom he had an affair.
 * Jeffrey Kramer as The Motorist, Col. Mustard's driver during World War II.
 * Kellye Nakahara as The Cook (Mrs. Ho), Mrs. Peacock's former household cook.
 * Will Nye as Cop #1.
 * Rick Goldman as Cop #2.
 * Don Camp as Cop #3.
 * Howard Hesseman as The Evangelist/The Chief (uncredited).

Development
The multiple-ending concept was developed by John Landis, who claimed in an interview to have invited playwright Tom Stoppard, writer and composer Stephen Sondheim and actor Anthony Perkins to write the screenplay. The script was ultimately finished by director Jonathan Lynn.

A fourth ending was filmed, but Lynn removed it because, as he later stated, "it really wasn't very good. I looked at it, and I thought, 'No, no, no, we've got to get rid of that.'" In the unused fourth ending, Wadsworth committed all of the murders. He was motivated by his desire for perfection. Having failed to be either the perfect husband or the perfect butler, he decided to be the perfect murderer instead. Wadsworth reports that he poisoned the champagne the guests had drunk earlier so they would soon die, leaving no witnesses. The police and the FBI arrive, and Wadsworth is arrested. He breaks free and steals a police car, but his escape is thwarted when three police dogs lunge from the back seat. This ending is documented in Clue: The Storybook, a tie-in book released in conjunction with the film.

Casting
Carrie Fisher was originally contracted to portray Miss Scarlet, but withdrew to enter treatment for drug and alcohol addiction. Jonathan Lynn's first choice for the role of Wadsworth was Leonard Rossiter, but he died before filming commenced. The second choice was Rowan Atkinson, but it was decided that he wasn't well known enough at the time, so Tim Curry was eventually cast.

Filming
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. To decorate the interior sets, authentic 18th and 19th century furnishings were rented from private collectors, including the estate of Theodore Roosevelt. After completion, the set was bought by the producers of Dynasty, who used it as the fictional hotel The Carlton.

All interior scenes were filmed at the Paramount lot, with the exception of the ballroom scene. The ballroom, as well as the driveway gate exteriors, were filmed on location at a mansion located in South Pasadena, California. This site was destroyed in a fire on October 5, 2005. Exterior shots of the Pasadena mansion were enhanced with matte paintings to make the house appear much larger, and these were executed by matte artist Syd Dutton, in consultation with Albert Whitlock.

Mrs. White’s famous "Flames" speech was improvised by Madeline Kahn.

Release
The film was released theatrically on December 13, 1985. Theaters received one of the three endings, and some theaters announced which ending the viewer would see.

Novelizations
The novelization was written by Michael McDowell based on the screenplay by Jonathan Lynn. There was also a children's adaptation entitled, Paramount Pictures Presents Clue: The Storybook written by Landis, Lynn, and Ann Matthews. Both adaptations were published in 1985, and differ from the movie in that they feature a fourth ending cut from the final film. In this ending, Wadsworth says that he killed Boddy as well as the other victims, 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, the chief detective – who had earlier been posing as an evangelist (Howard Hesseman) – returns, followed by the police, who disarm Wadsworth. Wadsworth then repeats the confession that 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 Doberman Pinscher from the backseat.

Home media
The movie was released to home video in VHS format in Canada and the United States in 1986 and, on February 11, 1991, to other countries. The film was released on DVD in June 2000 and Blu-ray on August 7, 2012.

The home video, television broadcasts, and on-demand streaming by services such as Netflix include all three endings shown sequentially, with the first two characterized as possible endings but the third (Ending C) being the true one. The Blu-ray and DVD however, gives you the option to watch the endings separately (chosen randomly by the player), as well as the "home entertainment version" ending with all three of them stitched together.

Soundtrack
In February 2011, La-La Land Records released John Morris' score for the film as a limited-edition soundtrack CD.

Critical response
The film was initially received with mixed reviews. Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote negatively of the film and stated that the beginning "is the only part of the film that is remotely engaging. After that, it begins to drag." Similarly, Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film 2.5 out of 4 stars, writing, "Clue offers a few big laughs early on followed by a lot of characters running around on a treadmill to nowhere." Siskel particularly criticized the decision to release the film to theaters with three separate endings, calling it a "gimmick" that would distract audiences from the rest of the film, concluding that "Clue is a movie that needs three different middles rather than three different endings."

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film a 2 out of 4 stars review, writing that despite a "promising" cast, the film's "screenplay is so very, very thin that [the actors] spend most of their time looking frustrated, as if they'd just been cut off right before they were about to say something interesting." On Siskel & Ebert & the Movies, both agreed that the "A" ending was the best while the "C" ending was the worst.

The film-critics aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 61% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 28 reviews, with an average score of 5.95/10. The critics consensus reads: "A robust ensemble of game actors elevate Clue above its schematic source material, but this farce's reliance on novelty over organic wit makes its entertainment value a roll of the dice." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 36 out of 100 based on 11 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".

Box office
Clue has grossed $14.6 million in North America, just short of its $15 million budget.

Remake
Universal Studios announced in 2011 that a new film based on the game was being developed. The film was initially dropped, then resumed as Hasbro teamed up with Gore Verbinski to produce and direct.

In August 2016, The Tracking Board reported that Hasbro had landed at 20th Century Fox with Josh Feldman producing for Hasbro Studios and Ryan Jones serving as the executive producer while Daria Cercek was overseeing for Fox. The film will be a "worldwide mystery" with action-adventure elements, potentially setting up a possible franchise that could play well internationally. In January 2018, Fox announced that Ryan Reynolds, who had established a three-year first look deal with the studio, would star in a live-action remake of Clue, with Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, writers for the Reynolds-led Deadpool, its sequel, and Life, as scriptwriters. In September 2019, The Wrap reports that Jason Bateman is in talks to direct the film.

References in other media

 * The episode of Psych entitled "100 Clues" features Clue stars Martin Mull, Christopher Lloyd, and Lesley Ann Warren as suspects in a series of murders at a mansion. The episode, in addition to many jokes and themes in homage to the film, includes multiple endings in which the audience (separately for East and West Coast viewership) decides who is the real killer. The episode was dedicated to the memory of Madeline Kahn.
 * Warren guest starred on a 2019 episode of Mull's sitcom The Cool Kids, as a love interest for his character. At the time her role was announced in November 2018, it was largely touted by the press as a Clue reunion, despite it featuring only Mull and Warren.