Watch This offers movie recommendations inspired by new releases, premieres, current events, or occasionally just our own inscrutable whims. This week: With Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch moving from July to October, we’re singling out other ensemble comedies to watch instead.
Clue (1985)
Among the comedies produced during the movie-spoof gold rush of the late 20th century, Clue stands in the middle of the pack. The board game adaptation isn’t as ingeniously frenzied as prime Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker. It lacks the satirical sharpness of Mel Brooks in the ’70s, or Keenen Ivory Wayans in the ’80s. Yet Clue is also a film that’s easy to love, with screwball patter and pratfall-filled set pieces that land hard enough to distinguish it from the pretenders scrambling to bottle some Airplane! lightning. Under the direction of a post-Yes Minister, pre-My Cousin Vinny Jonathan Lynn, those moments also elevate a murder-mystery that must create enough wiggle room to accommodate a marketing gimmick dreamed up by producer John Landis: Clue was distributed to theaters with three different endings, an element of chance mimicking the source material’s card-shuffling combinations of culprit, weapon, and location.
Landis, Lynn, and company needn’t have bothered, and not just because the ploy failed to inspire repeat trips to the movie theater. They had the perfect ending in the one the home-video cut’s cheeky title cards refer to as “what really happened.” For one thing, it contains the indelible ad lib that’s helped sustain the cult of Clue well into the digital age. For another: In the ensemble spirit of the piece, it’s only right that Clue should take the Murder On The Orient Express route and answer its whodunit with “All of them.”
That can’t be construed as much of a spoiler; even the best of these conclusions is as incidental as the plot that leads up to them, a blackmail scheme in shades of Red Scare that embroils the pseudonymous guests assembled for a dinner party that gradually turns homicidal. The game of Clue is a role-playing charade, its setting more well-defined than any of the drawing-room archetypes moving around it. The movie’s advantage is in its cast, a murderers’ row (make no excuses for the pun—Clue certainly wouldn’t) of talent who all separately helped to shape the cinematic landscape in which the film initially failed to take hold.
Madeline Kahn, Eileen Brennan, and Lesley Ann Warren had all garnered Oscar nominations for comedic performances—Kahn twice over, which feels practically impossible from today’s vantage point. (But if any performance could do it, it’d be her electrifyingly exhausted portrayal of Lili Von Shtupp in Blazing Saddles.) Michael McKean and Martin Mull were underground darlings who’d each experienced a big-time television crossover in the ’70s. Clue debuted just five months after Christopher Lloyd converted his Taxi space-cadet routine into mad-scientist schtick for the biggest movie of 1985. Bringing all the pieces together is Tim Curry, precisely the dry English wit you want serving as master of campy ceremonies during a dark and stormy night in a creaky old manor house.
There are individual choices made throughout Clue that still shine all these years later: Curry’s motormouthed recaps of lethal actions and fatal mistakes, Warren’s treatment of every surface in the house as something to strike a pose against. (Her Miss Scarlet hails from the Jessica Rabbit School of Femme Fatale, where the fantasies of 12-year-olds and drag queens intersect.) And then there’s Mrs. White’s confession in the third ending, in which Kahn devolves into improvised incomprehensibility, yet remains entirely emotionally articulate. It’s only a few seconds of screen time, but it lingers in the memory for much longer.
Working with dialogue that was far more airtight than Clue’s central mystery, the cast had largely committed to the words of Lynn’s script—Kahn’s delivery of “Flames… on the side of my face” was simply too funny to leave on the cutting room floor. But that moment, like so many others in Clue, is boosted by the acting and reacting going on around it. Once the weapons are handed out and the bodies start piling up, the film takes on an incredible group energy. Every character’s a suspect, but they’re also a head and two legs in a slapstick chimera racing from room to room in a million-dollar 3D rendering of the Clue board. The filmmakers take advantage of this not only in the actors’ verbal ping-pong matches (“A double negative!” “A double negative—you mean you have photographs?”), but also shots that squeeze them together into door frames, or spread them out across the vast expanse of the entry hall. It’s no wonder Clue flags whenever it splits the characters up to explore the grounds—as Colonel Mustard puts it while absentmindedly waving the wrench around, “There is safety in numbers.”
The canonical Clue is the one with all the endings. After all, that’s the version that actually inspired people to go back and watch a second and third (and fourth, fifth, sixth… ) time on VHS and cable. (The DVD release eventually restored the original grab bag experience.) When the endings are all shown in sequence, Clue comes the closest to hitting the high-pitched, callback-laden notes of its era’s best movie spoofs. But it’s still hard not to envy the moviegoers whose first times were with the last ending, a solution to the mystery that requires all the principals’ involvement and draws on their strengths: Curry’s poise; Brennan’s socialite haughtiness; Lloyd’s wild-eyed takes; Mull’s parody of alpha male obliviousness; Warren’s amusement even as Miss Scarlet is being correctly accused of murder; the way McKean, as the closeted Mr. Green, caps it all of with “I’m gonna go home and sleep with my wife!” All that, and they got to be the first people to witness the flames on the sides of Madeline Kahn’s face, too.
Availability: Clue is available to stream on Amazon or Kanopy or to rent or purchase from Vudu, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, or Microsoft.
141 Comments
Clue is one of my favourite comedies, ever. Saw it as a kid on tv.
“Flames… on the side of my face”
One of many great lines in the movie:“Just checking.”
“Everything all right?”
“Yep. Two corpses. Everything’s fine.”“Oh my! Nobody can get into THAT position.”
“Sure they can. Let me show you.”“This is war, Peacock. Casualties are inevitable. You can not make an
omelet without breaking eggs, every cook will tell you that.”
“But look what happened to the cook!”“Communism was just a red herring.”
“Why did the car stop?”“It’s frightened.”
THAT was funny. I still remember laughing.
“I had to stop her from screaming”TOO LATE
Any time someone says “to make a long story short”, I have to fight the urge to say “too late.”
I’ve stopped fighting it, myself.
I still say “too late.” Probably more than I should. I probably come off as kind of an a-hole. Too late.
“THREE murders … this is getting serious.”
I just love the way she says “SO much”. I’m already laughing at that point, before we even get to “flames on the side of my face”.
Brennan’s exasperated “but look what happened to the cook” still makes me laugh so hard that, at my advanced age, I’m going to injure myself.
My favorite red herring joke since Doyle wrote “The Red Headed League:” a red hair ring.
“Communism was just a red herring.” This is a line becoming more and more evergreen in our society.
“It was a matter of life after death. Now that he’s dead, I have a life.”
“But he was your second husband, your first husband also disappeared.”
“That was his job, he was an illusionist.”
“But he never reappeared.”
“He wasn’t a very good illusionist.”
Husbands should be like tissues. Soft, strong, and disposable.
I love the bit where they wordlessly file into the billiard room, stare at Yvette’s body for a minute, and then wordlessly file back out. This film has such a dry sense of humor. I love it.
I love this movie so much. I watched it again a couple of months ago, for the first time in probably five or ten years. There’s a few moments that come off kind of awkwardly or haven’t aged well (Professor Plum’s behavior verges on sexual assault) but there’s just so many great moments and line deliveries and cadences.After all, communism is just a red herring.
I thought that was the entire point about Professor Plum! Also, great cameo by Jane Weidlin and let’s not forget Colleen Camp’s hilarious performance as Yvette.
Well, it was part of the point, but it still made me uncomfortable to watch this time around, that it didn’t the last time I watched it (basically because #metoo).
Professor Plum’s behavior verges on sexual assault
The movie only says he slept with a patient. It might be unethical, but it’s not sexual assault.
I mean in the way he’s constantly leering at and groping the women in the movie.
Well, Christ, that’s all comedies made from 1980-1990
I have a simple rule. If Madeline Kahn is involved then it’ll be a good time. This is no exception, although Martin Moll is pretty damn fantastic as well. Really everyone is having a ball, if they are having fun then so shall I.
Did you love What’s Up, Doc?
Is that a question or statement? Its my favorite Streisand film.
“Don’t you dare harm that brave crazy woman!!!!!!!!!”😂😂😂😂😂 One of my favorite movies of all time
Try the original Ocean’s 11. You’ll have a caveat to that rule. But I agree. Everyone here is digging that they get to do this, and that’s a lot of comedic firepower having a good time. I also love What’s Up Doc? I just referenced it yesterday. That’s weird.
I forgot she was even in that. Yeah one exception.
That’s because she isn’t in it.
I guess you weren’t a fan of the original? It was a fun, if slight, movie that pretty much only existed to put a lot of charismatic actors together on screen. Exactly like the remake did with a later generation of actors.
Reasonable people may differ. But no, I didn’t like the original, which was a group of charismatic celebrities cooking up a way of getting paid to hang out together, in one of the most boring, indifferently acted,poorly plotted, heist movies of all time. If I were going to equate it to something, I’d equate it to Sandler’s efforts to get all his buddies together to make some barely watchable thing while they went to the water park.The remake was exactly what remakes should be, in my opinion. It took a failed story that was memorable, and actually made an intricate, compelling movie with fleshed out characters. Those guys were legit actual actors actually acting like actors acting.Sinatra’s hideous fuzzy sweater, alone, should make that movie a no-watch.But I liked Robin and the 7 Hoods, so what do I know?
The misogyny on display in that movie is something else. I don’t think there’s a female character who isn’t told to shut up at least once
I don’t remember that. It is certainly the era where de-valuing women is rampant. But I am a big man and have been told to shut up plenty of times. So, in a vacuum, I’m not bothered. I’m not willing to re-watch the film to find out whether the upshot is : “Hey, why doncha shut your cake hole. (As you’re a dame and therefore have nothing worthwhile to contribute)“. So I’ll take your word for it
I see that a lot in those old movies.
You don’t know who’s in the movie that’s for sure
Rebuttal: Yes I do.
Madeline Kahn isn’t in Ocean’s 11
Yes. I know. I was responding to the statement “If they are having fun, so shall I. ” . In Oceans 11, everyone seems to be having fun, however the movie is terrible. Another poster misconstrued my message and I didn’t want to embarrass them. I didn’t want to be, y’know, a dick.
And yet you said “caveat to that rule” and the clearly stated rule was that If Madeline Kahn is involved it will be a good time. Since you were responding to the original poster you’re wrong.
Ah, dude. Do you need a badge or something? I told you the situation. I told it true. Are you keeping a bingo card with a square saying “Catch out a fellow poster”? What ev’s. Sure. You totally got me and I am completely abashed. Fill in your square.
Yup one more dick put in their place
You know no one else is reading this, right? Everyone else has moved on. This is a branch only you and I are seeing. You are winning nothing by inserting yourself into something, misunderstanding it, and being a douchey pedant about it. I mean, you could just be enjoying yourself by having someone else respond to you….and if that’s it, enjoy this response. But you haven’t accomplished anything. And this is all about a comment, apropos of nothing, about your misunderstanding about another comment, apropos of nothing (NOT) about Madeline Kahn, tangentally related to Clue. If this is a battle you feel you should fight, I suggest you need other outlets for your energy. Let it go, bud. Have a glass of milk or some fucking thing.
The only misunderstanding was on your part. Your inability to accept it is why you’re a dick.
Jesus. You have to be kidding. You’re STILL gagging on this? Nobody cares. Pick another thing to be wound up about, fella. Why would you possibly be so anxious about this? But….if you want….I’ll keep responding. Let’s see how long we can keep this nonsense going. Lead on, MacDuff.
You’re the only one who’s wound up. Respond or don’t it doesn’t matter to me
Sure. Then you should probably stop. You misunderstood the original comment. So, then we’re done? GREAT .
I was but you keep trying to blame other people for your inability to write a coherent comment. Your dickishness is forcing me to continue.
Two in a day! Yikes! I commented. You misunderstood and rudely attempted to correct me. I explained my intent. Why are we still talking about this, again? Your turn.
It was the manner in which you explained your intent very dicklike. The idea that you were concerned that the original poster would be embarrassed as the reason for not acknowledging your error suggests you might be a sociopath.
Three in a day! I commented. You misunderstood and rudely attempted to correct me. I explained my intent. Why are we still talking about this, again? Your turn. Reply
I think Kahn is really wonderful in Judy Berlin. It isn’t a widely seen movie. I don’t even know how to see it now. I remember renting it from Hollywood Video oh-so-long-ago. But 20 years later, I remember her performance more than anything else in that movie.
This brings me no joy but have you seen Bill Cosby’s Cosby Show follow-up show called Cosby? I hope you haven’t. Madeline Kahn co-starred as his next door neighbor. It was her last role. It was not a good time.
Oh….. ohhhhhhhhhhhh. I’ve never heard of this. I may have to revise my rule.
I thought his Cosby Show followup was The Cosby Mysteries?
Kahn quite rightly gets a lot of credit, but another big part of the magic is everyone else’s expressions of “What the bloody hell is she doing?” which still manages to be perfectly in character.
Apparently her bit was improvised, but none of the other actors knew what she would actually say. You look at Martin Mull in particular, he has this “WTF” look on his face, and it’s only by the grace of God he didn’t break character.
he looks like he’s just about to tip over into a smile but holds it together. thank god, because she is sublime
reaction shots really are underrated in making a funny scene a classic.
The critics hated this film when it was released, and I could never understand why. Not a perfect film by any means, but very entertaining and rewatchable. I wonder if they simply couldn’t get past the gimmicks, both the multiple endings and the fact that it was based on a board game. I know that doesn’t seem so gimmicky nowadays when Hollywood has seemingly mined every conceivable intellectual property with even a whiff of name recognition, but it must have seemed unprecedented at the time.
There was something with critics in the 80s where the really fought against comedies and genre films. I think it was push back from the invention of the blockbuster and big budget comedies that came into being in the 70s. They didn’t hate all of them but there are a lot of classic examples of great films that were critically panned. Blade Runner always comes to mind. Also pretty much everything John Carpenter made.
I usually side with critics when it comes to a consensus but goddamn do the original reviews for The Thing bother me to kingdom come.
I usually find that my tastes side more with critics than the populist, “What do they know?” school. But there’s one thing they do that drives me up the wall: If they’re reviewing any kind of anthology film, they will frequently include some sort of critical statement along the lines of, “This is really like a series of short, mostly unconnected films instead of one coherent feature length story.”Now, I will grant that there are relatively few anthology style films that are actually much good. It’s probably the most disreputable genre there is. But faulting an anthology film on that basis that comment always seemed about as asinine as a book critic taking one of the New Yorker’s fiction issues and attempting a gestalt review of it as a novel, and then panning it for not being something it never purported to be in the first place.
Yeah, panning a movie for being what it is is the quickest way for a critic to annoy me. Don’t shit on a Sci-Fi movie for being a sci-fi movie, don’t shit on a stoner comedy for being about stoners, don’t shit on a rom-com for being a rom-com.
Pretty sure Fantasia is the only anthology film universally liked. And even then some segments are just good. It is the sketch comedy of film genres, highly inconsistent.
I specifically remember reviews that trashed Die Hard and Lethal Weapon 2. I think critics in the ’80s decided they should hate on everything.
It was an oddball, that year, in terms of voice. There really wasn’t anything like it in the big leagues. The dominant comedy voice in 1985 was not “SCTV-perfected”. It was broader, more caricature, more explicit tits and ass. The biggest comedies that year were The Goonies, Beverly Hills Cop, Nat Lamp European Vacation, Pee Wee’s Big Adventure. I remember; I watched ALL these movies in 1985. Clue was great fun but it wasn’t something that blew your mind, and in those days, minds were being blown all the time. Clue was a good movie, but ensemble movies rarely break big. And it was just too small-scale for 1985.
It definitely found its audience on Network and Cable TV. Like, this was a constant fixture on like the “Sunday Afternoon Movie” on my local FOX affiliate when I was growing up. This and Legend, actually. Tim Curry connection? Who knows. But I’ve watched this movie dozens of times, and I’ll watch it dozens of times more.
Never would’ve thought a movie based off a board game could be so amazing.I still remember Madeline Kahn from her poor, put-upon Eunice in What’s Up Doc. But she gets more chance to show her comedic chops here.A lot of the success of the film really does come down to the stellar cast. I know there were rumblings of a remake a while back, to which I have to ask: why would ever make this movie without Tim Curry???
Wait, are you saying Battleship is not a masterpiece?! But yes, this is maybe the only board game-movie transfer I could ever love.
Hey, “Twister” was pretty fun….I’ll get my coat.
My favorite board game growing up was Ballistic: Ecks Vs Sever, by Parker Bros.
Ballistic may be my favorite, horrible, so bad it’s good movie of all time. I haven’t seen it in at least 10 years, but I remember it being a staple of late night premium cable probably between 2007-2009 and whenever I would come across it I -had- to watch it. It’s just plain amazingly bad, and I could never take my eyes away.
Honestly, I really enjoyed Battleship. It’s not a masterpiece, but it was fun. I thought the way they incorporated the elements of the game was clever too.
Clue has an advantage over other board games of its era for adaptation in that it actually has characters and a plot. Now, neither is particularly well-developed, but it’s at least something that you can build off of. Now there are plenty of modern board games that could make decent movies, but a lot of them are too niche. I could see good films being made from, say, Root, The Captain Is Dead, Betrayal at the House on the Hill, Fortune and Glory, Are You a Werewolf?, or Kill Doctor Lucky, but a lot of those are pretty niche or obscure.
How dare you not put Sorry!, Chutes and Ladders, and Mouse Trap on your list!
I know that’s probably a joke, but I did specify modern board games, and those are all pretty old. I could see Mouse Trap working, though. Maybe as an animated film about a mad scientist trying to catch escaped laboratory mice or something.
Wasn’t that Mouse Hunt but with exterminators? Never saw it but I remember one of my staff going on about it the last week we worked and it seemed like such a random, forgotten film to love by a guy that was the biggest Star Wars fan I had ever met.
I have honestly never heard of that movie before, but after looking it up, yeah, that sounds similar to what I was thinking.
Settlers of Catan: The MovieSTARRING: Aaron Paul as THE ROBBER and Vin Diesel as SHEEP
I’d watch it.
I wasn’t lucky enough to score the last ending in 1985, but I remember almost audibly geeking out when Lee Ving made his appearance.
I was not aware of Lee Ving when I first saw the film and I thought that was the filmmakers being cute – “oh, Mr. Boddy is being played by ‘LEE VING’ because since he’s the murder victim, he’s LEAVING.”
This movie is all nostalgia. My 19 year old and her boyfriend were completely unimpressed.
Counterpoint: My daughter loved repeatedly watching it in the DVD era of Netflix when she was around 10.
Maybe your 19 year old just has bad taste
You love the margin comedies made 16 years before you were born?
my 12 year old daughter LOVED it and asked to watch it again the very next night.teenagers are garbage, FYI
I’m in my early twenties, just saw it for the first time very recently, and thought that it was hysterical. It’s very much one of those comedies that takes its time to set up the jokes at first, but when the laughs start I thought that it was hysterical. It’s possible that your nineteen year old isn’t representative of everyone.
The bit about Mr. Green’s wife never sat right with me, it felt like they were saying ‘if he’s the hero he obviously can’t be gay’.
I love this movie so much; watched it around ten times… in the past three years since my first viewing.
We had it on VHS and I must have watched it at least a dozen times. It’s one of those movies that never gets old, like The Princess Bride or Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
Having read this review, I’m gonna go home and sleep with my wife.
“Mrs White was a MAN?”
I first saw this on TV, where they showed each ending one after the other. I didn’t know it had been a marketing gimmick to have different endings in the cinema, so I thought it was just a general part of the craziness of the film. “Well, actually it happened like THIS.”
Since the “Mrs. Peacock” ending and the “They all did it” ending have such similar summations by Tim Curry, I thought that was part of the joke. Keep the summation, change the conclusion.
Not to mention it felt like they built on the police chief posing as a Jehovah’s Witness in every ending, with him doing increasingly awesome but cliched stuff, I was like “Nah, this has to be part of the joke too.”
Eleven-year-old-me saw the Scarlet ending, advertised as “B” in the papers, IIRC.
When entering the theater patrons were given promo Clue detective notepads like the ones in the boardgame and mine had written on it, MISS SCARLET DID IT. Thanks, 1985 GCC usher, for spoiling it for kid me.
It seems odd to lump this in as an Airplane/Naked Gun/Top Secret type spoof. That would be Murder By Death. Clue is its own unique, weird, perfect thing.
I think the closest thing to Clue would be Edgar Wright’s movies that sort of straddle parody and homage, but manage to do their own thing in the end.
Good call. I missed it in the cinema but it finally made its way to Amazon Prime. Much better than I was expecting, and I had pretty high expectations. I was about to question why they don’t make fun mystery films anymore and your post made me face palm to forehead.
This movie is fantastic and I wish that I had thought to compare it to Clue when trying to get my mom to go see it. She went, reluctantly, and was glad she did, but it would have been less reluctant if I’d compared it to Clue.
I caught this a few months ago and thought it was a pleasantly surprising diversion for a rainy Saturday. I remember it being savaged by critics at the time but you have to remember this was when movie criticism was a pop culture fad itself and every newspaper critic (they made up the bulk of their ilk) was riding hard and fast on the coattails of Siskel and Ebert as if they were rock stars.
I’m glad the movie found its audience. Amiable time killers like this are a vanished breed but they were once a dime a dozen. I can recommend a couple for anyone looking to waste a couple of hours and enjoy a few smiles this weekend:
“The Big Bus”-1976 disaster movie parody starring a young and very cute Stockard Channing with a cast of C-listers. I have a sneaking suspicion this movie was also Fred Silverman’s inspiration for the infamous “Supertrain” (not realizing it was a comedy.
“Movie, Movie”-1978 parody of a thirties double feature. The first is a mock “social problem” boxing film while the second is a Berkeleyesque musical. George C. Scott is admittedly miscast but game as hell to play a different character in each segment. An equally enthusiastic baby-faced Harry Hamlin and energetic-as-hell Barry Bostwick are second bananas with Art Carney and Eli Wallach hamming it up to the upper balconies. Written by Larry Gelbart hot off the heels of “M*A*S*H” and directed by no less than Stanley Donen.
Both are definitely light fare but if you are in the mood to lower your standards to mere good movie company you could do far worse.
Both those screencaps are PERFECT peak 70’s light comedy. What was the obsession with the 30’s in the 70’s? What was the obsession with browntastic pubs? Bar fights were the 70s equivalent of car chases or pie fights.
The Big Bus is unjustly forgotten. It’s not Airplane but it has more than a few solid gags. “Raise the flags of all nations!” And how about Love at First Bite?
And while we’re on the subject of George Hamilton, what about Zorro: The Gay Blade?
So, I guess since we’re talking about this particular ending, WAS Mr. Green actually homosexual? Or was the “I’m going home to sleep with my wife” line meant to imply that he was faking to get the inside scoop on the crimes everyone had been committing that leads to the sting operation that finishes that particular branch of the storyline?
I think the latter. It was his way into the blackmail operation, and all of the, um, questionable characters caught up in it. That they turned out to be witness murderers was just a bonus.
My take is that the “real” Mr Green was being blackmailed for homosexuality, and Michael McKean was an undercover FBI Agent sent in his place to unmask the conspiracy.
God I love this movie
I AMYOUR SINGING TELEGRAM
*BANG*
This movie makes me laugh out loud every time.If you like Clue, check out ‘Noises Off’, another amusing farce.
As good as movie Noises Off is, the play is funnier. It’s something that loses something when it loses the hectic staging of an actual theater — I still maintain it’s probably the funniest play ever (at least in my opinion).
I’ve heard the play is great fun. I hope I can see it some day.
The play is hysterical! If you ever get a chance to see it, so so. Barring that, the movie is a pretty good substitute. The entire cast is great but John Ritter does some pratt falls that should have won him an oscar😂😂😂😂
Oh wow, I’d completely forgotten about “Noises Off.” I don’t know if I want to see it again enough to pay for the rental, though when I’ve got so much in my various queues.
(Her Miss Scarlet hails from the Jessica Rabbit School of Femme Fatale, where the fantasies of 12-year-olds and drag queens intersect.)EXCUSE ME.I was 13 when this film was released.
maybe y’all coulda gotten someone to write this who doesn’t think the film is thoroughly mediocre? jesus there is shade thrown in every other sentence. the people who are gonna click this are people who *like* the movie. know your audience.
This is, honestly, a top ten movie for me. I can rewatch it at any time, and I can probably quote the entirety of the film by heart. Everyone is on point, especially Tim Curry, Michael McKean and Madeline Kahn. There’s so many amazing throwaway lines like “It happened in the hallway! I should know, because I was there.” There’s a BIT of a tarnish in modern eyes with a little too much reliance on gay panic with Mr. Green, but it really doesn’t diminish how fun the movie is.
I don’t know a single person who doesn’t love this movie.
It seems professional critics were the only ones who didn’t like it.
Unwatchable. Maybe worst film of all time. Just a mess.
Every Halloween, I show this movie to my classes and pause before the endings for the kids to try to solve it themselves with the detective page I gave them, and give out Halloween candy rewards for plausible solves. It’s the best part of every school year. And it helps to identify the kids whose parents are doing it things right – there’s always a few who have seen it, or get really excited the moment Tim Curry shows up, and statistically, they’re the best kids.
I so wish I had you for a teacher, because this is a lovely idea.
Could you post the detective page?
I’m afraid I can’t – currently laid off and without access to my files until I get work again in September. But it was simple – just each character’s name and a space for description, personality, motives, and actions, and then on the back, space for a paragraph making and justifying an accusation. You could likely skip description, but I first designed the page for an elementary French class so I included it because everyone could at least fill in some adjectives for them.
This reminds me of the effect The Princess Bride had on all the kids I went to school with had when it came out (like, junior high?). Managed to see it at the dollar theater before it was gone for good and it became an immediate, instantly quotable thing between us all. Our churches youth group even had a themed costume party. Probably ten years back I got a text from a friend on a flight out of NYC going “guess who I’m sitting next to?” Immediately followed by a pic of Wallace Shawn. He told me later that he was immediately personable and funny as hell and didn’t mind at all talking.
I would suggest this to my wife, who is a teacher, but I don’t think she’s a huge a fan of this movie as I am.I’m still going to go home and sleep with her, though.
Communism was just a red herring!
This was the first video my family ever rented after getting our first VCR. My brother and I spent like an hour looking at every single video in the store before settling on this one, which we had no idea even existed. Obviously it became one of our favorite movies ever.
Terrific, fun movie. Worth it for Tim Curry’s breathless, breathtaking, tour de force explanation of THE ENTIRE MOVIE and the rest of the cast struggling to keep with him in the climax. Fabulous.
Definately one of the best ever performances in a comedy.
It was Lee Ving’s best work since Who’s the Boss.
Piggy would like a word with you.
Warren’s amusement even as Miss Scarlet is being correctly accused of murder;“True! Who are you, Perry Mason?”Many decades ago, I took a film class at NYU. One assignment was to bring in a movie and explain the editing in the scene. My classmates brought in The Godfather, The Piano, other award winning classics, I brought in Clue and showed the doorbell segment that ends in that unfortunate singing telegram.
Your prof must have been thrilled to have something different to dissect!
Wait this article has nothing to do with Trump. Am I on the right website?
Just watched this to find a good scene to draw for a prompt of “My favorite movie” and went with “And to make a long story short…Too late!” It goes without saying that they couldn’t make this movie today, not because of the material, but it’s too old school, not frantic enough. There’s a lot of time where nothing’s happening, and it works, but zany comedy movies aren’t slow paced any more. (I learned, recently, that the Sing Telegram Girl was Jane Wiedlin from The Go-Go’s. Never knew.)
Knives Out is the closest thing I can think of, and not just because it’s a murder mystery with a large cast of possible murders but because everything’s got layers (characters, dialogue, costumes, set dressing) and it’s just a fun movie.I kept hoping that after its success, Hollywood would be reminded that there’s a demand for well-made, middle-brow comedies. Not everything has to be art, you know?
Clue was my go-to sick day movie. It’s so rewatchable and that is thanks to the stellar cast.
I remember seeing it in the theater, but it was after they abandoned the gimmick and just showed all the endings.