Clue (film)

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Clue is a 1985 comedy film based on the board game Clue (also known as Cluedo). It 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 order to prevent the ending from being revealed by the press or by word of mouth, three separate endings were filmed. In spite of this marketing gimmick, 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. In later years, it has become a cult film.

[edit] Plot

New England, 1954. Six guests, known under the assumed names of Mr. Green (Michael McKean), Colonel Mustard (Martin Mull), Mrs. Peacock (Eileen Brennan), Professor Plum (Christopher Lloyd), Miss Scarlett (Lesley Ann Warren) and Mrs. White (Madeline Kahn), are summoned to a secluded mansion, Hill House, on a stormy night. They are greeted by the British butler, Wadsworth (Tim Curry) and the French maid, Yvette (Colleen Camp). Over dinner, it is revealed that each guest lives in the District of Columbia or is employed by the government. A seventh guest arrives: Mr. Boddy (Lee Ving).

The whole cast gathers in the study, where Wadsworth reveals the reason they have been gathered together. One by one, he reveals that each of the guests are victims of blackmail, which he proves with an envelope full of evidence concerning the guests' indiscretions: Plum was a psychiatrist who lost his license to practice when he was discovered to have an inappropriate relationship with a female patient. Peacock was accepting bribes to undermine her husband's political career as a senator. Scarlett is a madam who runs a hotel and telephone service. Mustard is exposed as one of Scarlett's clients; it is also implied he has too much money for a colonel, which he explains he inherited from his late parents. White is suspected of killing her husband (one of many), but that was never proven. Green admits he is a homosexual, which he would be fired for if anyone found out at his work in the State Department. Wadsworth later explains that Mr. Boddy is the man who has been blackmailing them all and that the police will arrive in forty-five minutes.

Mr. Boddy hands each of the guests a box, each containing a weapon. He tries to convince the guests that they need to kill Wadsworth or be exposed. After Boddy turns off the lights, a shot is heard in the darkness. When the lights come back on, Boddy is dead. Wadsworth admits to everyone he was the one who invited them all to the mansion, including his ex-employer, Mr. Boddy. Wadsworth reveals that his wife was a victim of Boddy's blackmail because she had socialist friends whom she refused to identify. When she killed herself, Wadsworth plotted to bring Boddy to justice. He collected evidence against Boddy to convict him with, which included the testimony of his victims. None of this, unfortunately, explains who killed Boddy. All the guests, including Wadsworth, had means, motive and opportunity at the same time.

Accusations among the eight suspects (the guests plus Yvette and Wadsworth) fly as all must work together to find out who killed Boddy, a task that is made much more difficult when the cook (Kellye Nakahara) winds up dead. Boddy's body then disappears, only to re-appear in the Hall bathroom, with a fresh head wound from the candlestick.

The suspects lock the weapons in a cupboard and are about to throw the key out the front door when a stranded motorist (Jeffrey Kramer) appears outside and asks to use the phone. He is admitted, but locked in the lounge to prevent him from finding out anything. Once Wadsworth throws the key away, the suspects gather in the library to discuss the situation. Mustard considers the possibility that an unseen person hiding in the house is responsible for the murders. The others agree with his suggestion to split up into pairs and search the house.

During the search, the unidentified murderer burns all the incriminating evidence from the envelope, unlocks the weapons cabinet in the study, removes the wrench and kills the motorist in the lounge. A few minutes later, Scarlet and Mustard discover a secret passage from the conservatory to the lounge, and discover the Motorist's body. They are locked in, as the key is missing from Wadsworth's pocket, so Yvette grabs the revolver from the unlocked cupboard and shoots the lock off. A stray bullet hits a chandelier, which comes crashing down right behind Colonel Mustard.

A policeman (Bill Henderson) rings the bell, having seen the motorist's stranded car, and asks if the owner came up to the house for help. All the guests deny seeing the motorist, except Mr. Green. The now confused cop asks to use the phone. He is locked into the library, but demands to be let out and searches the house. While he is distracted, the suspects put on music and pretend to throw a party, posing the corpses of Boddy and the cook in the middle of romantic encounters, and posing the motorist as a passed-out guest who is "dead drunk". The policeman is then locked in the library again.

The guests split up to search again, but this time the murderer switches off the electricity, and three more murders are committed as the suspects stumble around in the darkness. First, Yvette sneaks into the Billiard Room, where she is strangled by the murderer (who Yvette knows somehow). Then, the cop is killed with the lead pipe. Finally, the doorbell rings, and standing outside is a singing telegram girl (Jane Wiedlin) who is immediately shot with the revolver.

Wadsworth turns the lights back on, and proclaims that he knows who the killer is, but to reveal his/her identity, he has to go back from the beginning. So Wadsworth re-enacts the entire evening, running from room to room and playing each guest and victim. In this fashion, the suspects realize that the murderer picked Wadsworth's pockets for the key to the weapons cupboard to get at the weapons. During the reenactment, it is revealed that each of the murder victims provided Boddy with information concerning his blackmail victims. Wadsworth had invited them as well to testify against Boddy. Yvette turned out to not only be one of Scarlett's old employees, and that Mustard was once her john, she also had an affair with White's late husband. The motorist knew Mustard from WWII, where Mustard sold stolen radio parts on the black market. The cop was bribed by Scarlett to continue her business without trouble. The singing-telegram girl was in fact the same girl Plum lost his license over. All this and more was in the envelope in the study from the beginning.

After the suspects discover all the evidence against Boddy (and themselves) was destroyed, Wadsworth continues on with the reenactment, which is briefly interrupted by an evangelist at the door. Wadsworth gets to the point where the lights were switched off and the last three murders were committed. He switches off the lights, the screen goes black, the audience is shown one of three different endings, as explained in the next section.

[edit] The endings

The film was one of the few films to have true multiple endings. Cinemas approached this in a number of ways. Movie advertisements would list which theaters in an area would be showing the "A", "B", or "C" endings. Sometimes theatregoers could vote to choose the ending at a particular showing, and at other times the final scene was chosen randomly. All three endings have certain elements in common. In the home version all three endings play, one right after the other, with two intertitles; the first saying "That's how it could have happened. But how about this?" and the second saying "But here's what really happened". The home version notes that the third ending is the "real" ending. All three endings close on a freeze-frame.

By the end of the film, all of the weapons have been used for all six murders, committed in five of the nine rooms. Only the dining room, the ball room, the conservatory, and technically the study were not the scene of a murder.

• The first ending:

Wadsworth reveals that Yvette killed Mr. Boddy and the cook, under orders from Miss Scarlett, who killed the motorist, Yvette, the cop and the singing telegram girl. Scarlett then reveals that her call-girl business is actually a cover for her real work, "secrets extortion," in which Yvette participated. Scarlett 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. Distracted by the doorbell, Scarlet is subdued by Wadsworth and 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, which hits another chandelier, sending it crashing to the floor behind Colonel Mustard (the second time that night).

This ending fits best with the film's plot. Yvette is nowhere in sight during critical moments to determine alibi, and this ending best explains her brief dialogue with the murderer before her death.

• The second ending:

The second ending has Mrs. Peacock as the murderer of all the victims. It is finally revealed that the cook used to work for her. She pulls out the revolver and threatens Wadsworth, but he points out that she has done them all a great favor by killing Boddy, their blackmailer, and his associates. Wadsworth also claims he never contacted the police, and the entire evening can easily be buried and forgotten. 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. Upon attempting to escape, Peacock is arrested, and Wadsworth offers the guests fruit and dessert.

This ending makes frequent errors with the plot. For example, according to the ending, Peacock decided to turn off the lights at the top of cellar, run back down to back up against the heater for a comedic scene for the audience, and then run back upstairs to kill Yvette, the cop, and the singing messenger. This is also the only ending with no flashbacks.

• The third ending:

No one person orchestrated all six murders. Each of the guests murdered one of the victims; Professor Plum killed Mr. Boddy, Mrs. Peacock killed the cook (who used to work for her, as it turns out), Colonel Mustard killed the motorist, Mrs. White killed Yvette and Ms. Scarlet killed the cop. By process of elimination the guests accuse Mr. Green of killing the singing telegram girl, although he claims he is innocent. 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 the shocking secret that he is, in fact, the real Mr. Boddy. The "Mr. Boddy" killed earlier was actually his butler, set up to take the fall.

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. He also plans to continue blackmailing them. Mr. Green suddenly shoots and kills Mr. Boddy, revealing that he is an undercover FBI agent. Backup forces rush in and surround the five murderers. The police chief (or the evangelist, as it turns out) asks which is the guilty party, and, in a nod to the game, Mr. Green replies, "They all did it. But if you want to know who killed Mr. Boddy, I did. In the hall, with the revolver." He then says: "I'm gonna go home and sleep with my wife."

• The fourth ending:

A fourth ending was shot for the film, but never released. It was included in the film's novelization, and a picture is featured in the movie storybook.

This ending features Wadsworth killing Boddy, and then revealing 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 to prevent the guests from calling a hospital and locking the doors, the evangelist returns, followed by the police, who disarm Wadsworth. Wadsworth then repeats the confession he had given earlier to the guests. 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 car, only to hear the growling of a German Shepherd Dog from the back of the car.^[1]

[edit] Production

Clue was filmed on sound stages at the Paramount Pictures film studios in Hollywood. The set design is credited to three separate people, Les Gobruegge, Gene Nollmanwas and William B. Majorand, with set decoration by Thomas L. Roysden.^[2]

All but two scenes, the ballroom scene and the driveway gate scene, were filmed within the studio lot. Those two scenes were filmed on location at a mansion located in South Pasadena, California This site was destroyed in a fire on October 5, 2005. ^[3]. Exterior shots of the mansion were enhanced with matte paintings by famed matte artist Syd Dutton, in consultation with Albert Whitlock. To decorate the set, real 18th- and 19th-century furnishings from real mansions were rented. This included Teddy Roosevelt's estate in upstate New York.^[4]

[edit] Cast

• Martin Mull as Colonel Mustard
• Eileen Brennan as Mrs. Peacock
• Lesley Ann Warren as Miss Scarlet
• Christopher Lloyd as Professor Plum
• Michael McKean as Mr. Green
• Madeline Kahn as Mrs. White
• Lee Ving as Mr. Boddy
• Tim Curry as Wadsworth
• Colleen Camp as Yvette
• Bill Henderson as the Cop
• Jane Wiedlin as the singing telegram girl
• Jeffrey Kramer as the motorist
• Kellye Nakahara as the cook
• Howard Hesseman as the chief

[edit] 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. In recent years it has gained in appreciation after its release onto DVD in 2000 and has gotten a lot of positive reviews from fans. Rotten Tomatoes rates the movie at 74% "fresh" rating. It has been re-released to the midnight circuit and has a small following among many Rocky Horror fans in the U.S. They are participating with "Clue" as they do with The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

[edit] Release

The film was released on December 13, 1985. The VHS release in Canada and the U.S. was in 1986. In other countries the VHS release was February 11, 1991. In 2000 the DVD was released. The film has become a cult film, and is now on the Midnight Cult movie circuit.

[edit] See also

• Clue/Cluedo, the board game
• Cluedo characters
• Clue, the computer game
• Multiple endings

[edit] References

1. ^ Clue : The Movie - The Fourth Ending. www.cluedofan.com. Retrieved on 2007-08-15.
2. ^ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088930/fullcredits#cast Full cast and crew for Clue (1985)]. www.imdb.com. Retrieved on 2007-08-15.
3. ^ Photos from Filming Location - 2003. www.theartofmurder.com. Retrieved on 2007-10-09.
4. ^ 80s Rewind, Clue (1985). www.fast-rewind.com. Retrieved on 2007-08-15.

[edit] External links

• Clue at the Internet Movie Databasefr:Cluedo (film)

it:Signori, il delitto è servito ja:殺人ゲームへの招待 ru:Улика (фильм)