Clue (1985)

Directed by: Jonathan Lynn

Verdict: Utterly, utterly silly spoof murder mystery. Tim Curry steals the show as the neurotic and criminal (?) ‘butler’ Wadsworth. I’ve seen this several times now and it never fails to make me laugh – it’s guiltless fun, stupid humour and is, in a cheap kind of way, pretty clever really.

Set in 1954 against the back-drop of McCarthyism and its influence in Hollywood, a group of guests are drawn together in a mysterious, secluded mansion. The whole film is an homage to the board game Clue (Cluedo), and as such the characters are appropriately named Miss Scarlet, Colonel Mustard, Professor Plum et al. My personal favourite character name is Mr Boddy, who becomes one of the central mysteries as various characters start dropping like flies at the hands of a murderer in the house.

Curry is a sensation in his dead-pan role as the butler Wadsworth, who helpfully explains everything to the deranged house guests. Each character contributes to the hilarity in this hair-brained comedy that makes the most of slap-stick and verbal comedy. Lesley Ann Warren, Madeline Kahn, Martin Mull and Michael McKean all provide frequent moments of comedy as the group search for the killer in their midst.
With plenty of topical references (‘Communism was just a red-herring’ and ‘Mr Hoover is on everyone else’s phone, why shouldn’t he be in mine?’) for me, this comedy always stays just on the right side of the smart-stupid line.

This is what I personally call a feel-good movie. Despite the many murders and the quite disturbing scene in which Mrs White spends a good minute kissing a corpse (who has been killed twice, no less), this film never fails to make me happy. It’s one for a rainy afternoon, and I think it’s a gem.