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From: steven@ism70.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.movies
Subject: notes on Clue
Message-ID: <13100159@ism70.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 16-Dec-85 11:45:00 EST
Article-I.D.: ism70.13100159
Posted: Mon Dec 16 11:45:00 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 21-Dec-85 09:00:21 EST
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Nf-From: ism70!steven    Dec 16 11:45:00 1985



CLUE

Starring Eileen Brennan, Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn, Christopher
Lloyd, Michael McKean, Martin Mull, and Lesley Anne Warren.

Also starring Colleen Camp and Lee Ving.

Directed by Jonathan Lynn.  Written by Jonathan Lynn. Story by
Jonathan Lynn and John Landis.  Based on the board game from
Parker Brothers.  Produced by Debra Hill.

Photographed by Victor J. Kemper.  Production Designed by John
Lloyd.  Edited by David Bretherton and Richard Haines.  Music by
John Morris.

From Paramount Pictures (1985).

Stupid, but fun.

Six people are being blackmailed by Mr. Boddy. They all arrive at
the incredibly gothic Hill House in the middle of a driving
rainstorm and are assigned aliases by The Butler: Mr. Green,
Colonel Mustard, Mrs. Peacock, Professor Plum, Miss Scarlet and
Mrs. White. Suddenly, someone gets killed. Whodunnit??? Where???
And with what???

It made a great board game, but could it make a worthwhile movie?
Well, sort of.  A super cast of character actors and actresses
has a field day in this combined whodunnit and murder mystery
spoof.  Writer/director Jonathan Lynn tries for a mixture of
slapstick humor and wordplay that comes off more often than not
(though his direction is a little rough around the edges). The
beginning is kind of slow and labored, but it does pick up in the
middle and gets enough momentum going towards the final reels to
make the merely amusing funny and the funny hilarious. Everyone
seems to enjoy themselves and hit their marks with the proper
silly spirit.

As for the mystery, well, who knows? There was so much going on
that I didn't have the time to sort out the solution and figure
out whether or not it made sense. "Clue" is in release with three
endings; I saw ending A. (Jonathan Lynn reportedly wrote nine
endings and filmed five of them. The ubiquitous novelization has
four different endings.) It would seem to me that endings B and C
would have to be considerably different than A. I liked the movie
enough that I may just see it again to find out.

Two and a half stars out of four.