(1985)
3
Brian J. Dillard
An A-list cast makes this B-quality premise work, but none of it would hold together if writer/director Jonathan Lynn and his co-writer John Landis hadn't taken the board game Clue as a mere jumping-off point for over-the-top satire. Clue the film takes broad aim at every thriller convention -- and every hypocrisy of mid-century America, from boozed-up senator's wives and illicit sexuality to Cold War profiteers and the secret life of J. Edgar Hoover. Tim Curry, Martin Mull, Lesley Ann Warren, and Madeline Kahn are only the most notable names in a cast whose comic credentials could float a project with far more prestige than this one. They all prove game, however, especially Warren as the slatternly Miss Scarlet and Kahn as the frequently apoplectic Mrs. White. With improbable plot twists, slapstick suspense, obnoxious puns, and haunted-house set pieces -- the filmmakers employ anything they can to get the audience laughing. Although such a kitchen-sink approach has been used in films from Airplane to Scary Movie, it's rarely been employed as effectively as this.
Clue on AllMovie
Clue (1985)
