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“Clue” is a comedy murder mystery being offered with three different endings, which is rather absurd since it does not make the faintest difference who the culprit was. In that sense, it is like the board game it is based on – you could always play another game.
The cleverness in the handling of multiple endings by Paramount is commendable. This would mean you were required to drive across the city and buy three different tickets to experience an ending each. With ‘Clue,’ however, one ending is more than reasonable.
As a practicing movie critic, I understand how outrageous that seems. I recall vividly the time I witnessed all three endings, which feature the butler (Tim Curry) attempting to reconstruct the murder mysteries while everyone runs around an expansive mansion and dashes down hidden corridors. Most movie critics already leaped to the conclusion that my assignment now is to inform you of which three endings you should try to see. You shouldn’t have a hard time rounding up A, B, and C but trust me, it is deceptively tricky. Paramount according to my knowledge plans, with the help of ads, to mark each theater with A, B, and C. Based on what I was told, A is the one to go for. It is more fun and satisfying.
But then at the last minute, Paramount called again saying they were ‘unsure’ which endings matched which letters. So we are back to where we started.
Here is my suggestion: because this movie is short anyway, 88 minutes long, why not do away with the absurd multiple-ending scheme and show all three endings at every theater? I think it would be more entertaining that way. And entertaining, I have to say, is a little hard to come by in “Clue.” The plot centers around the usual cast of characters, Colonel Mustard, Miss Scarlett, Professor Plum, and Mrs. Peacock, which finds them imprisoned in a mysterious mansion and realize each of them is a victim of a thriving blackmail scheme. The lights flicker on and off, murder weapons materialize and vanish, and corpses pile up.
Because none of these events are meaningful, filmmakers have tried turning “Clue” into a screwball comedy, full of gags and funny one liners. While some of these moments are funny, most are not. The cast looks promising, as we have Martin Mull, Lesley Ann Warren, Madeline Kahn, and the wonderfully bouncy Colleen Camp. But the script is so very, very bare that the rest of the cast’s time is only spent looking annoyed, as though they had been silenced before saying something meaningful.
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