“Men should be like Kleenex: soft, strong, and disposable.” – Time to break out “Clue”

It’s getting closer to Halloween and that means it’s time to break out the horror flicks and murder mysteries. Now I tend to watch several of those types of films on a regular basis (I’m a huge Freddy Krueger fan) but is one that I try to watch around Halloween even if I’ve just watched it the week before. Yes, it’s that good.

Like many kids I grew up loving the board game, Clue. This was back when there was only one version of the game and not all the movie and television versions they have now. The pieces were basic and it was all about getting enough information to be the first one to try to guess “Who Done It?” I dragged that game everywhere and played it often. When the movie adaptation of the game came out on video I remember my mom watching it first and then deciding that it was light-hearted enough for me to watch as well.

The movie, “Clue” has many well known actors and actresses in it (it’s the first movie I saw and took note of Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn and Christopher Lloyd) and while it is a murder mystery, the setting is one that keeps you interested and often laughing. The movie itself has three different endings. I never saw it in the theater so I never had the fun/frustration of only seeing one ending that might be different if I saw it at another movie theater. The only way I knew the movie was to see all three endings in sequence and each one was better than the last.

Every character that you knew from the game is given a quick back story (that you learn more of through the movie) and is fleshed out enough that you find yourself loving all of them. The setting of a dinner party with guests (all given pseudonyms from the board game) who have one thing in common (being blackmailed) is a perfect setup for the rest of the film. When playing the game I never wondered why we were all searching a mansion for clues to a killer but the movie’s plot is the perfect setting.

Continuing to watch the movie from then until now I’ve caught bits of humor that went completely over my head as a kid. I do still want a mansion of my own where I can have secret passages like the movie. That hasn’t changed in 25 years. I also want most of the costumes that the characters wore in the movie, especially Miss Scarlet’s dress. I can’t hear “Life Could be a Dream” and “Shake, Rattle & Roll” without suddenly having the urge to run home and pop that movie in the dvd player.

Who doesn’t love Tim Curry as Wadsworth, the butler and his recap of the evening, running through the mansion with the guests frantically trying to keep up? How about Professor Plum’s attempts at flirting with the women at the dinner part? Or Mr. Green’s constant clumsiness and general awkwardness?

If you’ve never seen “Clue” (yes, I’ve run across many folks who haven’t), go and rent it or put it on your Netflix queue. Even if you’ve never played the game before the movie is hilarious.

And if you have seen it before, watch it again, just for me. I’ll be watching it sometime this week, probably while knitting Jayne hats, and I’ll probably marvel again at how a movie that I’ve watched since I was a kid only gets better with every viewing.

Written by: Elf Writer