Films and Filming - May 1986

	This UK magazine features not one, but two reviews on the movie Clue. The first appears in the "International film news" section and contains a nice picture and short article. The second mention of the movie appears in the "Film Reviews" section and is accompanied by two pictures and a more detailed article. The articles are transcribed below.
Page 2	Page 30

The Articles:

Page 2: Cuttings by Curtis Hutchinson
Missing Clues
Previously touted as the film with three endings Clue, Jonathan Lynn's inventive new whodunit will be released in the UK with just one denouement. The film brings to life the suspicious characters and sinister rooms made famous by the enduringly famous board-game Cluedo and has a plot worthy of Agatha Christie at her most baffling. In America three different prints were distributed so a New York audience would be presented with a different solution to audiences in say Los Angeles or Washington and for a while it looked as if British audiences would be able to see all three at one sitting. That was until market research suggested that this might be a bit too confusing for the punters. A shame really as the alternative endings on the print I saw added to the film's sense of mischievous fun by allowing you to decide whodunit.


Page 30: Reviews by Vanessa Miles
Clue
* * *
A group of people are invited to a dinner party. As the evening progresses their dark secrets are revealed and the situation becomes dangerous, then fatal.

It's Agatha Christie country. The location is a monstrous gothic mansion somewhere in New England and a bizarre group of people have been summoned to a mysterious dinner party. As the meal progresses we learn between deafening crashes of thunder, that - surprise surprise - they all have something in common. Are they escapees from the local lunatic asylum perhaps? Well not quite, although as the panic mounts you will get the impression they might possibly end up in one. All the ingredients of a classic thriller are laid out before us, except that Clue is based on the famous board game Cluedo and it has been mercilessly spoofed up and brought to life with so many twists and red herrings thrown in for good measure that it would have undoubtedly baffled Miss Christie herself. As you try with increasing desperation to fathom who might have done what to whom, you suddenly realize it's not so much a question of whodunit as who didn't do it. Surely the Senator's wife (Eileen Brennan at her best) is far too hysterical a character to shoot/knife or strangle her victims. And as for the mysterious Mrs. White (a deliciously underplayed performance by Madeline Kahn), she finds it difficult holding a spoon, let alone wielding a knife. And as for the butler (Tim Curry) - it's been done before. Confused? You will be. But of course none of it matters, for thanks to a splendid cast helped by a hilarious script by Jonathan Lynn, who incidentally directs the film with great style, you can't fail to have a good laugh. My only reservation was that it wasn't at all frightening, or is it too much to combine farce with terror?

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