In today’s theatrical market, making a movie off an established intellectual property (IP) is standard practice. Successful book? Make it a movie. Successful television series? Make it a movie. Successful video game? Keep attempting to make it a movie. Successful movie? Remake it as a new movie. The strange thing is that no one really knows what the secret to success is in movie-making, they only what has worked and when lightning was captured in a bottle. See the continuous sequels and remakes for examples of the former and something like this year’s Barbie (2023) for an example of the later. Then, there are films which may not land in their time but grow legs in time, films like Last Action Hero (1993), for its meta-exploration of the action genre, and the 1985 crime caper Clue, based entirely on the Parker Brothers board game Cluedo (known as Clue in the United States). Neither was critically received well at all in their respective times and both are finding far more favorable perception today. Now, because its legacy deserves a better ending (amid its already three fantastic ones), Shout! Studios releases a brand-new 4K with Dolby Vision edition of director Jonathan Lynn’s (My Cousin Vinny) ensemble picture, complete with three new featurettes to learn more about the making of the film.
On a stormy night, six strangers arrive at Hill House for dinner, each under instructions to use a specific pseudonym to protect their identity. Each are already reasonability suspicious of the others when their supposed host, Mr. Boddy (Lee Ving), drops dead, raising tensions further as each one presumes the other did the deed. To make matters worse, more bodies drop and time until the police arrive ticks down, requiring the strangers to use all their intellectual might to arrange the clues and announce the identity of the killer in order to have a chance at survival.
It is difficult to explore Clue in a purely detached, academic way. It’s a film that I likely saw too early in my life (thank you, again, Comedy Central!), depriving me of the ability to understand all the word play or context of what we learn about the characters. What I could appreciate then and even more so now is the impeccable timing of both vocal delivery and physical comedy in order to convey the heightened circumstances of the situation. The way in which Tim Curry (The Worst Witch) rattles off Wadsworth’s mile-a-minute dialogue at the end of the film is as equally a marvel as the way in which Curry makes Wadsworth comfortable with his “Who’s on First?”-esque back-and-forth with Martin Mull’s (The Player) Colonel Mustard regarding who is or isn’t in the house. Michael McKean’s (This is Spinal Tap) verbally and physically weak persona slipping into something fiercer and more confident at unexpected moments, underscoring the “real” ending of the film as the proper ending. In terms of what modern whodunnit’s like the Knives Out films or See How They Run (2022) accomplish, Clue still fits in beautifully, offering a highly-talented cast up to the task and clearly game to look as foolish as needed in order to make a gag, a scene, or another cast member shine. Clue is a film that didn’t land in its day, but has developed into as a critical a cinematic landmark for some viewers (this reviewer) as Citizen Kane (1941) might be to those who saw it in its hay-day. This isn’t a comparison of technical prowess or level of importance to cinema history, just an example of the way time, place, and introduction generate a response to a work. Watching Clue again for the first time in years, the jokes continue to elicit laughs, the performances stun, and everything about its escalating madness continues to impress.
When it comes to the remaster, I’m going to be comparing this against the 2000 DVD that I owned prior to the review copy sent by Shout! for this review, just to help set the stage for the comparisons to come.
Now, all I can provide of the technical aspect is that Clue is remastered from a 4K scan of the original camera negative. This is all the information in the press release and, unlike other boutiques, no other information is provided as to how, by whom, and who oversaw the restoration. However, without that information, it’s clear from the jump how much of a difference the improved picture is over earlier editions. On the 4K disc, the images are literally sharper than on the standard definition editions — clothes possess more detail, the colors are more accurate (Eileen Brennan’s (The Sting) Mrs. Peacock has more silver than grey in her outfit; the blue in Michael McKean’s Mr. Green is more apparent), and the naturalism that is present in the production/set design clearer. A great example of this is in the introduction of Madeline Kahn’s (Blazing Saddles) Mrs. White where the close-up of her struggling to breathe as she deals with the dog poop gag. On the DVD, there’s a bit of a soft filter and her face looks flat with the hat and black lace veil. On the 4K, the softness remains a bit, however the enhanced picture allows for separation of the veil and her face, depth being perceptible in the shot. While there are great improvements with the picture, there appears to be no change to the audio track, for good and for ill. It sounds great when played through my Yamaha 5.1 surround sound set-up, except in the few sequences that take place in or around the entranceway where a terrible semi-echo occurs, sort of mashing the sounds together. It’s present on the DVD, so it’s likely an issue with the original recording and, perhaps, a naturally-occurring sound issue on set at Hill House. It’s cleaner, for sure, in the 4K remaster, but it’s still present and highly noticeable.
For folks like myself who love this film for the comedy highlight that it is, Shout! offers more than just a new paint job on the visual elements. Included on the Blu-ray disc are three brand-new featurettes totaling nearly an hour. There’s an interview with director/co-writer Lynn, an interview with associate producer Jeffrey Chernov (Eddie Murphy Raw; The Dead Zone), and an interview with film music historian Daniel Schweiger who explores the score from composer John Morris (Dirty Dancing; History of the World: Part One). In the Lynn portion, we learn how it was producer Debra Hill (Halloween; Escape from New York) who got the ball rolling on the adaptation, how his experience with American ex-pats helped create the basis for the Red Scare Era period, and how he used the actual game board while storyboarding and designing the ideas for the final film. All of this is done via a virtual interview which is frequently intercut with scenes from the film. For the Chernov interview, it begins with his connection and appreciation for Hill, how they worked together on projects prior to Clue which helped build his career, and then the focus shifts onto the film proper. Just as Chernov makes sure to point it out, it’s worth noting that without Hill, films like Clue, The Dead Zone (1983), and many others wouldn’t have been made. While the Lynn and Chernov interviews are virtually staged, the Schweiger interview is more traditionally executed with an in-person interview. In the briefest interview of the bunch, Schweiger creates context for Morris’s catalogue of work and highlights specific aspects/elements of the score created for Clue. A nice note is how Schweiger talks about the subgenres within comedy as they relate to Clue, specifically calling attention to the way the film is similar to a French bedroom farce in its execution while always bringing it back to Morris’s intentional choices with character themes, building suspense or tension, and generally filling spaces with sound. Considering how sparse prior releases have been, touting the “3 surprise endings” as the sole selling point, it’s fantastic that a distributor such as Shout! went the extra mile to offer something more.
Speaking of, when you go to play the film, you’re asked to choose between all three endings or having one randomly selected for you. To those who don’t understand, this is how it played at the theater. Akin to what Sony did with this year’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023) and its various alterations depending on when you saw it, in the original theatrical run for Clue, different theaters and different screening rooms within those theaters could have any one of three different endings. If you saw the film at home, as I did, then the alt-endings just seemed like a punchline to go with the board game of it all.
In the Davidson household, Clue is a respected member of the comedy community alongside films such as Blazing Saddles (1974), Airplane! (1980), and The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988). Unlike those, however, Clue is the most unlikely of them in part because it’s based on a board game, but also because one doesn’t expect it to be as clever, as well-executed, or as serious in its ridiculousness as it is. And yet, here we are, nearly 40 years later, still doing the math on the bullets and mimicking Mrs. White’s flames. So, if you’re on the fence and trying to solve whether this is a remaster for you, the solution is simple: Shout! Studios did it, (have it available) on their website, with their brand-new 4K with Dolby Vision and bonus features.
Case closed.
Clue Special Features:
4K UHD Disc
- *New* Remastered from a 2023 4K Scan of the original camera negative
- In Dolby Vision (HDR-10 Compatible)
- Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio Mono
- Three (3) different surprise endings
Blu-ray Disc
- *New* Remastered from a 2023 4K Scan of the original camera negative
- Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio Mono
- *New* “The Perfect Motive: Directing Clue” – an interview with writer/director Jonathan Lynn (27:48)
- *New* “The Scene of the Crime: Producing Clue” – an interview with associate producer Jeffrey Chernov (22:05)
- *New* “Not Just a Game: Scoring Clue” – an interview with film music historian Daniel Schweiger about John Morris’s score (9:08)
- Three (3) different surprise endings
- Original Trailer
Available on 4K UHD Blu-ray Combo December 12th, 2023.
For more information, head to the official Shout! Studios Clue webpage.
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Categories: Films To Watch, Home Release, Home Video, Recommendation, Reviews
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