It failed.
When Clue hit theaters in 1985, critics didn't just dislike it; they seemed offended by its existence. Roger Ebert gave it two stars, calling it a "thin" conceit. The gimmick of three different endings—distributed randomly to different theaters—backfired, leaving audiences frustrated rather than intrigued. But looking back forty years later, the failure wasn't about the script or the gimmick. It was that we didn't deserve the sheer, unadulterated talent of the actors in the movie Clue at the time.
You’ve got a group of performers who, in any other decade, would have been headlining their own massive franchises. Instead, they were crammed into a gothic mansion in Hollywood, screaming about chandeliers and "red herrings." It’s basically a masterclass in ensemble acting that shouldn't work, yet somehow, it’s become the blueprint for every modern mystery-comedy from Knives Out to Glass Onion.
The Chaotic Brilliance of Tim Curry as Wadsworth
Honestly, if you take Tim Curry out of this movie, the whole thing collapses like a house of cards.
Curry was already a cult icon thanks to The Rocky Horror Picture Show, but his performance as Wadsworth the butler is a different beast entirely. It’s athletic. There is a specific sequence toward the end of the film where he re-enacts the entire plot of the movie in about nine minutes. He’s sprinting. He’s sweating. He’s doing voices. It is one of the most physically demanding comedic performances ever put to film.
What most people miss is that Curry wasn't the first choice. John Landis, who executive produced and came up with the story, originally wanted Leonard Rossiter. When Rossiter passed away, they looked at Rowan Atkinson. Imagine that for a second. An Atkinson Wadsworth would have been twitchy and silent. Curry, instead, gave us a verbal machine gun. He anchors the madness. Without his frantic energy to lead the tour, the other actors would have just been archetypes. Instead, they became a rhythmic section of a very loud, very fast orchestra.
Madeline Kahn and the "Flames" Monologue
If you ask any fan about the best moment among the actors in the movie Clue, they will point to Madeline Kahn.
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Her portrayal of Mrs. White is a lesson in comedic minimalism until it suddenly isn't. Kahn was a legend of the Mel Brooks era, a woman who could find the funny in a single vowel sound. The "flames on the side of my face" speech? Totally ad-libbed. The script didn't have that. Director Jonathan Lynn just let her roll, and what came out was a bizarre, stuttering, hysterical piece of improv that has been sampled, GIF-ed, and quoted into the digital afterlife.
She played Mrs. White with this terrifying, icy stillness. You really believe she might have killed her five husbands. Or was it four? "Husbands should be like Kleenex," she says. "Soft, strong, and disposable." It’s a dark line, but Kahn delivers it with a tragic weariness that makes you root for a serial killer. That’s the magic of this cast; they took 2D board game pieces and gave them neuroses.
Christopher Lloyd and the Art of the Creepy Academic
Fresh off the success of Back to the Future, Christopher Lloyd showed up as Professor Plum.
It’s a weird pivot. Most actors would have played Plum as a stuffy, pipe-smoking intellectual. Lloyd played him as a disgraced, lecherous fraud. He’s constantly trying to hit on Miss Scarlet, and he has this vacant, wide-eyed stare that suggests he’s either a genius or completely lobotomized.
Lloyd’s physical comedy is underrated here. Watch the way he handles the revolver or how he reacts when the lights go out. He’s a large man, but he moves with a strange, spindly grace. He brings a sense of genuine danger to the room that keeps the stakes from feeling too "sitcom."
The Rest of the Unusual Suspects
You can’t talk about the actors in the movie Clue without mentioning the comedic heavyweights filling out the rest of the rooms.
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- Michael McKean (Mr. Green): Before he was Chuck McGill in Better Call Saul or David St. Hubbins in Spinal Tap, McKean was the "anxious" Mr. Green. He plays the straight man, but his timing is impeccable. His final line in the "main" ending—"I’m gonna go home and sleep with my wife"—is delivered with such earnestness that it becomes the funniest line in the movie.
- Lesley Ann Warren (Miss Scarlet): She brings the old Hollywood glamour, but with a cynical, biting edge. She’s the smartest person in the room and she knows it.
- Eileen Brennan (Mrs. Peacock): Brennan was a force of nature. Her Mrs. Peacock is a frantic, squawking mess of nerves and hidden corruption. The way she screams when she finds the cook in the refrigerator is a high-water mark for cinematic shrieking.
- Martin Mull (Colonel Mustard): Mull plays the "pompous idiot" better than anyone. His blank stares when Wadsworth explains the logic of the murders are perfection. He is the audience surrogate for anyone who can't keep up with the plot.
Why This Specific Cast Worked Where Others Fail
Most ensemble comedies fail because actors compete for the spotlight. They try to "out-funny" each other.
In Clue, there is a weird, ego-less synergy. You can tell they were filming on a tight schedule on a hot soundstage at Paramount. The sweat on their faces is real. The exhaustion is real. This created a frantic pace that director Jonathan Lynn (who had never directed a feature before this) leaned into.
The movie was shot in 1985, a year that gave us The Goonies and The Breakfast Club. It was a year of iconic ensembles, but Clue was different because it was an "adult" movie that felt like a playground. These were serious actors—McKean and Lloyd and Kahn—treating a board game adaptation like Shakespeare. They didn't wink at the camera. They played the life-and-death stakes completely straight, which is why the comedy actually lands.
The Missing Piece: Carrie Fisher?
Here is a bit of trivia that changes how you look at the film: Carrie Fisher was originally cast as Miss Scarlet.
She had to drop out to enter a treatment center for drug addiction right before filming started. While Lesley Ann Warren was brilliant, one can only imagine the sardonic, dry wit Fisher would have brought to the role. It’s one of those "what if" moments in cinema history. However, the chemistry of the final group became so locked-in that it’s hard to imagine the puzzle any other way.
Understanding the Three Endings
The actors had to film all three endings, which is a logistical nightmare for keeping a character's motivation consistent.
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If you watch closely, you can see how they hedged their bets. In one version, Miss Scarlet is the mastermind. In another, Mrs. Peacock is the lone killer. In the "true" ending, almost everyone is a murderer. The fact that the actors in the movie Clue managed to make their characters believable in all three scenarios is a testament to their craft. They didn't play "the killer"; they played people capable of killing, which is a subtle but vital distinction.
What You Should Do Next
If you haven't watched Clue in a few years, go back and watch it with a specific focus on the background.
Don't watch the person talking. Watch the faces of the other actors. Watch Michael McKean’s face when Mrs. Peacock is screaming. Watch Martin Mull’s confused expressions during the "1+2+1+1" math monologue. The movie is a masterclass in "reaction acting."
- Seek out the "Director’s Cut" versions: While the theatrical release separated the endings, the home video version (and most streaming versions) includes all three played back-to-back. This is the only way to experience the full scale of the ensemble's work.
- Compare to Knives Out: If you're a fan of modern mysteries, watch Clue and then watch Rian Johnson's Knives Out. You'll see the DNA everywhere—from the eccentric patriarch/butler figure to the way the camera moves through a crowded room.
- Check out "Psych": The TV show Psych did a tribute episode called "100 Clues" that brought back Christopher Lloyd, Lesley Ann Warren, and Martin Mull. It’s a beautiful, chaotic love letter to the original film and shows that even decades later, that chemistry hadn't faded.
The reality is that we probably won't see a cast like this again. The economics of Hollywood make it too expensive to put seven or eight A-list character actors in a single-room comedy. Clue remains a singular moment where the right people met the right script at the exact right time, even if the world wasn't ready for it in 1985.
Next time you’re stuck on a rainy night, skip the new releases. Put on the movie about the board game. Watch the butler run. Watch the lady in the veil stutter about "flames." It’s better than you remember, mostly because the people in it were better than they had any right to be.