Six guests with no knowledge of each other or their host are invited to a mansion for a dinner party. When their host is murdered they must work with the staff and each other to establish the murderer amongst them. 

This 1985 farce based on the Hasbro board game Clue/Cluedo is a cult classic and probably provides a much more entertaining 94 minutes than the board game itself. 

The plot achieves the difficult task of being complex, breezy and superfluous all at the same time. 

It begins as a classic murder mystery. On a dark and rainy night a number of guests converge on a grand mansion for a dinner. Whilst they await their host, the butler Wadsworth (Tim Curry) marshals the guests and gives them directions on their hosts wishes. This of course mimics the classic Agatha Christie story, “And Then There Were None”. And follows a similar pattern to a point as guests meet their demise. 

The boardgame adaptation element is present throughout. The mansion features the rooms of the game, the characters have their colourful names and the classic murder weapons make an appearance also. 

But the crucial element to its fun and enduring status is that it plays out as a farce. In fact it opens fairly strait laced but gets increasingly kookier as the story unfolds culminating in multiple endings and Tim Curry delivering his career defining madcap performance as a very sarcastic butler. 

A joke that perhaps best epitomises the tone is this exchange between the French maid Yvette (Colleen Camp) and Mrs. Peacock (Eileen Brennan). 

Mrs. Peacock: “Uh, is there a little girl’s room in the hall?”

Yvette: “Oui oui, Madame.”

Mrs. Peacock: “No, I just wanna powder my nose.”

Whilst the delivery may be lost in written form it encapsulates both the witty and very silly nature of the comedy throughout. 

Every character gets moments to shine and whilst the chaotic multiple ending structure leaves me wanting it always brings a smile to my face.