Time has a way of changing our perception of things. At the time, the 1985 “Clue” was a curiosity, a gimmicky film with three endings that didn’t do well at the box office. When “Murder by Death” was released in 1976, it garnered more positive reviews and Neil Simon was nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award. While both films assembled talented ensembles, only one remains an easy viewing choice.

Murder by Death

By 1976, Simon was already a successful Broadway playwright with the 1961 “Come Blow Your Horn,” the 1963 “Barefoot in the Park” and the 1965 “The Odd Couple.” Simon won a Tony for the latter. He wrote the screenplay for the 1969 film adaptation of “The Odd Couple,” starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, for which he received an Oscar nomination. The TV sitcom, starring Tony Randall and Jack Klugman, had already ended its run (1970-1975).

His romantic comedy, “Barefoot in the Park,” which had starred Robert Redford and Elizabeth Ashley on Broadway, had also been made into a film with Redford and Jane Fonda in 1967. The film received an Oscar nomination (Best Supporting Actress for Mildred Natwich) and Simon received a nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay from the Writers Guild of America.

While the 1969 “The Odd Couple” and the 1967 “Barefoot in the Park” remain charming in 2024, the same cannot be said for “Murder by Death.”

First you must be familiar with five fictional sleuths. The cast includes Inspector Sidney Wang (Peter Sellers), Dick and Dora Charleston (David Niven and Maggie Smith), Milo Perrier (James Coco) and his French-speaking chauffeur Marcel Cassette (James Cromwell), Sam Diamond (Peter Falk) and his girl Tess Skeffington (Eileen Brennan) and Jessica Marbles (Elsa Lanchester) and her nurse Miss Withers (Estelle Winwood).

Wang is based on Earl Derr Biggers’ Hawaii-based Chinese American police detective, Charlie Chan. The additional joke is that he has an adopted Japanese son, Willie (Richard Narita).  While Biggers meant the character of Chan to be a sympathetic alternative to the yellow peril negative portrayal of Chinese Americans, in the film, Chan was usually portrayed by a White actor in yellowface.  Chan also still signified otherness.

Dick and Dora Charleston are based on Nick and Nora Charles, characters created by Dashiell Hammett and portrayed in the Thin Man film series.  Nick was a retired private eye who married a wealthy heiress. Tey have a wire-haired fox terrier named Asta. William Powell and Myrna Loy . In all there were six films made: “The Thin Man,” “After the Thin Man,” “Another Thin Man,” “Shadow of the Thin Man,” “The Thin Man Goes Home” and “Song of the Thin Man.”

Milo Perrier is a parody of Agatha Christie’s UK-based Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. Jessica Marbles is a parody of Christie’s Miss Jane Marple.

Sam Diamond parodies Hammett’s Sam Spade and Falk is riffing off of Humphrey Bogart, something he does in another film, the 1978 “The Cheap Detective.” That film, also written by Simon and directed by Moore, would also include Brennan, Coco and Cromwell.

The film has five detective teams making their way to the mansion of a mysterious Lionel Twain (Truman Capote), invited for “dinner and a murder.” We see hands writing the invitations and inviting the blind butler Jamessir Bensonmum (Alec Guinness) to lick and place the stamps on each sealed envelope, before we see the detectives each making their way to the mansion. The night may be dark, but it isn’t stormy except inside the mansion.

The cook that has been hired for that evening is deaf and mute. Dinner will be served, but the diners will go hungry as they learn that their host is challenging them to solve a murder for a reward of one million dollars. The guests will find themselves possible victims as deadly traps are set off throughout their stay, including in their assigned bedrooms. This is a mansion where the paintings and trophy heads seem to be watching them.

The film is a light truffle, filled with silliness and good performances. While I love the art and caricatures drawn by Charles Addams (creator of “The Addams Family”) that you’ll see at the beginning, the yellowface by Peter Sellers is cringe-worthy now. From the costume design to the broken English and facial expressions, Sellers’ Chan is hard to watch and in some respects even harder than some actual Charlie Chan films.

If only Simon had given Niven and Smith more to do or even included Winwood in on the action or cast and listened to someone who was Chinese American, that might have salvaged what is now a light, but frightfully outdated film.

The film was shot at the Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank.

Clue 

While the 1985 “Clue” was less successful than “Murder by Death” when it premiered to mixed reviews, it has inspired a wildly funny stage play and fun television episode homages. Director Jonathan Lynn also wrote the screenplay (story credited to Lynn and John Landis) and assembled a cast deep in comedic talent, but the film doesn’t quite get its comedic timing right.

Set in 1954, six strangers are invited to a secluded mansion in New England on a story night. Each guest has no idea who the host is, and is asked to adopt a pseudonym. Greeted at the door by the butler Wadsworth (Tim Curry), it becomes apparent that these guests are somehow connected. The sexy French maid Yvette (Colleen Camp) seems to know one of the guests as does the cook (Kelly Nakahara).

When Mr. Boddy (Lee Ving)  is finally introduced, the audience learns that he has been blackmailing each of the six guests. Mrs. Peacock (Eileen Brennan) has been accepting bribes on behalf of her US. senator husband. Mrs. White (Madeline Kahm), is a black widow who has been married five times with each husband dying under mysterious circumstances. Professor Plum (Christopher Lloyd) was a psychiatrist who had an affair with one of his patients but now works for the government.  Mr. Green (Michael McKean) is a closeted homosexual working for the government. Colonel Mustard (Martin Mull) is a former army officer who engaged in war profiteering. Miss Scarlet (Lesley Ann Warren), is a well-placed Washington D.C. madam who could name names.

While Wadsworth hopes to expose Mr. Boddy, Mr. Boddy means to force one of the six to kill Wadsworth, presenting each of the six guests with a gift box that contains one of the weapons from the game (a candlestick, rope, lead pipe, wrench, revolver, and dagger).

While Mr. Boddy will be murdered,  unlike the board game, there will be more than one murder and in the movie, there will be more than one solution.

The film does have a Los Angeles connection. It was filmed on sound stages at Paramount Pictures in Hollywood and on location in South Pasadena. Lynn didn’t get his first (Leonard Rossiter) or second choice (Rowan Atkinson) for the role of the butler. I imagine that Atkinson would have suited the role better than Tim Curry. The film doesn’t go all-in and over-the-top with physical comedy and that perhaps is the biggest mistake.

The film ran 97 minutes. At the time, it was the first film that Lynn had written and directed and his first theatrical release feature film as director. He had previously directed a TV movie, “Arms and the Man” in 1983 9with Philip Casson and written by George Bernard Shaw. After this film, Lynn would win a writing award (CableACE Award) for the comedy series, “Yes, Prime Minister.” In 1992, Lynn directed “My Cousin Vinny” for which actress Marisa Tomei won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar.

Maybe if there’s remake, the casting and characterizations will take clues from the stage version.