Clue (1985)

Matt (00:00:21):

All right then, this is 1-Week Rental, a movie podcast where we spend a week with a movie and tell you all about it. And we spent the past week with Clue. And we’re going to tell you now everything we learned. I am Matt Stokes. And

Laci (00:00:33):

I am Laci Roth, and I would like to just acknowledge that I was asked by management to have my boobs out for this movie because it’s a very tits forward flick.

Matt (00:00:43):

Yeah, and it would make sense. And I see why management asked you that. I think it was inappropriate of management to ask you that. The higher ups, the executives at Roth Stokes Media, but – I’d

Laci (00:00:52):

Say these are higher up, but sure. But

Matt (00:00:54):

We got to do what they told, like Rage Against the Machine once told us, and now you do what they told you.

Laci (00:01:00):

You fight, fight toward the dying of the light.

Matt (00:01:04):

Indeed. What are we doing? Clue. Clue.

Laci (00:01:06):

Clue

Matt (00:01:06):

Is the movie we’re doing starring Tim Curry. He died. He died like a month and a half ago and we’re like, we should do a Tim Curry movie. And so that’s what we’re doing now belatedly. Clue. Clue. What’s your history with Clue?

Laci (00:01:18):

I don’t have one. I feel like I was an adult when I saw this movie. And

Matt (00:01:22):

Yet it so feels like a Lacy movie.

Laci (00:01:24):

Absolutely. It’s got a weird house. The house has tricks. Shenanigans. A cult

Matt (00:01:30):

Classic that was a bomb at the box office and was claimed almost instantly on home video.

Laci (00:01:35):

That’s right up my alley. I’d say this movie is lacking heart and that’s where you lose child Laci. I need something a little warmer and fuzzier to watch it over and over again. So

Matt (00:01:47):

Not one of your movies, but you had seen it before, as had I. I don’t know if I’d actually sat down and watched it – You

Laci (00:01:52):

Stood up and watched it. Frontwards

Matt (00:01:54):

To backwards. I might have been jogging around as I do. No, every scene was familiar,

Laci (00:02:00):

But

Matt (00:02:00):

I don’t actually know if I watched it beginning to end. Maybe I’d seen it like 0.8 total times.

Laci (00:02:06):

Nose to toes. Yeah. Okay. Interesting. I’ve definitely seen it in full and once it got to the end, I was like, “Yeah, that. I remember this ending.”

Matt (00:02:16):

Oh yeah. And I remembered the multiple endings. And I think that paying attention poorly to the movie does the movie no favors. This is a movie I think that I was not vibing with for a while, but in the best possible way, it pummels you into submission. And by the end I was like, “This is great. I love this.”

Laci (00:02:35):

Tim Curry, you have to have this energy. You have to have this whimsy. It’s screwball or something. Oh, that’s the perfect

Matt (00:02:43):

Word. That’s exactly what they were going for. That’s what the director was trying to evoke. He’s like, “I want to bring back screwball comedies

Laci (00:02:50):

From the

Matt (00:02:51):

30s and 40s.”

Laci (00:02:52):

Actors

Matt (00:02:52):

Don’t do that anymore.

Laci (00:02:53):

And it was smart to put it in the 50s so that everyone could act very like, “Oh, the improprise. Oh, dear heaven.” Because I mean really the whole story wraps around something pretty fucking cute when you think of politics today. And we need to be scandalized by the boobies. But

Matt (00:03:09):

It’s also, I think it’s a very smart way to adapt a board game that has nothing in it in the movie. You can almost read the movie as they’re just playing the board game and actors are always kind of just playing a. What does it mean that this character has this name? It doesn’t mean anything. What does it mean who the murder is? It doesn’t mean anything. It’s all just vibe. It’s all just energy. It’s actors going insane reacting to each other. But I could see, I mean, if you don’t know, this movie now when you watch it has three different endings that are just back to back to back with some title cards that are like, “But here’s another way it could have happened.”

Laci (00:03:43):

Well, they do at least at the end tell you that this is the actual way. They at least pick one. But

Matt (00:03:49):

That’s meaningless too because when it was released in theaters in 1985, they printed three different versions of the movie and sent them to movie theaters. So if you got one ending and if you wanted to see a different ending, this was part of the marketing campaign, go to a different theater across town.

Laci (00:04:05):

Thank you, capitalism. And it’s a movie made after a board game, right? So it’s unabashedly being about capital. It’d only be more on the nose if it were the game monopoly. It’s just like this is a cash crab. This is a familiar property. You’ll come see this.

Matt (00:04:21):

Yeah, but I –

Laci (00:04:22):

Are there any others made after a board game that’s not like a fucking fucking war strategy?

Matt (00:04:28):

Battleship in 2012.

Laci (00:04:30):

What did I just fucking say? War strategy that’s not like chutes and ladders and mouse trap, mousetrap.

Matt (00:04:38):

That was mouse hunt.

Laci (00:04:39):

Damn it.

Matt (00:04:40):

Yeah. I feel like the big board game IP Bonanza never really happened. I feel like my entire life reading Entertainment Weekly and Deadline and stuff and slash film has been, here comes the big IP boom of board games and it’s never gotten there. When

Laci (00:04:58):

Would you say board games had their heyday?

Matt (00:05:00):

Good question. I don’t know.

Laci (00:05:02):

It’s interesting because I feel like games are constantly being made. Even as a child, I remember thinking what a useless thing that is to do, that it would have to be such a good idea because it’s almost impossible not to reinvent your staple games. There’s just only so many things you could do on a board game that’s not overly complicated and doesn’t take fucking. I don’t know. I feel like I always knew somebody was working on a game and got to break into that industry. Why? I remember I wanted to be a person that had a lot of board games, but not necessarily one that played it. It was like a staple, like a sign to something if you had them. Oh

Matt (00:05:45):

Yeah. Sign of a good family, of a family

Laci (00:05:46):

That plays together. A game night family. When those always. I’ve maybe had five my whole life that I played as a kid and I feel like those all ended in tears.

Matt (00:05:59):

Yeah. Every game night you and me and our child have had has ended in fights. We’re not good at it for

Laci (00:06:06):

Whatever reason. Whoa, whoa. I said the ones when I was a child, the ones that we’ve had as adults, they get smoothed over after. We reconcile.That’s different. We do fight, but

Matt (00:06:17):

Yeah.That’s

Laci (00:06:18):

Different.

Matt (00:06:19):

The fights resolve, but I wish I was the kind of person who enjoyed playing board games.

Laci (00:06:23):

I think you can’t be a competitive person and stay chill with board games, especially when our kid wins absolutely fucking everything no matter what it is.

Matt (00:06:30):

I’m not competitive. I truly don’t

Laci (00:06:31):

Care. I am, Matt. I am. I need to have fun for everyone to have fun. It only takes one of us not having fun for it to not be fun.

Matt (00:06:40):

So maybe we find the problem. Well, yeah. But it’s not like I enjoy board games with other people who are chill, but you know what? Not like I’ve spent a lot of time trying to play board games with people. Because

Laci (00:06:52):

If you’re not going to get invested, then what are we even fucking doing? What are the stakes?

Matt (00:06:55):

The

Laci (00:06:55):

Investment is

Matt (00:06:56):

In having fun.

Laci (00:06:57):

How is it fun if you don’t care if you win? Answer me that. On the

Matt (00:07:01):

Guys podcast, I remember them reading reviews that people had left of sex board games and people complaining that there’s no way to win this. The rules make no fucking sense. Oh, okay.

Laci (00:07:11):

Well, that’s missing the point entirely. Yeah, I’m now listening to the guys’ podcast. I’m listening to the Deadpool one right now. I thought you knew. I kept hearing

Matt (00:07:21):

Flutter.

Laci (00:07:22):

The little pitter pattern of your feet upstairs and I’m like, when’s he going to poke his head in? When’s he going to poke his head in and just go, “You’re listening to my eyes.”

Matt (00:07:32):

But all board games are like the sex board games, but the goal is not to fuck but to have fun with your family.

Laci (00:07:37):

It’s your whole thing about movies. It’s the ride, man. It’s

Matt (00:07:40):

Experience. And that’s why this is a good movie about movies, because it’s about the ride. It’s about the experience that Laci just made fun of me for saying, but it’s absolutely true. Did you like this movie?

Laci (00:07:51):

Yeah. I remember I enjoyed it the first time I enjoyed it this time. It’s just not one. I don’t think there’s enough moments that would make me want to watch it again. Again, it has to be a movie I’m going to watch a bunch of times for it to be one of my movies. It just is going to need to be. For

Matt (00:08:12):

As loud a movie as it is, I think its pleasures are kind of hidden. It was doing the research for this episode and there’s a great oral history by a super fan of this movie pointing out all these scenes. And then I go back and watch and think, oh, that’s brilliant. That is an incredibly brilliant comedic performance from Madeline Kahn right there. It was just all part of the souffle as I’m watching it, but I could see you watch this multiple times and suddenly it becomes one of your favorite movies.

Laci (00:08:39):

Yep. I agree with you.

Matt (00:08:42):

Good.

Laci (00:08:44):

Well, I do. I mean, great performances across the board. The only person that annoys me the entire time is this stupid fucking French maid, because why is there a French maid?

Matt (00:08:54):

But she’s playing a role. But

Laci (00:08:56):

Why?

Matt (00:08:56):

Because that’s to be expected is you’re in this old New England

Laci (00:09:01):

Manner

Matt (00:09:01):

And of course there should be an inexplicably French maid there. That’s brilliant. It’s beautiful. I love it.

Laci (00:09:08):

Okay.

Matt (00:09:09):

No, I don’t love it. I hate it.

Laci (00:09:12):

I don’t need you to fucking feel a damn thing. Just don’t tell me it’s beautiful when I just told you it’s annoying. I don’t like her accent. I don’t know. I feel like I need a little bit more chemistry between the actual. Individual performances are great, but I feel like there is a lack of chemistry between people who are supposed to be paired up. Also, I cannot buy Christopher Lloyd as a cat. His character is disgusting to me. He takes advantage of patients while they’re, what, asleep?

Matt (00:09:41):

It was kind of surprising that Christopher Lloyd is obviously very good at the movie, but it’s not like he pops any harder than any of the others. No,

Laci (00:09:50):

Not at all. It’s a very subdued role. It feels like a waste of him.

Matt (00:09:55):

I believe he had filmed Back to the Future, but it hadn’t come out yet, so they didn’t know this is the guy. This is a superstar now. Already very established. But yeah, let’s talk about the making of

Laci (00:10:05):

Clue. Why not? We’re already here.

Matt (00:10:10):

We got you. We got you idiots.

Laci (00:10:11):

Full disclose. I popped an ass muscle. That sounds funner than it is. I woke up with a pulled muscle and I thought that I’d had one of these before, but I think this is new and different. So I did take two. I took a – Morphines. Nope. I took a non-drowsy, non-sedative muscle relaxer. I don’t think that. No. You got any

Matt (00:10:35):

More of those muscle relaxers?

Laci (00:10:37):

They’re not that. They’re not what you think. And they’re not supposed to make you drowsy, but I sure feel different. So it’s probably in my head. When I take a new medicine, I’m like, “Oh, am I normal?” And my muscle’s still very pulled. But fucking driving sucks because it’s the muscle right on top of this ash cheek. So flexing my foot is like, “Oh, okay. I need to go see the doctor. My doctor’s 30 minutes away. Wrong. I’m glad I went.” Well, you’re as

Matt (00:11:05):

Ornery as ever, but I think in a way, ordinary meaning cranky. What

Laci (00:11:11):

Else would it.

Matt (00:11:12):

When you were pregnant, you were the worst pregnant person of all time, but I did like that you’re just a little dumber and slower. It was a nice change of pace.

Laci (00:11:20):

You always like when I’m hungover, even though I’m cranky, I’m not sharp.

Matt (00:11:24):

She’s nicer.

Laci (00:11:25):

We have to be. Because

Matt (00:11:26):

She’s stupid.

Laci (00:11:27):

Because I’m stupid.

Matt (00:11:28):

Yeah. So if you suffered some sort of head trauma, might be good.

Laci (00:11:35):

Good for our marriage. Bad for business. Unless the business is shenanigans. We

Matt (00:11:41):

Have a Patreon. Oh, my

Laci (00:11:44):

Mind.

Matt (00:11:44):

Patreon.com/oneweekrental, and got to come up with some stuff to put on there, so let

Laci (00:11:49):

Us know. Sorry. Hi, I interrupt. Should we be making the distinction that is the number one or it is the word one when we say this? Because people always ask. 1-Week Rental, how do I type that in? Well, W-O-N.

Matt (00:12:06):

Patreon.com/oneweekrental. That is the numeral one, the number one. Do not type O-N-E. I

Laci (00:12:13):

Did not know that. You

Matt (00:12:14):

Didn’t know that? You came up with the title of our program and logo. And we have two bonus episodes on there for $2 a month. Don’t know what we’re putting on there in September, but it’ll be something great. And check out the back catalog. Check out YouTube. Check out the audio podcast. It’s all the same stuff. It’s all one big soup. It’s all one gumbo. You know what I’m saying?

Laci (00:12:39):

Oh, yes.

Matt (00:12:40):

Clue, the history of Clue. Let’s get into it.

Laci (00:12:42):

Sure.

Matt (00:13:06):

So Clue, of course, is called Cluto in the UK where it was created. Cluto, did you know that?

Laci (00:13:12):

Why would I know that? And why is it? Why isn’t just a normal word? All

Matt (00:13:15):

Right. So it was created in the 1940s by a man named Anthony E. Pratt, and a popular board game among. Oh, Britains is called Ludo or was called Ludo back then, which is Latin for I play. Ludo. Now here’s how they came up with Cluto.

Laci (00:13:30):

I think I got it. You

Matt (00:13:31):

Got it. I’m

Laci (00:13:32):

Hooked. I’m hooked.

Matt (00:13:33):

All right. So

Laci (00:13:33):

That

Matt (00:13:33):

Muscle relaxer’s not hurting your brain that much because you figured it out. I did. So Cluto, inspired by Agatha Christie mysteries and they’ll gather around the family and listen to the radio, listen to the mysteries on the programs, on the tele, on the radio. You know what I’m saying?

Laci (00:13:49):

They tell us a lot about what’s in the letters that bring all the people. Let me just say, I love a movie that’s about people receiving something that then makes them actually go to a crazy ass house. And I feel like there’s several movies that do this. Sure. Love them all. I feel like we know a lot about what’s in these letters, but how do they know to dress so fantastically? What attire? What could possibly ballroom attire? I think it was

Matt (00:14:15):

Just the ’50s. That’s what you’re doing.

Laci (00:14:17):

I’m going to get gas.

Matt (00:14:18):

I better put this.

Laci (00:14:19):

No? No. No. They all got the same. No, because the motorist, not in attire, the telegram person, not in that attire. FBI didn’t dress up and the cop didn’t dress up. So how do you answer that?

Matt (00:14:35):

And I like that they keep calling him the motorist everyone. The motorist, the motorist.

Laci (00:14:40):

We all got here on a motor. A

Matt (00:14:41):

Clue Do came out in America in 1949 as clue because we don’t have the game Ludo here in the stites. I guess I though Laci would be a little more bowled over by this. Why?

Laci (00:14:54):

Clue is

Matt (00:14:55):

Actually Cluto in Britain. Whoa. Who would care

Laci (00:14:59):

About this? And

Matt (00:14:59):

If you’re seriously into board games, I think even if you’re American, you call it Cludo because that’s the actual name for it. Because

Laci (00:15:06):

Piece of shit.

Matt (00:15:06):

But this is kind of like when I found out that in England, they’re called the Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles. Zootopia is called Zootropolis. Shut

Laci (00:15:15):

The fuck up. Harold

Matt (00:15:17):

And Kumar go to White Castle is Harold and Kumar get the Munchies. Oh,

Laci (00:15:20):

Gross.

Matt (00:15:21):

So it’s kind of crazy how one thing

Laci (00:15:24):

Can be one thing one way

Matt (00:15:25):

And a

Laci (00:15:25):

Different thing in a

Matt (00:15:25):

Different place.

Laci (00:15:26):

Royale with cheese, am I right? It’s

Matt (00:15:28):

The little things, you know? Metric system.

Laci (00:15:31):

Those are little. They’re in fact two inches smaller. No, that’s not how that works. The metric system can’t be two inches smaller. No,

Matt (00:15:40):

I think that’s how it works. I

Laci (00:15:41):

Just mean it works in tens instead of going to 12 like we do for some reason, 12 inches. But

Matt (00:15:46):

Only 12 in one place, and then in a different place, it’s a

Laci (00:15:48):

Different set of – It ruins everything, that one 12.

Matt (00:15:52):

But if they make a switch, I’ll fucking raise my pitchfork and give them hell. All right, so I believe I already mentioned there’s an excellent deeply reported oral history of Clue written by Adam B. Very for Buzzfeed News. Buzzfeed, ladies and gentlemen, used to do journalism and for a while they’re like, “We’re going to deeply report things,” and then they stopped. But this is from the era when they did things. So in 2013, he talked to every single person except for Tim Curry. And then Tim Curry, if you don’t know, in 2012 suffered a major stroke that required brain surgery.

Laci (00:16:27):

Jesus. And he

Matt (00:16:28):

Lost much of his mobility, lost the ability to speak. He did regain his ability to speak. So the author interviewed Tim Curry in 2015 and added in his quotes and did a little editing to the piece. But yeah, that is kind of why Tim Curry disappeared from movies. He continued to do voiceover work,

Laci (00:16:47):

But

Matt (00:16:47):

Had to –

Laci (00:16:48):

I think of that as being something very affected by stroke. So you must have really worked hard on that shit.

Matt (00:16:54):

Yeah. And I was watching interviews with him from last year, and it was still clear he had been affected, but still sounded like himself, but in voiceover, you can do a million takes and stitch things together. So very, very sad. I mean, a stroke is a. It seems like sometimes it’s like, “Oh yeah. Oh, I had a stroke and didn’t even know.” And then sometimes the most – It’s like the

Laci (00:17:18):

Most tragic thing.

Matt (00:17:19):

Debilitating thing. So Deborah Hill was the producer and co-writer with John Carpenter of the original Halloween, and she is the producer with whom all of this starts. She bought the rights to Clue in 1981. Now, I mean, it’s very quaint to think that back in that time, it was like a movie based on a board game. That’s insane. Are you a child? What a fucking baby-brained idea. In that oral history I mentioned, he talks to everyone, and Michael McKean had a great quote. He said. Well, the author says, “I ask him, McKean, if he found the idea of basing a movie on a board game to be crass or silly. McKean waves me off. There’s a very good movie called The Setup, Robert Wise Boxing Picture, which is based on a poem that’s barely one page long about a boxing match. He says, “You could make a good movie or a shitty one based on anything.” So they got John Landis attached to direct, a superstar director at the time.

Matt (00:18:13):

Nowadays, when anybody mentions John Landis, they mention, oh, he’s the guy who killed those people on the set of the Twilight Zone. What?

Laci (00:18:18):

Or

Matt (00:18:19):

At least very, very allegedly seems to have been responsible for the death of Vic Morrow and the two Vietnamese children actors. We talked about this a few years ago during summer of Spielberg in a helicopter as the director who was running the set, not taking safety precautions, very, very sad and tragic story. It didn’t ruin his career. He kept making movies. Those

Laci (00:18:42):

Kids had been white, it would’ve?

Matt (00:18:44):

Just a

Laci (00:18:44):

Guess.

Matt (00:18:45):

No, I think it was always a. It also killed Vic Morrow, a big star, but it’s only. I guess it took a while before people realized, oh, that’s kind of fucked up. People

Laci (00:18:57):

Do kind of forgive things that happen on sets though. I mean, they do and they don’t. Look at Alec Baldwin. Shit happens on sets. I think people think of movie making as a big complicated thing they don’t understand. So if you’re not in the industry, you’re like, “I think I can forgive that. That sounds complicated.” Yeah, it is. It sounds like it was not on purpose.

Matt (00:19:18):

Yeah. I think that. Do you remember during summer of Spielberg, we were talking about how in that Spielberg biography we read, the author really seemed to think that that fucked up Spielberg because Spielberg was a producer on that movie, but he wasn’t on set for that part of the movie and seemed like he may have blamed himself and then wrote Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, where Indiana Jones saves Asian children as like a – I remember

Laci (00:19:44):

Now. Now

Matt (00:19:45):

On the fictional world, I can get it right. But yeah, John Landis was attached to direct this movie. He directed Blues Brothers, Animal House, Trading Places, American Werewolf in London. Weird

Laci (00:19:55):

Connection to the movie we just did. I know. We do that all the time. We accidentally connect next to each other movie dots.

Matt (00:20:01):

There’s all this yarn connecting all this stuff inadvertently.

Laci (00:20:05):

It’s almost like they all work in the same industry. Kind

Matt (00:20:07):

Of. So Deborah Hill approaches John Landis to direct the movie. I’m going to read now from Adam

Laci (00:20:13):

Very’s

Matt (00:20:14):

Piece. She

Laci (00:20:15):

Approaches. Here

Matt (00:20:15):

She comes. Quiet. “Wynn Hill, who had secured the movie right, first approached Landis about directing the movie. He didn’t flinch at the fact that it was based on a board game.” Landis says, “It was the classic murder mystery set up with a bunch of characters. I just love the idea of playing it as farce. But after working out a treatment for the film’s plot in central mystery, Landis also realized he’d hit a particularly troublesome wall. I didn’t have a solution,” he says. “I went to the point when the butler says, I’m going to explain what happened in the classic Charlie Chan, Hercule Parrot, Agatha Christie kind of way, and I couldn’t figure it out. I set up a crime I couldn’t solve. So I though, well, I got to get a real writer. Wait,

Laci (00:20:50):

That’s interesting because I’m pretty sure just like with the joke, you’re supposed to start with the punchline and then work your way backwards. I don’t think you’re supposed to write the different mysterious things that happened without knowing who’s doing them. Otherwise, the right people aren’t in the room at the right time. That’s

Matt (00:21:04):

Why he says I got to go get a real writer. You

Laci (00:21:07):

Should have started there.

Matt (00:21:08):

I think that today you’d be like, I’ll just go find somebody who writes mystery novels. They’ll be a consultant or they’ll get co-writing credit and then we’ll get a movie person to make it into a movie. You’ll

Laci (00:21:16):

Get a witch. Right, exactly.

Matt (00:21:18):

You get

Laci (00:21:18):

A consulting witch, he’ll put a hex on you. He’ll

Matt (00:21:20):

Put a mystery hex on you. Do you want to know what’s in your child’s lunchbox this morning? I put a curse, a poisoned apple. I don’t know.

Laci (00:21:30):

The fuck are you talking about? Okay.

Matt (00:21:34):

But even while watching the movie, I think this is a movie that is so not about who did what, but even while watching the movie, I could see how troublesome that would be because it’s not a movie that’s about the mystery. It’s not that at all. But you also know I have to offer people a satisfying mystery, and I’ve also determined we are doing this thing with multiple endings. We’re going to give you four endings. It was four that then became three. So you have to write a movie where four different endings can make sense with what you just watched. Okay.

Laci (00:22:09):

Do they take care to actually have the actors where they. Because they make big bold statements through that whole ending scene of, and you weren’t in the room, but you weren’t. But it seems like they all take turns not being in the room. Can you actually look back at the movie and find that’s true? I just figured it didn’t matter. I figured it didn’t matter if it was not. It all

Matt (00:22:28):

Seemed true to me. I’m going to watch it a second time. And Laci’s going to watch a second time because that’s our one week commitment to you is one week experts on the movie. So we’ll try to track that the second time.

Laci (00:22:38):

And everyone knows it takes half a week to watch a movie one time.

Matt (00:22:42):

So he is looking to other writers. He goes to some major writers like Tom Stoppard, Anthony Perkins, the star of Psycho, and Stephen Sondheim, the Broadway mega producer.

Laci (00:22:56):

So from the very beginning, he’s like, “This is about this ensemble cast. This is about the goofball antics, but I do want to make a compelling mystery.” But it sounds like he doesn’t even know exactly what. Such a known genre, such a sought out. People who love murder mystery movies, that’s a very specific person and they like it for the mystery and for the ending. So I feel like it sets you up for failure to pick such a known and easy to spy genre. From the very beginning, it’s easy to tell what we’re getting into. So it does confuse who’s your audience? Because the kind of person that loves that is going to go see it and be like, “I don’t feel like you guys really care about the murder mystery part of this.” But

Matt (00:23:41):

I guess you want something that is just surface level, plausible as a mystery enough. And he just

Laci (00:23:48):

Felt like

Matt (00:23:50):

He couldn’t come up with that on his own. I

Laci (00:23:51):

Was just thinking Nolan did something wrong with it, did a similar thing, and yes, he made a very clearly Bond style movie with a super complicated plot.

Matt (00:24:06):

Inception and Tenet.

Laci (00:24:08):

I’m thinking Tenet. If this guy needs to be. He unintentionally made the star of Tenet seem less smart than everyone else because as a spy movie, as a spy, you’re supposed to say as little as possible, you’re not supposed to be. I don’t know. I feel like they are misunderstanding the audience for these things or that they’re boxing themselves in a way that isn’t going to suit the movie at the end of the day. Tenant

Matt (00:24:43):

Has this big twist or reveal that the guy who’s the protagonist is actually a protagonist in the future. So he seems like he doesn’t have all the information. It’s because he doesn’t and it’s all supposed to make you reevaluate everything you’ve already seen. And that is kind of like clue where it’s like, well, we have to do multiple endings because it’s like the board game because it can be anybody.

Laci (00:25:02):

I do like how true it stays to the board game though. At little different moments, you’re like, “Oh, it’s doing board game.” I mean, it would be very easy to take a property like this and be like, “Look, all these things look familiar. Fuck that. We just wanted to get you to the theater. Now here’s a movie about clue.” But they put little moments all throughout from beginning to end, and I like that. Well,

Matt (00:25:24):

Including. It’d

Laci (00:25:25):

Be funny if someone had to take out the instructions at the very beginning and they were overly complicated and everyone in the room is like, “Can we just play?” Because that is how it feels for me. Oh,

Matt (00:25:35):

That’s objection number one I have to playing any board game. I

Laci (00:25:38):

Know. I know. That moment. That is what I mean about how it’s impossible to make a new board game. It has to be quick enough to figure it out before someone gets pissed with the instructions and not so simple that it hasn’t been done already. It’s impossible. That’s why there’s still staple games that everyone. You say name a board game, people are going to name five board games that we all know. Go ahead.

Matt (00:25:58):

And I

Laci (00:25:58):

Don’t think Battleship counts. It doesn’t feel like a board game to me. Monopoly, sorry. Don’t

Matt (00:26:06):

Wake Daddy. No,

Laci (00:26:08):

I’m kidding. Mousetrap, Shoots and Ladders, Candyland.

Matt (00:26:12):

I wouldn’t put Mousetrap up there. I don’t think it belongs.

Laci (00:26:15):

It does because the commercial that was so. It was after Home Alone till fucking Ru Groberg shit was all the rage. And it’s overly complicated to set up, but it’s so unique in that – Everyone

Matt (00:26:26):

Says the same thing about Mousetrap though, right? The commercial was awesome. I could never do anything with it once I bought it. Oh, I don’t know.

Laci (00:26:34):

I’ve

Matt (00:26:34):

Never bouht it.

Laci (00:26:35):

Oh

Matt (00:26:35):

Yeah, I bought it. No, you couldn’t do it. Don’twink

Laci (00:26:37):

Daddy. I love a good scary game or don’t break the ice. And I’m definitely forgetting very important games here, but.

Matt (00:26:46):

I like the thinking man’s game chess. Shut

Laci (00:26:49):

The fuck up. It’s not a board game, is it? No, it’s not. He sure

Matt (00:26:53):

It’s a

Laci (00:26:53):

Board. Yes,

Matt (00:26:54):

It’s a board game.

Laci (00:26:55):

You can’t fold it up. Yes, you

Matt (00:26:56):

Can.

Laci (00:26:57):

Boards are cardboard. You’re supposed to be able to fold them. You don’t fold a chess board up. Yes,

Matt (00:27:01):

You can. Stop

Laci (00:27:02):

Being. Oh wait, you’re right. It does come in cardboard. I don’t want to talk about this anymore. And neither

Matt (00:27:06):

Do I. So Tom Stoppard, the famous playwright, was tasked with coming up with this story. Reading now from the oral history quote, Landis says Stoppard toiled on a script for clue for a full year and then he hit a wall too. I’ll never forget it, says Landis. I got a letter from him literally a year later on this beautiful onion skin paper, very elegant, stationary, basically saying, I give up. And he enclosed the check for the entire amount he was paid. Oh,

Laci (00:27:31):

Ouch. Well, you can’t pay me back the time, can you, you fucker?

Matt (00:27:35):

No one can crack clue. No one can get a clue and crack clue. I

Laci (00:27:41):

Wonder what’s so tricky about it. I feel like people are writing mysteries left, right, and center.

Matt (00:27:47):

I guess these are. How do

Laci (00:27:48):

You give everybody time to shine? Usually, I guess. No.

Matt (00:27:54):

I think this is a kind of impossible magic trick that the movie pulls off. And it’s like you really have to sit and think about it to be in awe of all the different ways it pulls all of this off.

Laci (00:28:05):

Awnie. Come on, Awmi. Put an awning on me. Well,

Matt (00:28:08):

When we cover the movie, we’ll cover that. No,

Laci (00:28:10):

You said that you really appreciate it after knowing things. I would’ve really appreciated knowing things. Don’t make me wait till the end. No, all

Matt (00:28:17):

I’m saying is everyone’s given the space and there are in-story reasons for them having pseudonyms, for having ridiculous motivations. For

Laci (00:28:30):

Acting over the top as they do.

Matt (00:28:33):

Yeah, but also for being a real mystery. And the mystery is just kind of Agatha Christies and then there were none as strangers are summoned and someone’s killing. Ooh, the killer’s one of us. Who’s it going to be? You know

Laci (00:28:44):

Every inch of my body. The strangest thing is my boss was there and then we’re sexist, so we’re like, “Yeah, a boss with a dick.” The

Matt (00:28:53):

Only kind.

Laci (00:28:54):

Right. The strangest thing was my doctor’s in there. That’s definitely a man, doctor.

Matt (00:29:01):

Jonathan Lin ends up being the writer and director. John Landis drops out, but we’ll get to that. Jonathan Lin was a star in England because he had created the hit and critically acclaimed British sitcom, Yes Minista in the early ’80s. He would go on to direct My Cousin Vinny and previous episode, The Whole Nine Yards. Fuck yes

Laci (00:29:20):

Again. That was

Matt (00:29:20):

Episode 101, I believe, January of 2024. You

Laci (00:29:24):

Got me. But he

Matt (00:29:25):

Had not yet broken into Hollywood and John Landis approached him. Oh, John Landis approaches duck. Don’t get on a helicopter.

Speaker 3 (00:29:34):

This

Matt (00:29:34):

Was a huge chance for Jonathan Lynn. So Landis comes up to him and he’s like, “Here’s what we have for Clue.” I don’t know if he hands him a script or if he just tells his story. Hands

Laci (00:29:47):

Him the board game. “Here’s

Matt (00:29:48):

What we got. There were still a lot of unrelated actions that would’ve been interesting had there been an explanation and a lot of characters who weren’t characters, they were just colors, “says Lynn. “And so I went back to my tell room and phoned my agent and said, “This is a total waste of time. Why don’t I come home now?” And he said, “Well, now you’re there. Why don’t you just try and think of something?” I stayed up half the night and sort of had a few tentative ideas, and I went in to see John the next morning and mentioned them. He got very excited about it, and by the time we’d had the second conversation, he said, “Would I like to write it?” Over the next six months, Lin worked on the script back home in England, sorting out how to craft a reasonably coherent story out of all the elements of the board game he was required to include, the color-based character names, the murder, the murder weapons, the lad pipe, the candlestick, the tagger, et cetera, the multi-roomed mansion, the secret passages.

Matt (00:30:34):

While Lin says he actually enjoyed the intellectual challenge of his mandate for the script, he still found himself at a loss for how to properly explain what he was attempting to write to his friends. “They just looked at me as if I was mad, “he says with a chuckle. They just didn’t know quite how to respond, and frankly, neither did I.

Laci (00:30:49):

Oh, I ever heard of an NDA asshole? Why are you telling everybody about the fucking movie?

Matt (00:30:53):

Yeah. Why are you violating your NDA, Jonathan Lee? No wonder Hollywood said sayonara to you. Landis’ big idea, as I said, is four separate endings. We’ll print four different movies,

Laci (00:31:04):

Basically. So he’s the blame for the flop of the situation.

Matt (00:31:08):

Yep.

Laci (00:31:09):

Just fucking pick an ending, man.

Matt (00:31:11):

And we will ship these four different prints to different theaters. Perhaps it was Landis’ final mandate that kept all those other writers at bay, create four separate endings, each of which posited a different killer or killers, each of which had to make sense with the rest of the movie, and each of which would play in separate theaters, thereby giving audiences a different experience each time they’d seen the film.

Laci (00:31:30):

If your fucking big idea is a gimmick, especially if it’s one that’s going to make more money for the. Oh, that’ll get people to go see it twice. Stop. Stop what you’re doing and fucking start over. You are going to piss people off. I don’t care what the gimmick is or why it would get me into the theater. If it’s not because the movie’s amazing, really fuck you.

Matt (00:31:50):

It really is stupid. I mean –

Laci (00:31:52):

Fucking Wall Street. Yes, it is definitely. This is the 80s, right?

Matt (00:31:55):

Oh yeah. And he’s-

Laci (00:31:56):

He’s just fucking licking bull balls.

Matt (00:31:58):

That’s the kind of guy he was. But at least it is in keeping with the spirit of the game or the spirit of board games.

Laci (00:32:06):

I love that. No, you could still just show it the way that I watched it last night. Yes. And then it still feels like the board game and that’s funny and that’s kind of interesting and it doesn’t piss me off.

Matt (00:32:19):

Yeah. And I’ll get to Roger Ebert’s negative review where he says

Laci (00:32:22):

Exactly

Matt (00:32:22):

That. He said, “Why didn’t they just put all the endings in the same. It doesn’t make sense.”

Laci (00:32:28):

Well, wait, how did they do it when they went to video? Did four different versions?

Matt (00:32:32):

No, what we see today is what was released on home video.

Laci (00:32:35):

Okay.

Matt (00:32:35):

“Landis though it would be really great box office,” says Lynn, who ended up scotching the fourth ending during production because he didn’t think it was strong enough. “He thought that what would happen was that people having enjoyed the film so much would then go back and pay again and see the other endings. In reality, what happened is that the audience decided they didn’t know which ending to go to, so they didn’t go at all.” They

Laci (00:32:55):

Didn’t know which ending to go to. How could you even know which cinema was showing which ending? They

Matt (00:33:01):

Would say like, “We’re playing Clue B or Clue C or something like that. I have a

Laci (00:33:06):

Trailer.” I love Clue C.

Matt (00:33:08):

Here, this is one of the trailers.

Laci (00:33:10):

Fucked.

Speaker 4 (00:33:12):

In the hall, lounge, dining room, kitchen, library, or the study. To make a long story short. Or did the but clue do it? We’ve got to find out. Clue. It’s a comedy with three different endings. Who done it? Depends on where you see it. Redded PG.

Matt (00:33:28):

Clue, the movie we dare you to solve starts Friday.

Laci (00:33:33):

It’s interactive, it’s creative, it’s that, but it feels like a McDonald’s commercial asking me to scratch a fucking Monopoly thing off my fries. It doesn’t feel like it’s even taking itself seriously. If it was easy to write three endings to this movie, it makes the movie sound disposable. It makes the movie sound like you don’t even care what will you take away from the movie. And you’re fucking writers and directors. They don’t see that like, oh, that makes it seem like that sounds hard. It sounds like disposable, all of it. They don’t even care what you think when you walk away. Then it must not be worth watching.

Matt (00:34:10):

I feel like we figured out movies. We don’t need 3D glasses. We don’t need other shit.

Laci (00:34:14):

We don’t

Matt (00:34:14):

Need our seats to shake.

Laci (00:34:16):

Right.

Matt (00:34:17):

We don’t need water sprayed at us.

Laci (00:34:18):

And if they were trying to get adults to come and not make this seem like a game, like a kids thing, like something silly, but this isn’t how to do it. It seems like kids would already be attracted to the movie. It’s a board game. You need now to get adults to come and want to bring their kids. Now you just made it seem fucking silly.

Matt (00:34:38):

And you did kind of make a sexy adult comedy, even though the

Laci (00:34:41):

Audience

Matt (00:34:42):

Is kids who watched it on TV because there’s nothing like –

Laci (00:34:46):

This whole movie acts like boobs from space. All of them are just like, “How are these boobs boobs right now? Let’s all look at them.”

Matt (00:34:54):

Yeah, that’s good. Boobs are a good thing. I like boobs in movies.

Laci (00:34:58):

I don’t feel like they treated the boobs well in the movie. I feel like they were shocked and in horror of the boobies or felt entitled to the boobies. Those are the only two things.

Matt (00:35:07):

No, they’re all having fun. They’re all having a good time. The actors are all having a good time. The characters all like having a good time with their boobs. Yeah. Laci, you just said adults are not going to. They’re going to see that trailer and think, “Oh, this is not for an adult then. This is a game to play or this is a McDonald’s gimmick. That’s some bullshit. I don’t need to go see this.”

Laci (00:35:27):

And if they have three different versions, then they probably don’t care about any one of them. So why should I care about any one of them? They just don’t sell it enough as like, “This was hard to do.” They make it seem like something very easy and throw away. People are already going to be like, “Oh, well this is a cash grab. This is just a known property and you guys are just trying to capitalize on it.” And then they fucking lean a little too far in and then it’s like, “Okay, you guys really didn’t care about this property when it’s way better than the commercial makes it seem.”

Matt (00:36:00):

It’s at this point that John Landis, the guy who says we have to do four endings, he drops out. He’s no longer going to direct it. He directs Spies Like Us instead. And so Jonathan Land, first time director, gets to direct the movie. He said, “Of course, anyone who’s a theater director would like to be a film director.” He had been a theater director. I didn’t have an ambition to direct something like Clue, but when somebody offers you a movie to direct, by and large, you say yes. If it’s the first time you’ve had such an offer, it may be the last time. He decided to set the movie in New England in 1954, drawing heavily from his friendship with screenwriters who’d been blacklisted during the McCarthy era. Those daft color-based names were now pseudonyms for Washington DC types who were being blackmailed at the height of McCarthy’s power.

Matt (00:36:40):

I had to find a way to make sense of a situation in which there were a whole lot of people with obviously false names. I knew all about McCarthyism because I had friends much older than me who’d been involved in it. That was the period of American history that I knew most about. Smart.

Matt (00:36:53):

So the most important role in the movie is an original creation to the movie Wadsworth the Butler. He’s not in the board game, but this is going to be our anchor character.

Laci (00:37:03):

He’s basically the instructions.

Matt (00:37:05):

He kind of is, he’s the rules.

Laci (00:37:07):

Andy Rules.

Matt (00:37:08):

Jonathan Lynn targets Rowan Atkinson to play –

Laci (00:37:12):

Who’s that?

Matt (00:37:13):

Wadsworth, that’s Mr. Bean, a superstar in Britain, but not known in America quite yet. They don’t get Atkinson, so Jonathan Lynn instead turns to his old friend, Tim Curry. They had gone to Evil British Boarding School together, and at that point he was best known for Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Laci (00:37:32):

Had it come out?

Matt (00:37:33):

No, that was five years in the future. Otherwise, the main actors were pretty much all of Lynn’s first choices. “At that moment in their careers, these actors were either exciting up and coming comedic talents or already well-established and respected comedy veterans.” Christopher Lloyd said, “It was a hardcore group of real actors who had a lot of work behind them. I felt like kind of a beginner. I was just hoping I could hold up my part well enough to blend in.” But I mean, he’d been on Taxi forever. He was in One Floor of the Cuckoo’s Nest. He was a very established actor, but I guess he always had that imposter syndrome, even Christopher Lloyd. There was one hiccup though, their person they cast to play Mrs. Scarlet was Laci’s favorite actress, Carrie Fisher.

Laci (00:38:18):

Fucking snooze alert.

Matt (00:38:21):

Who you like in everything other than Star Wars.

Laci (00:38:23):

I know, but then you fucking trigger me and put a Star Wars picture up and I instantly want to take a nap.

Matt (00:38:29):

And it’s just Carrie Fisher from Star Wars. I think in Empire Strikes Back, you liked her. She’s got a little more. You’re insane.

Laci (00:38:36):

She’s. You’re insane.

Matt (00:38:38):

“A week before rehearsals were supposed to start, however, Lynn got a call. Fisher was in rehab. I was very naive,” Lynn says his eyes wide. “I didn’t know what she was talking about. When I met her at a restaurant, she had actually fallen over a chair, but I just though she was shortsighted or something. She sniffed a lot and she said she had hay fever, which of course I believed. But even Lynn knew enough to be skeptical when Fisher said she still really wanted to do the movie. She said,” Oh yeah, they’ll let me out during the day and I’ll just come back at night.

Laci (00:39:05):

“Oh, fucking shit. That’s interesting.

Matt (00:39:08):

And I though, really? So I asked producer Deborah Hill and Deborah said,” Yes, that sounds right. “I think Deborah was also on cocaine, but I didn’t know that. Then it was put to Dawn Steele, a Paramount executive, and she didn’t have a problem with it. I didn’t know that everyone in Hollywood was snorting cocaine. I was really naive. They weren’t doing that in Hampstead where I lived.

Laci (00:39:26):

Okay, but if you’re doing it enough that you need to go to rehab, you’re doing too much.

Matt (00:39:31):

Then the insurance company got involved and said,” Absolutely not. What are you thinking? “Which surprised everybody but me. It’s just cocaine.

Laci (00:39:39):

Right. And

Matt (00:39:40):

All these Hollywood sickos are like,” Come on, man. It’s just cocaine and we

Laci (00:39:43):

Are not going to – It’s

Matt (00:39:44):

Not. You

Laci (00:39:45):

Don’t fall over her chair because of cocaine. She’s balancing it out with a whole bunch of other shit. That’s the problem. Cocaine is just the base drug that makes out all the other drugs fun. That’s the problem with cocaine.

Matt (00:39:55):

Really?

Laci (00:39:56):

Yeah.

Matt (00:39:56):

So you take other drugs and then you take

Laci (00:39:58):

Cocaine? It’s a very complimentary drug.

Matt (00:40:01):

Okay.

Laci (00:40:01):

Especially with drinking.

Matt (00:40:02):

It’s like salt. It unlocks the flavor of everything, as you taught me during our cooking lessons. So the role ends up with Leslie Ann Warren, fresh off an Oscar nomination for Victoria. This is a great cast. Always when I look at the poster and whenever I see Madeline Kahn styled like that, I always think that’s Johnny Depp from a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. And then I always forget that that’s Michael McKean until he starts talking. He does not look like Michael McKean with the glasses for whatever reason.

Laci (00:40:32):

But the two redheads that are in this movie, the one’s the mustache and then Mr. Green or whatever, they reserve the same place in my head. They are the same person to me. I don’t even remember exactly where I know them from except for I know them from everything.

Matt (00:40:49):

Which one’s Mr. Green?

Laci (00:40:50):

Well, the one that’s pretending to be gay and he’s actually the FBI guy.

Matt (00:40:55):

That’s Michael McKean. This is Spinal Tap, that’s Laverne

Laci (00:40:58):

Shirley,

Matt (00:40:59):

That’s Chuck.

Laci (00:41:00):

He’s in everything. He’s in everything. Chuck

Matt (00:41:02):

McGill from Better Cross All.

Laci (00:41:03):

But he also kind of takes up the spot in my head of the guy with the mustache. Who’s the mustache guy?

Matt (00:41:09):

Martin Mull.

Laci (00:41:10):

Right. What is he in? What am I thinking of? Oh

Matt (00:41:12):

Boy.

Laci (00:41:14):

Is it Prom Child? Is that what I’m thinking of?

Matt (00:41:18):

I just need to make a note to myself to just take every actor in the movie and look up their entire filmography and figure out what Laci knows them from.

Laci (00:41:25):

Thank you.

Matt (00:41:26):

Roseanne, probably.

Laci (00:41:27):

Roseanne.

Matt (00:41:29):

Who is Leon Carp?

Laci (00:41:30):

The gay man in Roseanne.

Matt (00:41:34):

So he was the gay man in Roseanne. That’s how you know him, Laci.

Laci (00:41:37):

Thanks, Matt. Thank you. But for some reason them in the same movie, I was like same guy, same guy, same guy as we got. Even though they’re ver different men. Yeah, very different. I don’t know, but there’s something about them. They look so similar to each other.

Matt (00:41:49):

And when I look at Leslie and Warren, I just think –

Laci (00:41:52):

I think Susan Sarandon the whole time.

Matt (00:41:54):

From frame to frame, I’m like, Susan Sarandon or Sigourney Weaver. And

Laci (00:41:57):

She

Matt (00:41:57):

Switches back and forth.

Laci (00:41:59):

Yes, yes. And I kept meaning to look her up. And then when I looked her up and she’s not either of them, I’m like, “What the fuck?”

Matt (00:42:05):

So a couple notes on the production. The movie was shot on sound stages in Hollywood. This is just your classic film set. We just built a set and a sound stage.

Laci (00:42:12):

And you can tell it feels smaller than the house should feel. If you were really in a room of a house like that, it wouldn’t. But I still like it. But every time we’re in the foyer, I’m like, “Yeah, this feels big. Thiels right.” Then you go in a room, you’re like, “This is really small,” especially the kitchen, especially the dining room.

Matt (00:42:31):

And Jonathan Lynn, a sitcom guy, and this movie is shot like a sitcom and has sitcom sort of farcical energy, and it has a sitcom set. I think all of that works to the movie’s advantage. There’s some movies that feel like sitcoms, like fucking The Whole Nine Yards, which he also directs where it feels uncomfortably like Matthew Perry’s in a sitcom and everyone else is in a movie. But here, I think the sitcom training, I think, really works. He wanted to evoke your classics Rubaul comedies of the 1930s and 40s. He screened his girl Friday for the entire cast before they commenced filming. “This is Leslie Anne Warren who plays Mrs. Scarlet saying,” He wanted us all to have that cadence, that very clipped quick delivery on our lines. “Adds Colleen Camp, who played Yvette.

Matt (00:43:22):

“I remember Eileen Brennan barked out at the end of the film. Well, you can tell this was before the method. They just talked.” What Lin couldn’t know then was that from that moment, his cast fell into an easy, buoyant camaraderie that rivaled their on-camera hijinx. “I felt so deeply sorry for Jonathan because we were in hysterics the whole time, says Warren. It was like trying to hurt a bunch of puppies. Sometimes you’re in a movie with someone, adds Martin Mull, Colonel Mustard. You say, Oh good, I’m going to be with so-and-so in this film. Then you find out that of the 32 scenes you have, four of them are with that person and nothing else. In this case, we were always all together and it just made it so much more fun. That

Laci (00:43:56):

Sounds so fun. That really does.

Matt (00:43:59):

Now what he did not allow, what he had no time

Laci (00:44:03):

For

Matt (00:44:04):

Was improvisation. He

Laci (00:44:06):

Carefully

Matt (00:44:06):

Scripted every single line and pause

Laci (00:44:10):

In

Matt (00:44:10):

This movie.

Laci (00:44:12):

What a thing to do with a big bunch of comedic actors. I mean, I guess you got to keep it tight because it’s got to end up making sense to the ending.

Matt (00:44:21):

And there’s some writers who are like, the Coen brothers don’t allow any, you do not deviate one syllable from what we wrote. There is however one notable exception and that is Madeline Kahn, probably the biggest star in the movie at the time, Oscar nominee

Laci (00:44:34):

From – Is that Ms. Peacock?

Matt (00:44:36):

Yeah, from. Wait, no, no.

Laci (00:44:40):

Madeline Kahn is the one that looks like Charlotte’ Webb. No, James the Giant Peach. She looks like the spider, exactly like the Spider.

Matt (00:44:49):

This one. Yeah.

Laci (00:44:51):

What’s

Matt (00:44:51):

Her character’s name?

Laci (00:44:52):

Scarlet, right?

Matt (00:44:53):

No, this is Mrs. Scarlett.

Laci (00:44:55):

Oh, Ms. White.

Matt (00:44:56):

Okay.

Laci (00:44:57):

Because she’s wearing all black. But wait, but what is she famous for?

Matt (00:45:00):

Blazing Saddles.

Laci (00:45:02):

She got

Matt (00:45:02):

An Oscar nomination for Blazing Saddles, and she’s in Mel Brooks movies and all kinds of stuff.

Laci (00:45:06):

So was the instruction to them to, “You are this. This is your archetype. Lean so heavy into this.” Because they all seem like they’re doing a dialed up to 11 performance.

Matt (00:45:18):

Yeah. It’s just you still have to say the lines that are on the page.

Laci (00:45:21):

No, but I’m asking a different question. You said that they screened My Girl Friday. Is that one of the things is like this is a type of woman. You know this type of woman. Now play that up huge because I mean, there’s a lot of business with Ms. Scarlet. She’s just all thrust, just uh-huh. And she goes back and forth between like, “I’m a sex kitten. Don’t you touch me. I’m a sex kitten. Look at Buster.”

Matt (00:45:50):

Oh, certainly, certainly. Yes. Now specifically what you’re talking about there – Hot,

Laci (00:45:53):

Cold, hot,

Matt (00:45:54):

Cold. I was watching His Girl Friday and trying to find a good 30-second clip. The problem is it’s like that’s a movie that sort of builds and builds and builds, but it’s one of the most famous screwball comedies for just the extremely fast-paced dialogue that they’re just throwing back and forth at each other. And like the one says they’re just talking loud at each other, but that’s why it’s so beautiful. And so they wanted that cadence and all these quips seem very natural in the environment they’re in. Madeline Kahn did have one improvised moment that they decided we got to keep this in. And for many people, it is the best moment in the movie.

Laci (00:46:32):

Oh, I love that. I already know what it is.

Speaker 4 (00:46:35):

That’s why you killed him too.

Speaker 3 (00:46:38):

Yes. Yes, I did it. I killed Yvette. I hated her so much. It flames. Flames on the side of my face. Breathing, breath, heaving breaths, heaving.

Speaker 4 (00:46:58):

But while we were in the billiard room –

Laci (00:47:00):

That is the best part. Yes.

Matt (00:47:02):

It’s the best part of the movie, and it does feel like it’s from a different movie.

Laci (00:47:05):

Yes. It’s like that part in Marty Supreme when the fucking actual billionaire from Shark Tank says that I’m a vampire. I’m thousand years old. Oh wow. Oh, that’s great. And it’s like, what?

Matt (00:47:18):

Maybe he is.

Laci (00:47:19):

Maybe he is. But it was an improv and it was like, “Wow. Okay. I get goosebumps here.”

Matt (00:47:26):

Yeah, I loved that.

Laci (00:47:28):

It’s like a mask slip. Okay. If they all know that they’re under strict orders to not improvise, but they keep improvising.

Matt (00:47:36):

She’s like, “I’m Madeline Kahn. What you going to do?” And they’re like, “Ah, we got to keep that. That’s too good.”

Laci (00:47:40):

But you got to wonder what other people were trying and they’re like, “Stop doing that.

Matt (00:47:45):

The

Laci (00:47:46):

Script.”

Matt (00:47:47):

Movie gets released with three different gimmick endings. Roger Ebert at the time gave it two stars out of four, and he wrote, “Clue is a comedy who done it that is being distributed with three different endings, which is sort of silly since it doesn’t make the slightest bit of difference who did it. That makes the movie a lot like the board game, which inspired it, where it didn’t make any difference either since you could always play another game. The way Paramount is handling its multiple endings is ingenious. They’re playing each of the endings in a third of the theaters where the movie is booked. If this were a better movie, that might mean you’d have to drive all over town and buy three tickets to see all the endings. With Clue though, one ending is more than enough. I know because as a practicing movie critic, I got to see all three endings, which involved manic explanations by the butler who reconstructs the crimes while everybody races around the mansion and down secret passageways.” That’s great.

Matt (00:48:29):

That’s incredible.

Laci (00:48:30):

Yeah, that’s when like, “Holy shit, Tim Curry.”

Matt (00:48:34):

But everybody else too, but

Laci (00:48:36):

He’s throwing himself around. Right. I mean, but as soon as that part starts, you’re like, “And this is why you’re in this role, Jesus. No one can do this.”

Matt (00:48:43):

Yes.

Laci (00:48:43):

Mr. Bean could never.

Matt (00:48:47):

And just every time we talk about Tim Curry, we remark on no one can smile evilly like him, even though this character isn’t evil, but.

Laci (00:48:54):

He just settles into the skin of whatever he is. And when he’s supposed to be the unassuming butler, you’re just like, “Yeah, he’s pretty unassuming.” And then all of a sudden he fucking gets all this energy and like, “Whoa.” And then at the end you’re like, “You’re the bad guy.” And he just like, “You are cool.” He embodies exactly what he’s supposed to be like that. It’s very stage acting. It’s very. I don’t know. He’s just on.

Matt (00:49:19):

Yeah. And he was a classically trained theater actor. Yep. Did all this and doing it all full frame, no cuts, just running into walls and stuff.

Laci (00:49:28):

And that is what is important about theater acting. There are no cuts. You just go. And if something is a mess up, most people don’t know. You just keep going. That’s the whole thing.

Matt (00:49:40):

Have a lovely day.

Laci (00:49:43):

We love you.

Matt (00:49:45):

Ebert writes, “My obligation now is to tell you which of the three endings you should try to see, but that will be harder than it sounds.”

Laci (00:49:50):

He shouldn’t do that. He’s going to.

Matt (00:49:53):

At the time, the job of the movie critic was like, “You want advice on how to spend your hard-earned dollars at the Cineplex. Which one should you see? I’m going to tell you, I was informed that the newspaper ads for the movie will contain the letters A, B, or C, denoting which ending is being shown at which theater. I was then told which ending each of those three letters stands for. On the basis of my information, ending A is the one to go for, more fun, more satisfying. But then at the last minute, Paramount called back to say they weren’t sure whether they were right about which endings corresponded with which letters.

Laci (00:50:23):

He would say, give me one, two, three, A, B, C. What the fuck?

Matt (00:50:26):

Here’s my suggestion. Since this movie is so short anyway, why doesn’t the studio abandon the ridiculous multiple ending scheme and to show all three endings at every theater, it would be more fun that way.” And that is exactly what they ended up doing on home video. And to this day, and again, it’s a board game, so of course it makes sense. Now here’s a different ending. Now here’s a different end.

Laci (00:50:44):

I mean, it always made sense. Just when you start with a gimmick, trying to get people to do something they didn’t want to do on their own, you have already fucked yourself.

Matt (00:50:55):

I mean, I think it’s to this movie’s credit that I think that part of it is more like a neat bit of trivia. It’s like, did you know in theaters? Because

Laci (00:51:05):

As we

Matt (00:51:05):

Keep finding with these movies that live on on home video, they’re totally removed from their original release context. Okay. Movie failed at the box office. Did not do good, did bad, but it gets released on home video with all three endings stitched together. “For Lynn, it is clear that the subject of the multiple endings still touches a nerve, especially the decision to release the film with the three endings split up into different theaters.” He says, “It was a big mistake to release it with three separate endings because you only get the pleasure out of the different endings if you see them all.” He’s right. Yes. It’s funny to see the things that recur and the things that are slightly different in each ending.

Laci (00:51:44):

And the last one is the most satisfying because everyone’s just a little bit guilty.

Matt (00:51:48):

And literally the last shot of the movie being like, “This happened.”That’s so fucking funny, but that’s only effective because you’re so exhausted by

Laci (00:51:58):

All of this

Matt (00:51:58):

Now.

Laci (00:51:59):

Right. What is the last scene of the movie if it’s. Yeah.

Matt (00:52:03):

It’s like the chandelier falling in the first

Laci (00:52:05):

One

Matt (00:52:06):

And then they’re all outside and I don’t know, Firecracker goes off or something.

Matt (00:52:13):

Like so many of these movies, these cult classics we cover, it gets played on TV because it’s like, “Oh, this is cheap programming. Now cable TV’s a thing. There’s 200 channels and we need stuff to put on it.” And then kids are just at home and they’re like, “Oh, okay. I’ll watch this weird movie a million times.” John Landis says about the movie’s legacy, “Box office success is wonderful and that’s what everyone wants. But as we all know, lots of shitty movies are huge hits and lots of great movies fail.” Peter Bogdanovich famously said, “The only true test of a movie is time. That’s the best thing about movies. They still exist.” But we always point out that the directors themselves never seem that. We said it last week. They’re like, “This was a traumatic moment for me. Even 35 years later, I’m still like, I’m happy everyone likes it now.

Matt (00:53:00):

But for me, my only association with this movie is, Oh, I though my career was over.”

Laci (00:53:04):

And it could have been because for Don, it was. And they’re the one handling the bag. If you don’t make it back right away, no one wants to sit through a bomb just to hope the video sales are better. So what good are you?

Matt (00:53:23):

Right. And John Landis, he didn’t end up directing it for one thing, but even if he had, it’d be like, “Whatever. I’ve got an Eddie Murphy comedy coming next year.

Laci (00:53:29):

I’ll be fine.” So for you to start for this, and that was essentially Dunn’s beginning. I can’t think of his first name right now.

Matt (00:53:37):

Griffin Dunn,

Laci (00:53:37):

Director

Matt (00:53:37):

Of Practical Magic.

Laci (00:53:39):

Just one movie under his belt and then doing that one, that fucking sucks. That’s a short run. I mean, I’d say you need at least five for anyone to trust you.

Matt (00:53:49):

And I think that about done. So Clue, that’s the history of Clue. Again, check out that oral history if you’re interested in learning more. It’s great. It’s one of the better oral histories I’ve read. And also tell me if you. We always put the sources in the description and links and everything. And if you’re interested, maybe I’ll make a website or a page on our website, oneweekrental.com, where I just put all of our sources or all the oral histories in one place.

Laci (00:54:13):

I think putting oral out there is the best thing to do.

Matt (00:54:16):

I agree. Laci, I agree.

Laci (00:54:18):

Y can’t say the word oral without

Matt (00:54:21):

Me

Laci (00:54:21):

Saying it.

Matt (00:54:23):

30. Laci and I are now going to retire for the evening to the ballroom in the billiards room to re-watch the movie, but you’ll hear from us again in 10 seconds having freshly re-watched the movie. We’ll talk to you

Laci (00:54:34):

Then.Because we’re going to use a secret passageway, so it makes us come back real fast.

Matt (00:54:51):

All right. So Clue or Clue Do. Actually, it’s only known as Clue. This movie is not Kludo in Britain. I bet they were so confused about that, but they figured it. They figured it out eventually. Yeah. Now we meet Tim Curry, goes up to this mansion, right?

Laci (00:55:10):

And it’s already kind of odd because he seems at once very comfortable there and like he’s given dogs meat for the very first time. It’s already off in his performances because you don’t know what his relationship is to this place, but you assume he knows it well, though he seems like he’s bribing the dogs for the first time.

Matt (00:55:34):

Right. And the ending suggests he can be one of three things. He can be a fed, he can be the murderer, or he can be the normal butler. So he has to perform the whole time that it’s reasonable that I could be any of those three things. And that’s kind of everybody has to be all. So just be ambiguous the entire time.

Laci (00:55:54):

Yeah. Everyone’s a little shifty. Everyone’s a little mean. Everyone’s a little horny. He’s the only one that’s not horny ever, ever, but he is talking about a dead wife. So I guess he reads gay. They need to give him a dead wife so he can talk about it because everyone knows he’s straight.

Matt (00:56:10):

Very, very sad about that dead wife too. Gets real choked up talking about her.

Laci (00:56:15):

Super sad. And I still don’t totally know what the dogs. It’s just a lot of business with the dogs right up front. And you’re like, “What is this doing?” Only time it ever comes into play is when someone’s like, “I’ll just break this window and the dog’s there.” But it’s like that’s where the dogs live anyway.

Matt (00:56:32):

The dogs as an obstacle is a very funny cartoon like, “Oh

Laci (00:56:35):

Fuck,

Matt (00:56:36):

That’s why we can’t go outside. The mean dogs. No.” But I also think –

Laci (00:56:41):

Dan’s a step in shit.

Matt (00:56:42):

He steps in the shit, and I think he then tries to get rid of it. And every person, when they then talk to him, when they first meet him, they sniff.

Laci (00:56:49):

He smells of shit.

Matt (00:56:50):

Yeah. His story’s shit. And everybody in this movie’s hiding something. Your story’s full of shit. Yeah. It’s very subtle. It’s quality filmmaking. So steps into the house and a 50s bop is playing on the radio.

Laci (00:57:04):

And boy, am I happy to hear it? Oh

Matt (00:57:06):

Yeah.

Laci (00:57:06):

I’m like, “Oh, that’s Spooky Mansion.” No, it’s not. No, it’s not. It is classic rock and roll that is very popular at the time, but I am immediately suspicious that the maid is not French because she’s listening to American music. Not that she’d be listening to French music, but she’s really into it like an American is.

Matt (00:57:29):

Now, but in 1954, I don’t even know if rock and roll was mainstream.

Laci (00:57:35):

So anyway, I think the movie’s telling you right away – Something’s up with her. Is she from.

Matt (00:57:41):

If you watch movies from the mid – 50s, it’s funny. If you watch Rebel Without a Cause and James Dean, who’s playing this for all time archetypal, troubled teen, but all the tough teens, the music they listen to, it’s right before rock and roll, so it’s still like. Wait,

Laci (00:57:58):

That is rock

Matt (00:57:59):

And roll. I know. Imagine pre-rock and roll. It’s jazz and stuff. I can’t even – They listen to fucking swing music as these tough greasers are on a hill and they’re about to

Laci (00:58:09):

Rumble. Yeah. God, what did anyone rage to?

Matt (00:58:11):

Tim Curry goes in to talk to the cook and she’s branching a big old knife. Oh no, with a knife.

Laci (00:58:16):

She’s scary right away.

Matt (00:58:17):

Yeah. And the score even tells you. And she’s watching on TV the Army McCarthy hearings. So let’s get to Matt’s history corner. Okay people. I thought we already fucking did this. The United States Army had a feud with Joseph McCarthy. Do you know Joseph McCarthy standing at R, Wisconsin, a big crusader against communist? I’d say, “You’re a communist.” No, I’m not. Oh yeah.

Laci (00:58:41):

Who had an argument with him? The commiss? The

Matt (00:58:43):

Army. The

Laci (00:58:44):

Army. No, not the commies. The army. And this

Matt (00:58:46):

Became a huge scandal. Listen to here was the scandal. The army accused McCarthy and his right-hand man, Roy Cohn.

Laci (00:58:55):

Oh.

Matt (00:58:56):

Hey. That Roy Cohn, yes. Trump. Of trying to promote a McCarthy ally to higher positions in the army. This took up front page news, water law coverage for months and months and months.

Laci (00:59:07):

Impropriety. Tits out and someone trying to get a leg up and using politics to do so. What? And

Matt (00:59:13):

This is the thing that led to McCarthy’s downfall where people are like, “I’ve had enough of that McCarthy.” Wait,

Laci (00:59:18):

But McCarthyism, is that not referring to a stance and a way of thinking about communism, not about being a crook, right? When people say McCarthyism, they’re talking about people who don’t like communists.

Matt (00:59:32):

Yes.

Laci (00:59:34):

Not people who are going to try to get a favor. That’s not McCarthyism. See what I’m saying?

Matt (00:59:39):

McCarthyism refers to the suspicion, the air of suspicion, the air of accusation and anti-communist hysteria.

Laci (00:59:46):

So what you’re saying is, “I win.”

Matt (00:59:48):

Anyway, they’re watching that on TV. But remember, communism is a red herring. And in fact,

Laci (00:59:55):

The TV – And that’s also the gag, red. Yeah.

Matt (00:59:57):

And Tim Curry delivers it like that. Red. All right.

Laci (01:00:02):

And all I see is it’s mouth. He’s going to haunt our fucking fears.

Matt (01:00:08):

First guest to arrive is Martin Mull as Colonel Mustard. And Tim Curry explains like, “All right, you’re Colonel Mustard. Don’t use your actual name. We’re all using aliases, right? My employer insists you all use aliases, this

Laci (01:00:22):

Guy.” I’m nervous right away because I feel like before saying hi, I’d be like, “You did mustard. Don’t tell me.”

Matt (01:00:31):

Do you think you’d do a good job of remembering not to

Laci (01:00:34):

Say your

Matt (01:00:34):

Name? No.

Laci (01:00:36):

I mean, except for on this podcast, I don’t really usually speak of myself in the third person, but I do on this podcast sometimes. So I think it’d be fine. Laci

Matt (01:00:46):

Has a point to make.

Laci (01:00:47):

Oh, I’m just calling something very lacy. That’s so raven like that. So I think in just conversation, yeah, I’d do a pretty good job. I’d have a hard time. You know what though? You’ve gotten the bad habit out of me of referring to proper nouns as though everyone in the room should know who the fuck I’m talking about. Instead of saying sully, I should say my kid in polite conversation, otherwise I’m an asshole. So I think I’d do a good job on accident.

Matt (01:01:18):

One time Laci referred to herself in the third person in a sincere and angry moment was when my brother was staying with us and you had cooked chicken.

Laci (01:01:29):

Now

Matt (01:01:29):

What do

Laci (01:01:30):

You always

Matt (01:01:30):

Say?

Laci (01:01:30):

Laci likes cold meat.

Matt (01:01:32):

Yeah. And then my brother ate all of it and you were so mad and you screamed at him, Laci likes cold meat.

Laci (01:01:38):

I meant it.

Matt (01:01:39):

Yeah.

Laci (01:01:40):

And then I put a sign on the refrigerator that said such. It helped everyone. It’d

Matt (01:01:45):

Be nice if you could just make the meat cold. Madeline Conn –

Laci (01:01:50):

I like it hot too, but I don’t like it re-hot.

Matt (01:01:53):

Madeline Kahn, as Mrs. White arrives, she received a letter. They all get letters, suspicious letters, got to use an alias. What are we doing here? She exchanges a look with Yvette. Look, I’m not going to explain every single one of the incredibly minute, confusing details of this plot. And I like that the movie calls out that all of this is very confusing and overwhelming. But the movie, the plot, I definitely had way more of a handle on it watching it the second time in two days. But as I was taking notes, I was like, wait a minute, I’m going to point out every single thing so she recognizes Yvette, but we don’t know why she recognizes Yvette.

Laci (01:02:30):

But then

Matt (01:02:31):

Mrs. Peacock arrives.

Laci (01:02:32):

That’s the experience of watching the movie. I don’t know that you. Yeah, we need overwhelming arching themes here.

Matt (01:02:39):

Yeah.

Laci (01:02:40):

Baskets of interesting choices rather than each choice, I think.

Matt (01:02:44):

We got our six guests. We got Ms. Scarlet, Mr.

Laci (01:02:49):

Who’s got our pussy and hyperdrive. And she’s got the most amazing coat. And maybe she’s why I think of this movie as a Halloween movie.

Matt (01:02:58):

I don’t know.Because

Laci (01:02:59):

It’s a spooky castle, it’s raining and she’s got this death becomes her fucking.

Matt (01:03:05):

Yeah. And I think she’s the one playing it the most kind of theatrical or the most scammy.

Laci (01:03:10):

Which is hard to do in the presence of Tim Curry, but yes, she’s very saloon owner, like come on down and see me sometime. Hey, mitts off me. Want to fuck? Hey, get out of here, you can. Give me some money.

Matt (01:03:25):

And it’s the kind of movie where you can do that, but this guy was a sitcom director and the line deliveries are all very sitcom and that’s fine, but he also shoots it like it’s a sitcom where the cameras – Like

Laci (01:03:37):

On all of them?

Matt (01:03:38):

Yeah. Long, long takes, full body in frame, everybody. And so these actors will say a one-liner and then have to get their face back to neutral and you watch them do it because it’s not going to cut onto another actor now.

Laci (01:03:52):

Oh, right, right, right. I need to pretend I’m in a conversation for reels right now and everyone can see. It’s more stage acting.

Matt (01:04:00):

But sitcom, I mean, sitcoms are kind of

Laci (01:04:03):

Plays. Yeah,

Laci (01:04:04):

It’s a play in that you got to. And you have a live studio audience, so I mean it is much closer to theater. Yeah. I never thought about how similar to theater it is because yeah, in theater, our kid is in it, and I volunteer as everyone knows. You are constantly being told by the director, okay, we can see you. Even if you don’t have a line, and especially if you don’t have a line, always be making choices. Make a choice, make a choice. Even if you’re an ensemble character, decide your backstory, go with that choice the whole time because someone’s going to notice.

Matt (01:04:40):

Right. And in a sitcom, you’re filming with three cameras so you can edit and they can like,

Laci (01:04:44):

Here’s what you

Matt (01:04:45):

Need to be looking at, but you are kind of also playing it for the live audience and playing it to three different cameras means I need to give the performance with my entire body. It’s just

Laci (01:04:54):

Something you

Matt (01:04:54):

Start to notice when you’re so used to movies being filmed with whoever’s the one talking is the one that the camera’s on.

Laci (01:05:02):

Oh, you’re right. That

Matt (01:05:03):

When they make their joke and the camera stays on them, then the actor has to just get back to

Laci (01:05:07):

Neutral. You’re right. This movie did give me that uneasy feeling of I feel them performing. I know that they’re performing well, but it’s the same reason I don’t love stage plays. I feel all of it too much. I like how film makes me focus on one person at a time and some of it’s secondhand embarrassment, not that any of them are doing anything embarrassing, but for live theater it is that or just fear of something going wrong. But I think the easier answer is just being overloaded. I don’t know where to look. That might be why this movie isn’t one of my movie. Really, it could be that simple because it’s not like this movie doesn’t have everything else I like, but just to be able to be more settled and not on edge, I think it does help when films show me where to look.

Matt (01:06:06):

Yeah. And this is a guy who’s directing a movie for the first time and he knows how to, again, direct sitcoms and this is such a Mel Brooks-y

Laci (01:06:15):

Movie,

Matt (01:06:16):

But it isn’t filmed like a Mel Brooks movie until the final 30 minutes when it’s getting very frantic and the camera’s struggling to keep up with the actors. And that’s where I think it really shines and where I think he shines as a director. Until then, I’m not saying it’s bad, I’m just saying you kind of wish there was somebody who knew what to do with the camera a little better than he does.

Laci (01:06:34):

Well, and the set production, it’s really good. I don’t know how much of a budget they had, but each room is. Although it’s smaller than the scale seems wrong, maybe because watching movies like Saltburn and well, I mean a ton of things where they’re actually in a mansion, you’re used to all that vastness. But anyway, I love the. That’s all you really have to hold onto in the game. All the players are visible the whole time on the board. All the rooms are visible the whole time on the board. So that hallway is really important and they spend a lot of time in the hallway where you can just kind of see all the rooms. And I felt like if it’s not intentional, it was a favor to them that that is what I thought they were doing, making sure I could see all the characters on the board and making sure I could understand, oh, they’re going from the kitchen to the aviary.

Laci (01:07:31):

Oh, okay. Oh, seek passage. In my head, I’m trying to remember how the game works.

Matt (01:07:36):

Yeah. I mean, it does a good job with all of that. It does a good job of making you understand the space. They all gather in the dining room for this dinner where they slurp soup.

Laci (01:07:48):

Why are they eating? And monkey brains. It’s ew. Ew.

Matt (01:07:55):

They’re proud of that joke. They say it to you three times at the end of the movie.

Laci (01:07:59):

Well, I mean, and yes, everyone catches the, oh, this is my favorite recipe. Bitch, how do you know that this isn’t your favorite dish made? Why even

Matt (01:08:08):

Say it like that?

Laci (01:08:08):

Who says that? I know. Okay. But yeah, it adds to the uneasiness of people know people here that they aren’t saying they know and vice versa. Other people are aware of who someone is, even though that person’s not clocking them back.

Matt (01:08:27):

Some of them seem to recognize others though.

Laci (01:08:30):

They’re being cagier than what makes sense.

Matt (01:08:32):

Madeline Kahn says, they ask her, “What does your husband do?” Oh, nothing. He just lies on his back all day. And then later we’ll find out because he’s dead. No, he’s dead in the coffin in her house where he still is.

Laci (01:08:47):

I mean, no matter what ending though, we do find out she murders lots of people. They pretty much tell you that.

Matt (01:08:55):

They do?

Laci (01:08:56):

Yeah. I mean, it’s implied whole time that she’s a Black widow. She’s dressed as a Black widow and she pretty much. Yeah, she admits it.

Matt (01:09:03):

I don’t consider that murder.

Laci (01:09:05):

Oh, as long as you’re married?

Matt (01:09:07):

Yeah, if you’re married, you can do it. And it works both ways. It’s gender neutral. Oh,

Laci (01:09:11):

That’s nice.

Matt (01:09:12):

Christopher Lloyd is there. He’s a shrink. He tells Mrs. Peacock, “You have a problem with awkward silences. You have what we call pressure of speech, and I’m a doctor, but I don’t practice anymore.” And then Ms. Scarlet says, “I find men need a lot of practice. Hey, Mrs. Peacock.” So he works with a WHO at the UN. Everyone in fact sort of has a government job or lives and works in proximity to government jobs. It’s kind of unexpected how much political intrigue there is in the Clue movie. The doorbell rings and it’s Mr. Body, and we hear him talking to Tim Curry, and there’s a foreboding closeup of each one of the people, each one of the guests as they hear him talking. And what does this mean? It could mean anything. And

Laci (01:09:53):

His weird name, it’s just so they can make the who’s on first jokes later, right? Nobody.

Matt (01:09:58):

It’s also in Clue. There’s who –

Laci (01:10:01):

There’s Mr. Body? No,

Matt (01:10:02):

But someone is dead, so there’s the body, the dead body. He’s the body. He is played by Lee Ving, who is the singer of the punk band Fear.

Laci (01:10:11):

Okay. And

Matt (01:10:12):

Was in the movie at Paramount’s insistence. And he does kind of suck.He’s kind of a non-actor,

Laci (01:10:15):

Even though

Matt (01:10:16):

This guy was in other stuff.

Laci (01:10:17):

Oh, he’s the weakest part of the whole movie.

Matt (01:10:20):

Yeah. So Tim Curry comes in and he reads a letter because everybody here has been assembled because Mr. Body is going to be bringing an end to longstanding confidential financial liability and everyone received a letter and then now we got to relocate to the study for coffee and brandy, at which point our mysterious host will make his intentions known.

Laci (01:10:44):

Just truly, why did we need the dinner? The dinner’s so unnecessary.

Matt (01:10:49):

But this is following Agatha Christie’s and then there were none. And obviously not just that book, but

Laci (01:10:55):

That’s

Matt (01:10:55):

One of the prototypical mysteries.

Laci (01:10:57):

Okay. All of them are there and nervous. All of them were compelled enough by the letter to go to something dangerous. They’re immediately suspicious, but it’s almost like an exercise in how much can we get away with because people are polite. It would be impolite if we didn’t go eat this dinner. It’d be impolite if I didn’t have some of this shark fin soup and then a brandy and then a. I don’t know. Well,

Matt (01:11:24):

I always say, if someone wants to come get me, someone wants to come kill me, all they have to do is knock on the door and I’ll be like, “Come in. What am I going to do?

Laci (01:11:32):

Don’t

Matt (01:11:32):

Come in.” Not come

Laci (01:11:33):

In.That’s

Matt (01:11:33):

Why that moment in Girl With a Dragon tattoo is so scary. You could have just left, but you were polite and I said, “Hey, you want to come in?” And you knew I was the murderer, but you were like, “Yeah, I’ll come in.”

Laci (01:11:44):

Otherwise, he was just going to chase her. But yeah, I know what you mean.

Matt (01:11:47):

So all the doors and windows are locked. You’re all locked in here with me, fuckers, and you can’t go out the windows because there’s spooky dogs outside and you don’t want to have to deal with them. They’re all being blackmailed by someone who threatens to expose their dark secrets. So we got Christopher Lloyd, medical license suspended for having sex with a patient.

Laci (01:12:06):

For taking advantage of a patient, that’s different. An

Matt (01:12:09):

Affair, he says. Yeah,

Laci (01:12:11):

But then they later say that he’s taking his privileges. You see the way he is with the cook’s ass. He’s all over that ass.

Matt (01:12:18):

Yeah. Well, and with Ms. Scarlett when they’ve just met one minute prior. Just met, just honked their butt. Yeah. Does that work? I don’t know. It must have worked because he keeps doing it.

Laci (01:12:30):

A volume shooter.

Matt (01:12:31):

Mrs. Peacock has been hiding her senator husband. He’s getting bribed, so she’s got to hide that. But

Laci (01:12:37):

It turns out she’s crooked, not him. That part I didn’t follow.

Matt (01:12:40):

Only in one of the.

Laci (01:12:42):

Or

Matt (01:12:42):

No, two of them.

Laci (01:12:43):

No,

Matt (01:12:44):

One of the.

Laci (01:12:45):

No.

Matt (01:12:45):

Ah. So in one of the endings. It

Laci (01:12:48):

Doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter. If you don’t have a definitive, don’t worry about it.

Matt (01:12:54):

Ms. Scarlet’s being blackmailed for running a bottle classic.

Laci (01:12:58):

I just though that I could yell like her, so I wanted to try, but I don’t think I can. She’s got a unique grading laugh. And I wanted to also say about the commercial you played, that they started off with that kind of. It’s a bit blood curdling. It’s not pleasant. And it is a bit horror feeling that. I think they set the tone all wrong with what kind of movie Clue is.

Matt (01:13:22):

Now the audio I played started halfway through.

Laci (01:13:25):

Oh, well that is important information. Okay. Which one

Matt (01:13:28):

Are you talking about? Who has the blood curdling scream?

Laci (01:13:30):

Ms. Peacock, and she screams a lot.

Matt (01:13:33):

She does. She’s very funny. I think the second time I watched it, I was really keying in on how funny she is. They’re all funny. What am I talking about? Madeline Kahn?

Laci (01:13:42):

She’s my favorite of the women.

Matt (01:13:44):

Is Peacock? Madeline Kahn, you killed your husband. And he’s like, “But he was deranged, a lunatic. He threatened to kill me in public.” Why would he want to kill you in public? I think he threatened in public to kill you. Yeah, yeah. There’s a lot of that. There’s a lot of that. And Michael McKean confesses to everybody, “I am a homosexual and I work for the State Department. I feel no shame about this.” And then he sits down next to Christopher Lloyd, who’s like, “Oh, whoa.”

Laci (01:14:09):

Also pretty convenient for them to be having a nice position on this whenever they reveal at the end that he’s straight as hell and he’s very shot, whatever. That’s only in

Matt (01:14:19):

One of the endings.

Laci (01:14:21):

The other two

Matt (01:14:21):

Endings, he’s still gay.

Laci (01:14:23):

I take the third inning to be the real one. They

Matt (01:14:26):

Tell you it’s the real one.

Laci (01:14:27):

They say it’s the real one. But he’s not performing it. It’s real.

Matt (01:14:30):

The way they’re performing it is any of the three endings could be real. I believe I choose to read it as his character is gay except for in one branch universe. But this was a good observation because the State Department and the intelligence agencies in this era were filled with closeted Mormons, just riddled Mormons – Closeted Mormons.

Laci (01:14:51):

Mormons who

Matt (01:14:51):

Were gay. They couldn’t say they were Mormon.

Laci (01:14:53):

And don’t

Matt (01:14:53):

Drink. And they

Laci (01:14:54):

Couldn’t say they don’t drink. Can’t

Matt (01:14:56):

Let you know I’m gay. No, I can’t let you know I’m Mormon. No. They’re closeted homosexuals who also were Mormons and didn’t drink. That was like three attributes of so many spooks from the era.

Laci (01:15:08):

Well, where are you going to put all that rage? Also, you need secrets on other people so that you can have the gay sex and be safe.

Matt (01:15:15):

That’s

Laci (01:15:15):

Safe sex back then. Tell you what. Is

Matt (01:15:18):

Getting secrets, right.

Laci (01:15:19):

Having collateral.

Matt (01:15:21):

So Mr. Body, he’s the blackmailer. Colonel Mustard’s going to attack him, but then Mr. Boddy, three Stooges styles, bonks him in the eye. And then Tim Curry’s like, “The police are coming. I called the police. They’re coming in 45 minutes. So we got a ticking clock on this movie and it kind of takes place in real time.” Right. And there’s sort of a prisoner’s dilemma of like, “Well, if you all band together and tell the cops as one what this guy’s doing, they’ll take him away and you won’t be blackmailed anymore, but then your secrets will be revealed. Oh no.”

Laci (01:15:48):

But I don’t agree that the secrets would have to be revealed in order for them to say what was happening, but yeah, okay.

Matt (01:15:54):

Well, there’d be an indictment. There’d be court proceedings. They’d have to go on the record. They’d have to testify, all of that. That’s

Laci (01:16:00):

The beauty of blackmail. We should blackmail people.

Matt (01:16:02):

Mr. Body opens his suitcase and he’s got six presents, each containing one of the clue weapons. And they’re all like, “Oh my God, a wrench, some rope.” They’re

Laci (01:16:12):

Not like, “Oh my God.” They’re like, “What the fuck?” A lead

Matt (01:16:14):

Pipe. And then one of them has a gun and they’re like, “That’s right, six lethal weapons.” And it’s like, “Well, one of these is a lot scarier than

Laci (01:16:21):

The others, frankly.” Yeah, the knife are also scary.

Matt (01:16:23):

Okay. But a gun raises the stakes.

Laci (01:16:27):

I have no faith in myself that I could pick up a gun and use it. So I mean, it depends on the room. Also, I don’t think there is a logical reason why Mr. Body’s giving these things out. He’s got no motive to hand out these things. It’s just they needed to hand out these things, right? I

Matt (01:16:49):

Fucking –

Laci (01:16:49):

His plot makes no sense to be handing out gifts of this kind.

Matt (01:16:55):

Why would he want

Laci (01:16:55):

To

Matt (01:16:56):

Entice them? Let me think. Hold on. What is his role? So he was. And what’s hard is I can’t remember is, is it just in one of the endings where he works for Tim Curry, he’s Tim Curry’s butler, and

Laci (01:17:08):

He’s doing this

Matt (01:17:09):

Because Tim Curry’s the killer? Right.

Laci (01:17:11):

He’s pretending to be whatever it is Tim Curry is telling him to do and be because this is going to get the thing the real boss wants to happen. Yeah, I guess that’s the only. I’m at a disadvantage, but I guess that’s the only reason he would be providing weapons when he. If he’s who they say he is initially, he should feel like those people shouldn’t have weapons because they might use them on him. No,

Matt (01:17:40):

But what he says is Wadsworth, take all the weapons, one of you kill Wadsworth and your problems go

Laci (01:17:47):

Away. Oh, right, right. Okay. And

Matt (01:17:50):

I’ll turn off the light so we won’t even see who does it. So he turns off the lights, we hear some ruckus and we hear a gunshot. “Turn the light back on and oh no, Mr. Boddy is dead. He’s a body on the floor.” Christopher Lloyd’s like, “Oh, Greg Scott is dead. But I didn’t shoot him. There’s no gunshot anyway.”

Laci (01:18:10):

There’s no blood. So I’m like, “Oh, it’s a heart attack, guys. God’s a heart attack. Everybody, it’s a heart attack. Everyone’s fine.”

Matt (01:18:15):

Well, there’s an explanation. Oh, the gunshot. Somebody tried to get the gun from me in the dark and it went off by accident. Then Ms. Peacock is freaking out and so she goes to get a drink of brandy and then somebody’s

Laci (01:18:24):

Like – Yeah, but they already proved that there was no gunshot into the man. It hit the vase and they proved that right away. So I’m thinking the whole time, there’s no blood. He’s fine or he’s faking.

Matt (01:18:34):

You were ahead of that.

Laci (01:18:35):

I was ahead of it. I really. Oh, that in sixth sense. Don’t get me started.

Matt (01:18:42):

Ms. Peacock’s freaking out. She takes a drink of brandy and then somebody’s like, “The brandy could be poisoned.” So then she’s freaking out about this and we hear someone screaming off in the distance. Who is it? It’s Yvette. She was listening in, in the billiards room. Yvette, the French maid, and she heard the thing about the brandy being poisoned and she’s like, “I just drank some of the brandy. That’s why I screamed.”

Laci (01:19:03):

Is a real time movie just hard because you do end up needing to talk about every single thing because it’s in real time.

Matt (01:19:10):

I mean, I think here this is a. I think talky comedies are hard because we can just be like, “And it’s really funny when he says this and then here’s

Laci (01:19:18):

What he says.”

Matt (01:19:19):

And

Laci (01:19:19):

They’re all acting three or four different ways to throw us off the whole time and each other off and to fit the ending. So it is just kind of hard to. What do we focus on here, man? I don’t know. So

Matt (01:19:33):

They’re all getting. His story now changes, Tim Curry. He’s like, “Okay, listen, I’m not the Butler, but I am a Butler. I’m Mr. Body’s Butler. And I wrote the letters in here. I’m going to launch into a very long explanation so everybody get comfy. And he blackmailed my wife because she was associating with socialists and everyone’s disgusted, including him. Yeah. And he’s like,” She made some mistakes. Nobody’s perfect. “But my boss said we had to go testify before the House on American Committees activity, on American Activities Committee, or he’d turn us in unless we paid blackmail. So we ended up having to work for him for free, and I had to be his butler. And to make a long story short, and then Colonel Mustard’s like,” Too light, but he continues to talk, wanted to get everyone here at one time so we could all confront Mr.

Matt (01:20:25):

Boddy at one time and turn him into the police, but now he’s dead. Oh, no. And we’ve only got 39 minutes now to figure out who did it. Maybe it was the cook, but the cook is dead, so now they’re all accusing each other.

Laci (01:20:37):

It’s like a time travel movie where maybe I’m not supposed to really care why who did what and why would anyone do this? And why is the motorist coming and now the cop and everybody’s in on it? Why so complicated, please? Would this actually work? How did anyone not get diarrhea that night? I feel like there’s so many little things that make this plan not work at all, but that’s when I started to go, oh, I bet that doesn’t matter. I better focus in on the wrong thing. Well,

Matt (01:21:05):

What does it mean to matter?

Laci (01:21:09):

It’s like a big master plan, a big grand sweeping gesture to make something right or to make sure you’re safe because you’re the bad guy or to make sure the bad guys act away because you’re the other guys, whichever ending you pick. Or the government thinks all of you are corrupt in some way, and this is our way of proving that too. That really is the one that makes the most fucking sense because who would have time for this bullshit? The FBI.

Matt (01:21:34):

The one that the movie says, and this is what really happened

Laci (01:21:37):

Is,

Matt (01:21:37):

Well, each one of them did kill someone

Laci (01:21:40):

Over the

Matt (01:21:40):

Course of this evening, except for Michael McKean, who’s a secret fed, and he’s going home to fuck his wife. Totally.

Laci (01:21:47):

That is the

Matt (01:21:47):

One that makes sense because as I was watching the movie, I thought it would be really weird. Three endings is almost too few. You need an ending where each one of them

Laci (01:21:55):

Is by

Matt (01:21:55):

Themselves

Laci (01:21:56):

The killer.

Matt (01:21:57):

Because it so doesn’t matter, but if you’re going to have one of them do it, then you kind of need all of them to do it. So Murder on the Orient Express style, sorry to spoil that novel, but that is how that novel ends. It’s actually all of us killed the guy together. We actually are all guilty and that’s the sensible way to end this movie. I

Laci (01:22:16):

Think so. And so my read is who’s got the time and the funds to do this? The deep state. That makes sense to me. Who’s going to come out of this squeaky clean out of everybody? The one person that is the plant. Okay, Mr. Green, got it. We know all of you guys have shady dealings and we’re able to be blackmailed. You’re in the government. It is a liability for you to be able to be blackmailed. We already need you off our payroll. So we need to get all of you committing a crime. We’re accelerationists in this. We’re like, “Let me put the thing in front of you that you’re most worried about being found out, get you to commit a more black and white crime like murder, and then we can just arrest you guys outright and then you’re off the payroll.” Listen, the feds would never

Matt (01:23:00):

Do something like that. What are you talking about? I though

Laci (01:23:02):

You’re going to be so proud of me.

Matt (01:23:04):

Our good men of the. Yeah, of course. Yeah, that’s all they do is like, “Hey, how about you go blow up that building? That’d be fucking…” She wants to suck your dick and says, “If you just blow up the federal building in Oklahoma, that she’ll love you.” And

Laci (01:23:18):

I can’t even believe you ever argued with me that the last inning, it makes the most sense because it’s clearly what that was, big old honeypot, honey trap, trap pot. I

Matt (01:23:28):

Didn’t argue with you. I agree.

Laci (01:23:30):

Oh my God. I think

Matt (01:23:31):

The only disagreement we have, and maybe it’s not even a disagreement. Okay.

Laci (01:23:36):

And when

Matt (01:23:36):

We did the inception episode, we were trying to talk about why do people object to it was all a dream or just the idea that if I’m watching a dream in a movie or a TV show or reading a book where I find out it’s a dream, why do you feel cheated? Because it’s all fictional regardless. Nothing you’re seeing or watching or reading happened anyway. Why is anything more real or less real than anything else? And this movie does have the attitude of none of that matters. It doesn’t matter what happened or who the killer is. Just enjoy the show. And our disagreement, if we have one, is I think all movies are that. Yes.

Laci (01:24:18):

I do think this is an issue of the way my brain works, that the constant to be dyslexic in the spectrum in any kind of way is to constantly be solving puzzles, especially social puzzles, to make sure you get it right, to make sure people aren’t misunderstanding you, to make sure you understand body language and I’m safe because I know what that means. My brain is constantly analyzing these things and to my detriment. So I’m seeking the answer. And when a movie doesn’t have one.

Matt (01:24:54):

But how satisfying do you find the answer?

Laci (01:24:56):

Never. Never satisfied. It just closes the loop. Yeah.

Matt (01:25:02):

But I think most people are looking for that, or at least that’s what they say

Laci (01:25:07):

They want.

Matt (01:25:08):

Yeah. No,

Laci (01:25:08):

I’m not saying I’m special. I’m saying that’s how we’re different is you’re able to just enjoy whatever’s happening on the screen and I can’t wait to find out who the killer is the whole fucking time is how I’m thinking. You weren’t like that. Who’s the killer? I’m never

Matt (01:25:23):

Like that. But I mean –

Laci (01:25:26):

No, it’s stupid. Two

Matt (01:25:28):

Degrees. When I’m watching something like this, I know that that doesn’t matter because I know it’s clue, but murder mysteries are generally kind of like, “Oh, of course it was Colonel Mustard. What does that mean? It doesn’t mean anything. It’s just a name.” So it’s just how is the story told?

Laci (01:25:42):

Am

Matt (01:25:43):

I enjoying seeing what’s happening?

Laci (01:25:45):

Maybe there’s too many people like me that go to the movie theater, and that’s why it bombed. The

Matt (01:25:51):

Problem is the people. We need better audiences. I

Laci (01:25:54):

Think so. They need to get a clue.

Matt (01:25:58):

The joke I remembered the best from whenever it is I saw this movie was the, “Oh, is there a little girl’s room? Oh, wee, madam. Oh no, I just have to powder my nose.” But then, I mean, it really does get Mel Brooksy like Mrs. Peacock is freaking out. She’s going to faint. And Tim Curry’s like, “I’ll catch you, Mrs. Peacock. Fall into my arms. Sorry.” I don’t know. And then they’re like, “Stop shouting, Tim Curry.” He’s like, “I’m not shouting. I’m not shouting. I’m shouting. Fine. I’m shouting.”That’s straight out of – The

Laci (01:26:32):

Producers. Yeah, that’s

Matt (01:26:33):

Gene Wilder could be doing that.

Laci (01:26:35):

I’m hysterical. I’m in hysterics.

Matt (01:26:37):

I’m wet and I’m hysterical. Tim Curry would’ve been great in a Mel Brooks movie. Absolutely. Was he never in one? They take all the weapons. Would there be

Laci (01:26:47):

Room for a Gene Wilder and a Tim Curry? Gene

Matt (01:26:50):

Wilder was only in three Mel Brooks movies, which is very sad. They should have always been making movies together.

Laci (01:26:57):

They didn’t know how little time they had. Wait, did he die old or young? Old. They had time. They had

Matt (01:27:04):

Time. They had

Laci (01:27:05):

Time. That’s

Matt (01:27:06):

What’s sad. That’s what’s

Laci (01:27:07):

Sad.

Matt (01:27:07):

But then I think Mel Brooks also, at a certain point, he wanted to be the star of those movies.

Laci (01:27:11):

I was going to say, yes. Yeah, you have to start finding the people who are a good. They bring out your aromas instead of stealing the show. Sure. But I mean, Mel Brooks is no fucking. Oh,

Matt (01:27:26):

He’s great.

Laci (01:27:26):

There’s no comparison though to Gene Wilder. I mean, that’s not going to do you any good. Is Mel Brooks ever the lead of any of his movies? I thought he’s always just like a popping. Yeah,

Matt (01:27:36):

He’s the lead of high anxiety. He’s the lead of.

Laci (01:27:39):

I mean, you could say he’s the lead

Matt (01:27:40):

Of history of the world. Never

Laci (01:27:41):

Seen it.

Matt (01:27:41):

Yes, we did it with Wade.

Laci (01:27:43):

Saw it. Yeah. Loved it.

Matt (01:27:45):

He’s the on where he keeps saying, “It’s good to be the king.” Do you remember that? Does that sound familiar to you at all? No.

Laci (01:27:51):

No?

Matt (01:27:51):

Okay. Why

Laci (01:27:52):

Say it like that? No.

Matt (01:27:55):

They lock all the weapons in a cabinet. I’ll have the key.

Laci (01:27:59):

Oh God, somebody took the key from me. You’re still doing this on that? Okay. You’re still going through every fucking thing.

Matt (01:28:05):

I love this cop who arrives because he’s the most good-natured cop. He gets locked in a room. Lock you again. He’s like, “Hey, what’s the big idea with you locking me in the room? Come on now. Come on.”

Laci (01:28:18):

Also, I can’t imagine just a standalone loose cop like this being this brave. There’s no way a cop shows up to a place like this, doesn’t immediately call for backup. You’re not just walking in and demanding the truth. You’re outnumbered as fuck in the middle of nowhere. Rich neighborhood, but

Matt (01:28:34):

Yeah. Very naive. But of course he is on the payroll of Ms. Scarlet, I believe. True. In one of the endings, but I

Laci (01:28:40):

Don’t know if

Matt (01:28:40):

That’s –

Laci (01:28:40):

Right. But she is dead in frame because she’s like. She’s like, “Everyone can’t be seen in the doorway. She’s the most noticeable one that’s not right in front.” I just remember because she’s mouthing something to him the whole time that’s incoherent with what the guy in front’s saying, the guy who wants to confess.

Matt (01:29:01):

It is fun. I mean, this is kind of a multiverse movie because you have to keep track of all of these strands and be like, “So in this version, Ms. Scarlett is trafficking in secrets espionage. She’s kind of an amateur spy, and then in this version she’s not.” And

Laci (01:29:16):

Also is she kind of a lesbian because the way. I mean, I know it’s a misdirect, but when Yvette, that’s her name, goes into the room where she’s going to get killed, “They know every inch of my body and so do you.” She says it sexually. Yeah, but

Matt (01:29:33):

Then she screams, “Oh no, it’s you.” So whoever she thought she was saying that to turns out to not be who she’s saying that to, and then she gets murdered.

Laci (01:29:43):

Curious.

Matt (01:29:46):

I do really like this movie though. I don’t know. I don’t

Laci (01:29:49):

Know. That cop’s

Matt (01:29:50):

Very funny and he’s like, “I need to see this house.” And Michael Keen’s like, “But it might shock you.” And then he goes and looks in every room and they’re just – These

Laci (01:29:56):

Are just people having a good time. He’s

Matt (01:29:58):

Making out with the corpse. And he’s like, “It’s Not all that shocking. As the life would be a dream. And I was definitely, I was thinking of Ready or Not, which I just saw for the first time of record player playing throughout the house and you going through this big scary mansion looking for

Laci (01:30:16):

Stuff. Oh, Ready or Not. I’m like, Ready Player One? We’ve seen it many times or twice. Got it. Yes. Also, I was a little like, oh. I mean, they go full corpse kiss and just really. I know he hasn’t been dead that long, but I mean, Scarlett’s really making out with that guy on the lips hard.

Matt (01:30:41):

You wouldn’t? I don’t know. That’s a person. That’s still a person.

Laci (01:30:47):

Brigamor just set in.

Matt (01:30:49):

Has it? Then this telegram arrives. I am you singing Telegram and then just shot

Laci (01:30:54):

Dead. One

Matt (01:30:56):

Of the funniest moments in the movie. Yes.

Laci (01:30:59):

After

Matt (01:30:59):

All this happens, there’s 30 minutes left in the movie and Tim Curry’s like, “All right, fine. I know who the murderer is. Now I’m going to tell you all how it happened.” And it’s just him walking through the events of the movie you just watched. It’s kind of like Tenet. Now it’s going backwards through the movie you just watched at hyper speed. He’s running manically around the house and they’re all chasing him and he’s talking so fucking fast.

Laci (01:31:20):

I’d like to know how many takes.

Matt (01:31:22):

And when you watch it, if you have headphones in, you will notice how much ADR there is. And of course there has to be because he’s fucking dying, I’m sure, of being out of breath. So of course this is all recorded afterward, all the dialogue that

Laci (01:31:35):

He’s

Matt (01:31:36):

Screaming as he’s running full speed throughout the house.

Laci (01:31:39):

Oh, well, I mean, it’s pretty good ADR because it doesn’t take me out of it while I’m watching.

Matt (01:31:44):

Yeah. So we go through the three different endings of the movie. They start to really involve political intrigue and the fusion bomb, all these Nolan connections we didn’t

Laci (01:31:54):

Realize

Matt (01:31:55):

We’d be facing. You’re working on the H-bomb. Teller’s designs were always impractical, but maybe Colonel Mustard’s not so

Laci (01:32:02):

Impractical. Colonel Mustard gas.

Matt (01:32:04):

That’s why they call him that. I do enjoy Mrs. Peacock, my favorite moment of hers is she’s freaking out. The doorbell rings again and it’s a Bible guy and he’s like, “Have you heard the good word about Jesus?” And she just goes, “What?” And then she’s like, “Get out of here, you beat Nick.” And slams the door.

Laci (01:32:24):

Polite society used to be able to be like that to Christians. Can you imagine this before they had the in God we trust on the fucking money? You could just be like that.

Matt (01:32:32):

Sure.

Laci (01:32:33):

You just be normal to a weird guy.

Matt (01:32:35):

Yeah. You just slam the fucking door in their face.

Laci (01:32:38):

Beat Nick.

Matt (01:32:39):

So I think that where we’ve landed is we don’t have any time for any beatniks. Get the three different endings. Communism was a red herring. Whoever has the gun on their person is the killer. We get to see the three different times. The FBI’s going to cover all of this up. Why do you think it’s run by a man called Hoover? Because it sucks up all the mess.

Laci (01:33:06):

Got him.

Matt (01:33:07):

And the final ending of the movie has Michael McKean being the only one who’s not a murderer. And he’s like, all right everybody, cop friends come in.

Laci (01:33:17):

But that’s because he’s a plant.

Matt (01:33:19):

A plant? I though they called men like you a fruit.

Laci (01:33:22):

That’s a good slur.

Matt (01:33:24):

But he gets to correct her. I’m going to go home and fuck my wife and then shit. Sitcom freeze frame ending and I love it. I think it’s great.

Laci (01:33:35):

To give you a freeze frame ending that you love is a hard thing to do. Sure. So I am glad. This is a knowing freeze frame though. That’s why it works. You don’t love say a legend of Billy Jean freeze frame. That is probably the most awkward out of nowhere one because it ends with them finally getting to go to Aspen where the brother wants to go the whole time. Oh, that is

Matt (01:33:59):

So fucking

Laci (01:34:00):

Weird. It’s already a weird coda. They don’t need it. It already ended fine. We don’t need to see them being fine in Aspen. And then he’s just like – Vermont,

Matt (01:34:10):

Not Aspen.

Laci (01:34:10):

Oh yeah, right. But it’s snowing and he’s going to go snowboarding and he’s just saying something like, “I didn’t know it was going to be so cold freeze frame. Teens, am I right?

Matt (01:34:23):

You

Laci (01:34:23):

Said that. No matter what you do for him.”

Matt (01:34:25):

And I was thinking, what the fuck is she talking about? It’s so cool. It’s like on the beach and there’s a bonfire

Laci (01:34:30):

And it’s perfect. That’s an amazing ending, right? And then it’s like Vermont.

Matt (01:34:35):

What’s up with all this? Yeah.

Laci (01:34:38):

So they did get to do their life after this movie? We got it. Got it. Anyway, not a good freeze frame, man.

Matt (01:34:50):

But Clue has a good freeze frame. I mean, the final line before he says, I’m going to go fuck my wife, he tells the cop, if you’re wondering who killed Mr. Body, I did, in the hall with the revolver. Now, the movie does have the challenge of in Clue, you’re supposed to find out also where did the murder take place?

Laci (01:35:06):

Yeah.

Matt (01:35:07):

So how can a murder take place without us seeing that a murder has taken place? So the question of where, I think it’s kind of ingenious to –

Laci (01:35:15):

I’m telling you, from tits to tail, they weave in good ways of reminding you of the game. It’s not forced.

Matt (01:35:24):

Yeah. The Dungeons & Dragons movie that came out a few years ago was a pretty good movie. I don’t think you saw it.

Laci (01:35:31):

But you don’t know Dungeons & Dragons,

Matt (01:35:34):

Right? I don’t. But the conceit of that movie is you’re kind of watching a dramatization of someone’s Dungeons & Dragons game. So there will be weird things that kind of don’t make sense. And I think it accomplished that, at least for me as somebody who knows nothing about any of this. Okay.

Laci (01:35:50):

So Roblox, Minecraft, Dungeons & Dragons, those are all great examples of properties where you can tell any story because you can have any kind of campaign with Dungeons & Dragons. The whole thing is that you have a story, I don’t know what he’s called. Shit, not story master. A person that comes up with the story that you’re living. All the dice do and your characters, you develop your characters so that you know what the dice do to your character. And then the whole thing is just, well, this is the story I’ve already laid out. The dice tell you how well you’re going to do at each different moment in the story, which is really cool. So you can literally tell any story of Dungeons and Dragons. And there are specific characters that exist within this realm. So you do pick within just like, what is it?

Laci (01:36:41):

Russia that’s got 4,000 approved haircuts. What is that?

Matt (01:36:46):

I don’t know.

Laci (01:36:46):

Was that you? Is Germany? No, it’s fucking Denmark. Denmark has approved haircuts. Anything beyond that. I think it’s Denmark. Anything beyond that and you have to get it approved, but it’s like thousands, so it’s not really a big deal. I

Matt (01:37:07):

Heard that about Germany and names.

Laci (01:37:10):

Yeah, that’s true about names too. But the haircuts one I’m telling you. Hold on. No, no, maybe it is names. Maybe I’m confusing North Korea with that because both of them seem funny, but they definitely have the names one. I though it was Denmark though. Isn’t Denmark nice and you can do stuff there? Yeah. Nice stuff. Yeah.

Matt (01:37:31):

In North Korea, only 28 hairstyles are –

Laci (01:37:34):

I knew it was just a few.

Matt (01:37:35):

Permitted.

Laci (01:37:36):

So is it Denmark?

Matt (01:37:37):

Now you love Minecraft, but you said you would never see the Minecraft movie.

Laci (01:37:42):

I didn’t say I would never. I wanted to know if it was good before it wasted nice. It’s just

Matt (01:37:46):

Going back on

Laci (01:37:46):

Big populations. People liked it. I don’t know. No, they didn’t. Then I’m not going to see it.

Matt (01:38:07):

So Clue, I give four stars. I liked it a lot. I think it’s a very good comedy. I think it would be even better if Melbrooks directed it, but what wouldn’t?

Laci (01:38:13):

I think I gave it four stars too. I can’t remember. I just letterboxed it. Do you know? No, I don’t know. Doesn’t matter. I think it was four.

Matt (01:38:19):

Great.

Laci (01:38:19):

Four or four and a half. All

Matt (01:38:20):

Right. All that’s fine. We have a crisis on our hand.

Laci (01:38:24):

Oh God, what?

Matt (01:38:26):

We need an episode for next week. What

Laci (01:38:28):

Are we going

Matt (01:38:28):

To cover? Let’s do our

Laci (01:38:29):

Cousin Vinny.

Matt (01:38:31):

No. Here’s what I would really like to cover.

Laci (01:38:34):

Oh, well, it doesn’t sound like as much of a crisis.

Matt (01:38:37):

No.

Laci (01:38:37):

Okay.

Matt (01:38:39):

Because we were maybe going to do a social network episode. We’re not doing that. No. It’s a time with the release of the new movie, but the new movie’s not coming out until October. In October, we’re doing spooky scary movies.

Laci (01:38:48):

Yeah.

Matt (01:38:49):

And I’m very excited about that, but we need to do one more

Laci (01:38:51):

Non-spooky scary movie. One more. Well, I want to do Muriel’s wedding. Are we just kicking that out of bed?

Matt (01:38:56):

I

Laci (01:38:56):

Feel like our lady movies do well.

Matt (01:38:58):

Yeah, but we will do that in the future. Okay, fine. Muriel’s wedding is one option. A movie I’d really like to do, a very Brady sequel. Ew,

Laci (01:39:07):

That sounds so gory. Not just the Brady Bunch

Matt (01:39:09):

Movie. I want to do

Laci (01:39:10):

The sequel. Yeah, no, that would be the one I would choose too.

Matt (01:39:13):

And there is a very good

Laci (01:39:14):

Oral history. Oh no.

Matt (01:39:15):

So a lot of this is

Laci (01:39:16):

Just

Matt (01:39:17):

What are their good resources

Laci (01:39:18):

That I can

Matt (01:39:19):

Use to do a history segment?

Laci (01:39:20):

You’ve got to do the heavy lifting.

Matt (01:39:23):

I was also thinking I’ve never seen Garden State.

Laci (01:39:27):

I’m kind of

Matt (01:39:27):

Curious about that.

Laci (01:39:28):

That’s Kim’s favorite movie. So it was like a stepchild movie to me in that, okay, that’s one of my movies too then. Although I didn’t love it as much as she did, but I did like it. And that was Natalie Portman before she was on Natalie Portmanini.

Matt (01:39:44):

She was very Natalie Portmany by that point. What are you talking about?

Laci (01:39:47):

I don’t like this disagreement.

Matt (01:39:49):

All right. So the choices are a very

Laci (01:39:52):

Brady

Matt (01:39:52):

Sequel, Muriel’s wedding. Garden Stone.

Laci (01:39:58):

Let’s do very Brady Sequel. I feel like defending my life from fucking Garden Steel.

Matt (01:40:02):

But that means we also have to watch Brady Bunch movie just to get the context so we can understand. Okay. Stay tuned next week for a very Brady sequel. Follow us on Letterboxd. I’m Matt Stokes nine. Laci is. Load Bearing Lacy. Yeah. My band is called Rural Route Nine. We have our music on the internet. You can find it there. Follow us on all the social medias. Subscribe to patreonpatreon.com/oneweekrental. And I look forward to talking about those Brady

Laci (01:40:29):

Kids. Yeah. Okay. I love you. Goodbye.