Flames…
Another October has come and gone <sob>, but we’ll always have the amazing line-up that carried us through the month: Joy Ride, Halloween (2018), Blade, and now our Halloween episode, Clue, featuring the lovely ladies of Good Mourning, Nancy!
The 1985 board game adaptation by UK writer/director Jonathan Lynn takes all of the elements from the classic murder mystery, sprinkles in a now-iconic cast of comedians and ramps up the wordplay, physical pratfalls, and sexual innuendo.
It’s the perfect set-up: invite six strangers to a mansion during a storm, lock the doors, reveal their secrets, and wait for them to pick each other off one by one. Featuring an all-star cast of powerhouse women (Madeline Kahn, Lesley Ann Warren and Eileen Brennan) as well as Tim Curry, the murder mystery/comedy hybrid has all of the expected gags about murder weapons and secret doors but also has surprising bite with its commentary on McCarthyism and the Red & Lavender Scares.
To make a long story short (too late!): Clue is easily the best film adaptation of a board game and one of our favorite comedy films of all time!
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Episode 149 – Clue (1985) feat. Good Mourning, Nancy
The Comedy Queers are in the house! We’re joined by Abbey and Gracie of Good Mourning, Nancy to unpack the hilarity of Jonathan Lynn’s adaptation of Clue (1985) aka one of the best comedies ever made.
We discuss our relationship to the game, Trace goes long on the complicated production history, Abbey equates Miss Scarlet with a particular vegetable, and we each take a go at Madeline Kahn’s famous improvised line.
Plus: a debate about who is the best actor/character, Clue as a “gateway” film for both mystery and comedy, Joe provides historical context for the Red & Lavender Scares and we unpack our complicated feelings about Mr. Green (Michael McKean)’s changing sexual orientation.
Oh, and laughs. LOTS of laughs.
Cross out Clue!
Coming up on Wednesday: We’re celebrating our 150th episode (!!!) with a deep dive into queer director Joel Schumacher’s hit, 1987’s The Lost Boys!
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for tons of additional content! This month, we’ll have episodes on Amazon’s TV version of I Know What You Did Last Summer, the long-delayed Wendigo film Antlers, and the remake of Slumber Party Massacre. Plus: to pair with our episode on Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, we’ll be doing an audio commentary on Paul W.S. Anderson’s 2002 original, Resident Evil!