“Clue” at the Nuart

Damn, it was windy last night. Los Angeles doesn’t have much in the way of weather all that often, but when it does, the weather always serves as a reminder why I moved here in the first place. Waiting in line outside the Nuart for the midnight screening of “Clue,” I was buffeted by heavy winds for a good 45 minutes. It was cold, too, not freezing cold, but cold enough. I really began to question my sanity, putting up with crap weather to see a movie I already own on DVD and have seen twice before at the Nuart in ‘06 and ‘07.

But seeing “Clue” at the Nuart is the thing to do…if you’re into that sort of thing. The theater has been screening the film around Halloween for seven years now with their “Rocky Horror Picture Show” shadow cast, Sins O’ the Flesh, performing the movie live in front of the screen. It’s not exactly an experience you can replicate at home. Considering the screening was sold out, apparently quite a few people dig it.

“Clue” the movie, from what I understand, wasn’t terribly popular when it was originally released. It later found an audience on video and become one of those movies you’re very likely to stumble upon while channel surfing on a Sunday afternoon. Based on the board game, the film is a whodunit set in the mid-’50s, where a colorful cast of characters tries to solve a murder in a Victorian mansion. It’s cleverly written and almost flawlessly acted. Lee Ving as Mr. Boddy isn’t quite on par with the rest of the ensemble, and the shadow cast has a great gag with cue cards during one of Madeline Kahn’s weaker line-readings near the film’s end. Some people take issue with Lesley Ann Warren’s pronunciation of the word “secrets.” As far as I’m concerned, in the dress she’s wearing, she can say it however she wants.

The movie is a modern classic. It’s endlessly quotable; Tim Curry’s Wadsworth, though not a character in the game, manages to steal the film as the butler with an unusual amount of knowledge about how it all happened; and the three endings are also a great sendup of the mechanics of the game with players making suggestions using different characters, rooms and weapons.

At any rate, I think I’ve seen “Clue” enough times at the Nuart. Three is plenty. I can hardly be called clueless.

-Brad Lohan

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