6 Movies Featuring Butlers, In Honor of Lee Daniels’ THE BUTLER

Movie #4: Board Game Butler – Clue

Year – 1985

When the movie Battleship was released, many jokes were made about how bereft of ideas Hollywood must be if they were turning board games into movies. However, almost thirty years earlier, they had already crossed that line. Admittedly, a game like “Clue” lends itself to a film adaptation.

The film follows the setup of the game – six guests are in a mansion when a murder occurs. The movie adds the characters of a maid and a butler. The butler, played by Tim Curry, has the ability to blackmail all of the guests in attendance. It’s a fast-paced affair that is overtly “wacky”. The cast consists of familiar character actors who rarely get to take a lead (Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd, Michael McKean, Martin Mull). The film is elevated by how much fun the cast is clearly having.

The movie also had an interesting gimmick in that three different endings were filmed. Upon its release, different theaters had different endings; each ending revealing a different murderer. There’s even a fourth ending available in the novelization of the film in which, yes…the butler did it.