Book Review: Clue: The Storybook, adapted by Ann Matthews (1985)

Clue: The Storybook, adapted by Ann Matthews, 1985. (Photo by Mark C. Taylor)

The wonderful cast of Clue. From left to right: Lesley Ann Warren, Martin Mull, Madeline Kahn, Michael McKean, Tim Curry, Christopher Lloyd, and Eileen Brennan.

The 1985 murder mystery comedy Clue is my favorite movie. I wrote an article about it earlier this year. And I just wrote about the novel based on the screenplay. In a similar vein, I’ll discuss Clue: The Storybook, which was adapted by Ann Matthews. Like the novel, it sells for ridiculous prices on Amazon. Clue: The Storybook was published by Little Simon, a division of Simon & Schuster that produces books for children. Considering that the plot of Clue is all about blackmail and contains multiple murders, it might not have been the best candidate for the Little Simon storybook treatment. That being said, I saw Clue at a pretty early age, although not in the theater, and it doesn’t seem to have warped me too much. 

Clue: The Storybook reads like a version of the movie with all of the jokes left out. Some of the content has been edited to make it more acceptable for children. Which means that when in the movie Mr. Green tells everyone that he’s gay, in the Storybook he says: “I work for the state department, and I am engaged in a relationship that I have to keep quiet…sort of an affair.” (p.23) So he’s having “sort of an affair”? That makes zero sense. 

And many of the best parts of the movie just don’t appear. For example, Wadsworth and Colonel Mustard’s great back and forth about whether or not there’s anyone else in the house is skipped over. (“No. Sorry. I said no meaning yes.”) Instead of the elaborate scenes concocted to keep the police officer ignorant of the murders that have occurred, in the Storybook his suspicions are assuaged when Miss Scarlet simply tells him, “We’re having a party.” (p.43) 

The best part of the Storybook is that it’s lavishly illustrated with stills from the movie. The endpapers also give us a nice floorplan of Hill House, which is set up exactly like the game board. 

Clue famously featured three different endings when it was released in theaters, and a fourth ending was filmed, but cut before the movie was released. Like the novel, the Storybook also features the fourth ending. The gist of it is that Wadsworth killed everyone, and then poisoned all of the guests, who will die within three hours if they don’t get an antidote. The police show up, and Wadsworth starts another reenactment of the entire evening, but then steps out the front door and steals a police car. He is then attacked by the police dogs in the back seat. (Presumably, the guests get the antidote in time.) It’s understandable why this ending was cut from the film, but it’s interesting to read. The film of it is apparently lost, since it’s never reappeared on any of the DVDs of the movie. 

Speaking of endings, why isn’t there a “Colonel Mustard did it” ending? There’s a lot of suspicion thrown towards his character during the film, and he’s also connected to two of the victims. But I digress.

The Storybook also features the original version of the “Mrs. Peacock did it” ending, which ends with her getting shot by the Chief. This was changed at some point. But the Storybook has Mrs. Peacock encounter the Chief, who she still thinks is a religious beatnik, outside of the mansion. He persuades her to put her gun down, and then just as she gets to her car she asks, “How did you know my name?” “He laughed. Then he picked up the revolver and shot Mrs. Peacock dead.” (p.54) Yikes! Shooting an unarmed suspect is a pretty harsh end for Mrs. Peacock. The novel has Mrs. Peacock put her gun down, but also makes it clear that she is still alive after she’s arrested by the police. I wonder if Mrs. Peacock’s getting shot is the reason for Mr. Green referring to her in the past tense in this classic exchange:

Wadsworth: “You see, like the Mounties, we always get our man.”

Mr. Green: “Mrs. Peacock was a man??”

(Colonel Mustard and Wadsworth both slap Mr. Green) 

Clue: The Storybook is entertaining for diehard fans of the movie like myself, and it will definitely make you want to watch the movie again, so you can experience it with the jokes.