When Knives Out was released in 2019, it was met with widespread enthusiasm by fans of whodunits like Clue. From director and writer Rian Johnson, the ensemble cast is led by Daniel Craig (Benoit Blanc), Ana de Armas (Maria Cabrera), and Christopher Plummer (Harlan Thrombey) as they solve the mystery of how a wealthy novelist, played by Plummer, met his end.
Knives Out was a box office success that spawned a similarly beloved sequel (with another forthcoming). The movie was praised for its performances, unique structure, and overall plot. Johnson was credited for presenting the detective story with humor and intrigue alike. It was not lost on anyone who saw Knives Out that there were heavy influences from movies like Clue and the writings of authors such as Agatha Christie. Johnson said he was especially influenced by the latter when he wrote Knives Out.
Taking a look at the movies that preceded Knives Out and the works that formed its foundation is enjoyable to a point. Watching Clue is a delight, but one movie based on Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile is safe to skip.
‘Clue’ Was One of the First Movies Based on a Board Game
Clue, written by John Landis and Jonathan Lynn, came out in 1985. Also directed by Lynn, Clue’s hilarious ensemble cast featured Eileen Brennan, Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd, Michael McKean, Martin Mull, and Lesley Ann Warren. Like the board game upon which Clue was based, the movie revolved around a murder at a mansion — this time of Mr. Boddy (Lee Ving) — and a group of suspects who could all be guilty of the crime.
As the story unfolds, each of the guests at a mysterious dinner party — their names match those in the game — is joined by outsiders, purportedly without reason. Each one of those visitors is killed, as are the maid, Yvette (Colleen Camp), and the cook. No one knows who’s doing the killing and, as it turns out, even the cast and crew of Clue were kept in the dark during filming.
‘Knives Out’ and ‘Clue’ Both Draw on Predecessors To Tell Their Stories
Director and co-writer Jonathan Lynn was well aware that Clue had a lot in common with Murder by Death (which also starred Eileen Brennan) and Agatha Christie’s book And Then There Were None. For Lynn, creating a different tone for Clue was important:
“My single guiding light was that our film was not to be a parody… ‘Of course, you can’t do a country-house murder mystery totally seriously anymore. But Murder by Death didn’t have a mystery plot that held up, and I wanted this movie to have a stronger plot. The mainspring of the comedy is the terror these people feel, so the terror must seem real.”
One additional tonal element was the timeframe during which Clue took place. Clue was set in the 1950s, and the political subtext of the Cold War is front and center in the movie.
When Clue was released, it was not received favorably. Critics like Roger Ebert found little about it that was “fun” and seemed to resent the multi-ending concept that made up the end of the movie. It wasn’t until years later that Clue developed a cult-like following, driven in part by repeated showings on cable during the 1990s.
Rian Johnson Credited ‘Clue’ and Agatha Christie With Influencing ‘Knives Out’
Clue the movie had an impact on Rian Johnson when he wrote Knives Out, but the game itself was something he thought was “kind of boring.” That said, Johnson knew that Clue was “the reference most people have in their head” for whodunits and, like Clue, he wanted to take that foundation and add his own tone. He told GQ in 2019,
“[Knives Out] kind of cheeky and self-aware, but it’s not a parody of murder mysteries. I need that part. The movie part that I’m excited about. But it doesn’t really click until there’s also something personal I can work with. It’s like two gears clicking together.”
Johnson also grew up reading Agatha Christie novels and recalled watching Death on the Nile and other Hercule Poirot mysteries. Like those, he wanted “an all-star cast” and intended to infuse his Knives Out with an “old-school, entertaining, we’re-putting-on-a-big-show type feel.”
It’s important to note that Johnson was certainly not talking about the 2022 adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile directed by Kenneth Branagh; he was referring to the 1978 movie of the same name. Branagh’s Death on the Nile, which also featured Branagh as Poirot, was his second movie based on a work by Christie, with Murder on the Orient Express as the first in 2017.
The reaction to Death on the Nile was intense. Cast members Gal Gadot, Annette Bening, and Letitia Wright accompanied the likes of Armie Hammer and Russell Brand. Scandals involving Wright, Hammer, and Brand made marketing the movie challenging, at best, and Gadot did the movie no favors with her 2020 singing debacle.
Critics were split, but the negative reactions seemed to drown out the positive ones. The Wall Street Journal’s Joe Morgenstern, for example, remarked it had “pizazz and period style in the same way today’s big-brand toothpastes have flavor – artificial ingredients give them a taste that’s discernible, but too generic to name.”
So stick with Clue for your next whodunit watch, which you can find on MGM+ or Fubo.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
