Movie Time With Tim Curry

 A few weeks ago, actor Tim Curry passed away. While thinking of ideas for our movie night, Andrea suggested we catch up on a couple of Tim's movies.

So this week it's Movie Time with Tim Curry! 

First up on the Tim Curry retrospective is Muppet Treasure Island (1996), a musical adaption of the classic book by Robert Louis Stevenson.  

Muppets? Musical numbers? Just the way Mr. Stevenson envisioned it, I'm sure.  

Jim Hawkins is a young orphan who lives and works in an inn in England with his best friends, Rizzo and Gonzo. 

• Rizzo is a rat.
• Gonzo is a...  a...  Gonzo is Gonzo.

Jim comes into possession of a map that leads to the buried treasure of the notorious pirate Captain Flint. Narrowly escaping from a band of marauding pirates, Jim, Rizzo and Gonzo seek a ship to help them go in search of the treasure.

The trio enlist on the Hispaniola as cabin boys. The ship is commanded by Captain Abraham Smollett, (Kermit the Frog) and his strict first mate, Mr. Samuel Arrow (Sam Eagle). 

• Kermit is a frog.
• Sam is an eagle.

Jim befriends the ship's cook,  Long John Silver.

• Long John Silver is a Tim Curry.

But Long John is not to be trusted.  He's a pirate as is most of the crew. Long John is out to get Capt. Flint's buried treasure.

Long story made short: Long John and his crew take over the Hispanola and steal Jim's map. They make way for the island get the treasure for Tim Curry's big musical moment.  

Smollett, Gonzo, and Rizzo land on the island to rescue Jim but they are  captured by the native tribe of pigs, where Smollett reunites with his former lover, and the pigs’ queen, Benjamina "Mina" Gunn.

• "Mina" is a pig.

This is getting complicated.

Longer story made shorter: Jim gets free, regains control of the Hispanola, there's a big sword fight and the pirates are defeated. Arrrh! It all be in good fun, matey! 

But Long John Silver still tries to bugger off with the treasure but winds up marooned on the island.  

Muppet Treasure Island is a fun energetic movie with a lot of bad puns, in jokes, anachronisms and meta-aware 4th wall breaking.  

Since this post is for Tim Curry, let's say a few words about his Long John Silver.  The old pirate can be sinister and foreboding as needed but he can also be warm and charming. Curry develops a character who can be appealing as a friend and confidant to Jim Hawkins.  In turn, Long John does display genuine empathy and concern for the young lad.  

Ultimately, Tim Curry's Long John Silver may be a ruthless scalawag but he's a pirate you can't help but want to like.

FUN FACT:  The Hormel Foods Corporation (the creators of Spam) sued Jim Henson Productions for using the name "Spa'am" for one of the film's tribal pig characters. The judge dismissed their suit on September 22, 1995 after a trial for failure to prove damages, noting, "one might think Hormel would welcome the association with a genuine source of pork."

________________________________

Next up on the Tim Curry film fest is Clue, released in 1985 based on the board game Clue.

It's 1954 and a group of strangers have been summoned to a mysterious, secluded Gothic mansion in New England for a dark and dangerous purpose.  

It's a dark and stormy night....

Upon arrival at the mansion, six people are greeted by the butler Wadsworth and the maid Yvette. Each is assigned a pseudonym to maintain confidentiality: 

• "Colonel Mustard"
• "Mrs. White"
• "Mrs. Peacock"
• "Mr. Green"
• "Professor Plum"
• "Miss Scarlet". 

As the evening transpires we learn that the 6 guests are all connected in some way to the U.S. government.

And that all 6 of them have secrets that if discovered could jeopardize those connections.

They were joined by a 7th guest, Mr. Boddy, who knows all those secrets and has been blackmailing them.  

Suddenly the lights go out, someone screams in the darkness and when the lights come back on, Mr. Boddy is dead.

Murdered!!

Well, of course we can't have a murder mystery without a (ahem!) "Boddy".  

And this is but the first of several murders this fine dark and stormy night. 

The rest of the movie involves the 6 guests along with Wadsworth and Yvette running around and skulking about, accusations and revelations flying as this motley crew endeavor to learn who the real killer is and also avoid being killed.  

The twists and turns in this murderous mayhem are cracy and convoluted but don't worry: there is a solution to these crimes!

OK, there are two solutions.

Or three! Yes, THREE solutions to this malicious night of murder. 

When Clue was first released in theaters, there were three different versions, each with a different ending.

This was regarded by a lot of people as not a good idea.

In subsequent releases on video, cable and streaming, all three resolutions are presented at the end with 2 of them being speculative and the 3rd described as the "real ending".   

There is a lot of great actors on tap to round out our 6 suspects from the board game.  

Eileen Brennan as Mrs. Peacock

Madeline Kahn as Mrs. White

Christopher Lloyd as Professor Plum

Michael McKean as Mr. Green

Martin Mull as Colonel Mustard

Lesley Ann Warren as Miss Scarlet

Among this very talented group, Tim Curry of course stands out as Wadsworth, the butler.  At turns fastidiously formal and also frantically frightened, Curry's Wadsworth ranges from cooly subdued to heatedly overplayed.  

Is Wadsworth (A) the victim of cruel circumstances or (B) is he the secret master manipulator?  

Or (C) all of the above?

The "It's That Person Who Was In That Thing" Department

The Cook is played by Kellye Nakahara who was Nurse Kellye on M*A*S*H.   

In perhaps the movie's fastest and funniest murder, the The Singing Telegram Girl is played by Jane Wiedlin, a founding member of the Go-Go's.  

That stranger at the door asking about your relationship with God is Howard Hesseman, AKA Johnny Fever from WKRP In Cincinatti.  

The "It's That Person Who Was NOT In That Thing" Dept.

• Carrie Fisher (Star Wars) was originally cast to portray Miss Scarlet but withdrew to enter treatment for drug and alcohol addiction.
• Lesley Ann Warren, who was cast to play Mrs. White, took over the role of Miss Scarlett.
• And Madeline Kahn (Blazing Saddles) was brought on for the role of Mrs. White.   

FUN FACT: Mrs. White's monologue over how much she hated Yvette was completely improvised by Madeline Kahn.     

Tim Curry was so perfect as Wadsworth, it's hard to imagine he wasn't the first choice for the role.

Leonard Rossiter was originally cast as the butler but he died before filming commenced. (No, I never heard of Leonard Rossiter. Here's his Wikipedia page of you're inclined to look him up. ) 

Next up, Rowan Atkinson but the studio wanted a bigger name.

So Tim Curry was the producer's 3rd choice? 

Writer/director Jonathan Lynn set up a screening of the classic film His Girl Friday for the cast to get a feel of the rapid fire dialogue he had in mind for Clue.  

Contemporary reviews of Clue did not elevate the film to the high standards of classic Golden Age comedic cinema.  

Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune; "Clue offers a few big laughs early on followed by a lot of characters running around on a treadmill to nowhere."

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times:  "The screenplay is so very, very thin that the actors spend most of their time looking frustrated, as if they'd just been cut off right before they were about to say something interesting". 

Over the decades since it's initial release, Clue has improved on it's reputation as a genuinely funny ensemble piece and is even considered as a brilliant satire on political culture and societal norms.  

To be honest, a lot of Clue is profoundly stupid but it's a good kind of stupid that has a decent chance at making you laugh.

________________________________

How can we do a retrospective of Tim Curry without covering The Rocky Horror Picture Show?  

We already covered that back on October 31, 2021 and you can click here for that post.  

________________________________

Tomorrow we'll have a couple of posts on Star Trek AND Doctor Who.

And on Monday....

BLOG POST