Tim Curry in Clue Was My Queer Icon Before I Even Knew What That Was

There was only one movie I wanted to watch on the day Tim Curry died. Much as I love The Rocky Horror Picture show with its celebration of alterity and sexual liberation, one of the actor’s performances, for me, stands head and shoulders above the rest. I am talking, of course, about 1985’s Clue, the madcap board game adaptation that received middling reviews upon release, failed to make back its budget, and yet somehow went on to become an endlessly quotable and beloved cult comedy.Growing up, Rocky Horror was not exactly available on VHS in my Mormon household, but Clue definitely was, and I rewound and rewatched it more times than I can count. It was also my first introduction to Curry, one of those rare actors who can put you in stitches with a single facial expression. Or a single facial expression that becomes another halfway through before snapping back into place like nothing ever happened.Indeed, there’s a wild, nervy energy he brings to the role of Wadsworth the butler that was unlike anything I had seen to that point, short of a Robin Williams performance. Even the way Curry moves after stepping in dog excrement on the mansion portico in the movie’s opening minutes feels like an entire workshop in physical acting — first, the pause, then the slow shoe check, then a look of sneering disdain at the canine culprit. No moment is too insignificant for him to imbue it with something a little off-kilter — neither too big nor too small, just a hint of the outré. I didn’t know what queerness or camp meant back then, but Clue was planting seeds.With the benefit of hindsight, it’s likely Curry’s performance — along with Madeline Kahn’s legendary turn as Mrs. White, complete with her notoriously improvised “flames on the side of my face” line — that makes Clue even work at all. Subtract Curry’s expert delivery — screwball, but often deadly serious — and the facial expressions he makes when other characters are speaking — like the