Communism Is Just a Red Herring: Deconstructing More Lessons from 'Clue'
The Weekly Rhapsody: MacGuffins and Red Herrings
We’re continuing our theme this week of MacGuffins and Red Herrings by exploring the classic masterpiece of mystery, the movie Clue. Hey, I can’t help that it’s a perfect — and familiar — example of most mystery tropes, and did an exceptionally well-crafted Red Herring! Let’s look at what they did right, and how you can apply it to your own writing.
If you’re unfamiliar with the movie Clue, then stop reading and go watch it. It’s an amazing example of cinematic storytelling with an all-star ensemble cast. And, Tim Curry. However, if you are so captivated by my writing that you simply cannot wait to know what happens, I will share with you this synopsis from the movie’s IMDB page.1
In the movie, the phrase “communism is just a red herring” is used to divert attention from the true motives of the characters. This is a chef’s kiss perfect example of how red herrings can be employed to mislead the audience and create suspense. Let me take you through it.
Understanding Red Herrings
A red herring is a misleading clue or distraction that diverts attention from the real issue or solution. In storytelling, it is used to create suspense and keep the audience guessing. In the movie, the red herring’s structure around communism is also a commentary on the “Red Scare” political climate of the time.
“Communism is just a red herring…”
In Clue, our cherished chromatic characters are blackmailed for various reasons, and the idea of communism is introduced as a potential motive. After all, it’s the ‘50s and “communist” was the original “woke.” However, this idea is merely a distraction from their true motivations.
As the movie goes on, we find out that each of the characters is either tied to — or has had previous ties to — government assets, mostly people in powerful places. It’s all very McCarthy-era when the worst thing you could be was a free-thinking communist.
Character Motivations and Red Herrings
Let’s break down the characters’ true motivations versus their red herring “communist” motivations:
Mrs. Peacock:
True Motivation: She is being blackmailed for accepting bribes in her political role as a senator’s wife.
Red Herring: Her husband’s political connections are used to suggest communist sympathies.
Professor Plum:
True Motivation: He lost his medical license due to inappropriate behavior with patients.
Red Herring: His intellectual background and previous government work hint at communist ties, misleading the audience.
Miss Scarlet:
True Motivation: She is being blackmailed for running an escort service.
Red Herring: Her secretive nature and connections to powerful men are painted as communist espionage.
Colonel Mustard:
True Motivation: He has made his fortune in war profiteering.
Red Herring: His military background and secretive behavior are suggestive of communist involvement.
Mrs. White:
True Motivation: She is suspected of killing her husbands.
Red Herring: Her mysterious past and multiple marriages to powerful men hinted at her role as a communist assassin.
Mr. Green:
True Motivation: He is a closeted homosexual, which was a significant secret during the McCarthy era.
Red Herring: His nervous demeanor and secretive nature would have been seen as hinting at communist activity.2
Key Elements of a Successful Red Herring
Like other elements of mystery and suspense, the successful execution of a red herring depends on a number of things that must be carefully considered.3
Plausibility: The red herring must be believable within the story’s context. If it doesn’t make sense, then your audience will feel cheated by a contrived and too-convenient conclusion.
Distraction: It should divert attention from the true motive or solution. In almost all instances, the motives revealed by the characters tend to be more capitalist, as almost everyone ends up operating for greed.4
Integration: It should be seamlessly woven into the narrative. If you’ve achieved plausibility and distraction, then this should be easy. But it’s also a reminder to make sure that it’s not too obvious. Communism as the red herring works because of the movie’s setting in 1954.
Resolution: The true motive should be revealed in a satisfying manner, showing the red herring for what it is. In each of the movie’s endings, the one who done it ends up delivering the reveal that communism is just a red herring.5
In Conclusion
The use of “communism is just a red herring” in Clue is a masterful example of how this advanced narrative technique can be used to mislead and engage the audience. If you’ve still not seen the movie, then it’s a definite “must watch” in order to understand the subtleties of this technique. By examining the characters’ true motivations versus their presumed “communist” motivations, we can see how red herrings are crafted and employed to create a compelling narrative in our own worlds and stories.
Now go forth, flood the world with your art, and never be satisfied with the freedom to obey!
Coming This Week:
Tomorrow, I’m answering your questions for World-building Wednesday and Ask the Bard! Hit me up in Notes, leave a comment, send me a direct message.
What went wrong: a look at how MacGuffins and Red Herrings have failed, and the lessons we can learn.
New fiction on Fiction Friday, The Graveside Letters of Jolene Williams 03! Catch up here:
Part 01: I Miss You
Part 02: How Are You?
A wrap up and round-up of the week and a NEW game: Quick Six, a series of themed prompts to get you thinking about how to apply MacGuffins and Red Herrings to your own world-building! (This weekend got away from me, but I’ve completed one of my bigger projects and have more time to devote to getting this prepped.)
In 1954, six strangers are invited to a dinner party at Hill House, a secluded mansion in New England. They are met by the butler, Wadsworth, who gives each of them a pseudonym, with none of them knowing or being addressed by their real names. The guests - Colonel Mustard, Mrs. White, Mrs. Peacock, Mr. Green, Professor Plum, and Miss Scarlet - are served by Wadsworth and the maid, Yvette.
During dinner, a seventh guest, Mr. Boddy, arrives. Afterwards, Wadsworth reveals the real reason they are there: Mr. Boddy has been blackmailing the other guests (as well as Wadsworth and his now-dead wife, it is later revealed) for some time now. The group is here to confront him and turn him over to the police.
Mr. Boddy, however, reminds them that if he is arrested, their guilty secrets for which he has been blackmailing them will be exposed. He then gives each of the other guests different weapons as a gift (a candlestick, a dagger, a lead pipe, a revolver, a rope, and a wrench), suggesting that one of them kill Wadsworth instead to avoid exposure and humiliation. When he turns out the lights, a gunshot rings out, and when the lights are turned back on, they find Mr. Boddy apparently dead with no visible trace as to how. Wadsworth then goes on to explain that he was the one who arranged for everyone to meet at the mansion, knowing that Mr. Boddy was blackmailing them. He reveals that his late wife committed suicide as a result of Mr. Boddy's manipulations, which drove him to try and help free them from the same cycle of blackmail by bringing them all together to force a confession out of him and then turn him over to the police. Later, the cook Mrs. Ho is found dead, stabbed with the dagger, and Mr. Boddy's body disappears, only to be rediscovered dead again but with new injuries from the candlestick.
Wadsworth locks the weapons in the cupboard and is about to throw the key out when a stranded motorist arrives and is locked in the lounge. Wadsworth then throws the key out onto the blacktop. Colonel Mustard proposes they split into pairs and search the house to make sure no one else is there. While they are searching, the motorist is killed with the wrench. Mustard and Scarlet find his corpse in the locked lounge and Yvette uses the revolver from the now-unlocked cupboard to break the keyhole. A police officer investigating the motorist's abandoned car arrives and comes inside to use the phone. The guests resume their search of the mansion. The electricity is then turned off. Yvette, the cop, and a singing telegram girl are subsequently murdered with the rope, lead pipe, and revolver, respectively.
Wadsworth and the others regroup after he turns the electricity back on, and he reveals he knows who the murderer is. He proceeds to recreate the events of the night so far as to explain how the murders occurred. He reveals that the other five people who died with Mr. Boddy were his accomplices, who gave him vital information about the different guests. After an evangelist interrupts them, Wadsworth continues and shuts off the electricity again.
In the theatrical showing, at this point audiences would then be shown one of the three following endings after Wadsworth brings the lights back up. In the home media, all three endings were included, with "Ending A" and "Ending B" identified as possible endings but "Ending C" being how the events really occurred.
Ending A: Yvette murdered the cook and Mr. Boddy under orders from Miss Scarlet, for whom she once worked as a call girl. Miss Scarlet then killed her along with the other murder victims. She wanted to keep her business of extortion safe and now plans to sell the other guests' secrets. She intends to shoot Wadsworth, who asserts there are no more bullets in the gun. Wadsworth then reveals himself to be an undercover FBI agent, takes the gun from Miss Scarlet and apprehends her. The evangelist is revealed to be a police chief, who arrives with police officers and federal agents. To prove that the gun was empty, Wadsworth fires it towards the ceiling. However, it still contained one bullet, and the gunshot brings down the hall chandelier right behind Colonel Mustard, narrowly missing him (again, the first time being when Yvette breaks the keyhole).
Ending B; Mrs. Peacock killed all the victims to cover up her engagement of bribes from foreign powers. Mrs. Peacock holds the others at gunpoint while she escapes to her car, but she is caught by the chief (the evangelist). Wadsworth reveals he is an undercover FBI agent planted to spy on her activities as to secure her arrest.
Ending C: Each murder was committed by a different person: Professor Plum killed Mr. Boddy, Mrs. Peacock killed the cook, Colonel Mustard killed the motorist (and picked out the key from Wadsworth's pocket), Mrs. White killed Yvette, and Miss Scarlet killed the cop. Mr. Green is therefore accused of killing the singing telegram girl, but Wadsworth reveals he killed her, and that he is, in fact, the real Mr. Boddy (the man Professor Plum killed was his butler). With the witnesses to each of their secret activities dead and the evidence destroyed, Mr. Boddy now plans on continuing to blackmail them all. Mr. Green suddenly pulls out a revolver and kills Mr. Boddy. He reveals himself as an undercover FBI agent who has been on Mr. Boddy's case. He brings in the chief/evangelist to arrest the others. Mr. Green then leaves, saying "I'm gonna go home, and sleep with my wife", revealing his earlier claim of homosexuality was just part of his cover.
Yes. In the 1950’s having any sort of privacy meant that one was, quite obviously, a communist.
Or, by throwing everything in the world into your first draft, and trimming away everything that doesn’t serve the story at the end!
Or sex.
While Tim Curry (as Wadsworth, the Butler) delivers the most memorable version of the line, Leslie Ann Warren (as Miss Scarlet, the escort madam) adds something along the lines of ‘like all members of the world’s oldest profession, I’m a capitalist!’ Because why just be a red herring when you can be irony, too?!