When the name of Tim Curry comes up, it’s probably an age check to see what role he played springs to mind. I would imagine most older generations would think of Dr. Frankenfurter. My wife thinks of Long John from Muppet Treasure Island. But to me, it’s Wadsworth all the way.
It would be hard to say that he made this movie when you have an ensemble cast including Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd, Martin Mull, Eileen Brennan, etc. but it is so hard to envision this movie without Tim Curry wrangling them all.
So, let’s dig in on the character of Wadsworth.
If we look at the endings, it is hard to say what he tells the guests about him and his motives with regard to setting up the fatal dinner party is true. But let’s cover what actually IS said about him, and then walk thru each ending to see what, if anything, still remains.
He begins by playing as if he was invited to the party along with the other guests, even producing his own letter. It is a bit confusing, as he isn’t there as a guest but is acting as butler and serving the other guests. It has an air of Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None” where the servants at the island house were hired by an unknown host.
The ruse continues as we see that the instructions in the study are in a manila envelope addressed to Wadsworth with instructions to open after dinner.
Finally, after the evening gets out of control and Mr. Boddy is lying dead (presumably) that Wadsworth explains that HE had set up the dinner party. His wife had been a blackmail victim and they had been forced to work for him as servants in leu of payment. After her death, he vowed to bring down this blackmail ring and set up the party to do so.
Later, it is revealed that everyone else in the house or arriving later were Mr. Boddy’s informants. Wadsworth tells everyone that he invited them as well to provide more proof of Mr. Boddy’s crimes should he not own up to being the blackmailer.
The last detail I can think of is that Wadsworth eventually states that the house itself belongs to a friend of his. How he managed to wrangle the use of a mansion for the evening is anyone’s guess, but if we take what Wadsworth has claimed so far at face value, it might be possible that there are an untold number of former blackmail victims that he had uncovered while gathering the evidence of Mr. Boddy’s current crop of victims. Chances are at least one of them would be willing to offer up use of the house if it might result in bringing down the blackmailing operation.
Well, that should cover everything about Wadsworth before we get into the endings. So, on with the show!
In the first ending, nothing Wadsworth had said would be contradicted: the arrival of the police comes right around Wadsworth had said they would, and his familiarity with the chief can be explained by his having set this all up beforehand with them. The first arrival with the chief posing as a religious pamphleteer could just be a signal to Wadsworth that the cops were there and in position.
There is one thing left as a mystery in this ending that the other 2 endings cover, though…
That phone call from J. Edger Hoover.
The Chief actually refers to Mr. Hoover while apprehending Ms. Scarlet in this ending: “I did warn you, my dear. Mr. Hoover is an expert on Armageddon”
Um, what the hell was that supposed to mean exactly? Ms. Scarlet never talked to him on the phone, Armageddon wasn’t ever mentioned until the Chief arrived at the door as the pamphleteer, and it had nothing to do with her getting caught anyway!
I’m guessing a bit of explanatory exposition got cut from the script and this line was a reference to it. I mentioned that possibility earlier with Prof. Plum’s character study, since she makes reference to him and Mrs. White’s husband being sources of intel in her espionage ring when that was never established either.
So, looks like everything Wadsworth said is plausible for the first ending, what about the second one?
Here, Wadsworth reveals that he is actually FBI and the Phone call from Hoover is explained. But it also means none of the backstory he gave for the dinner party or his motives is true. But it makes me wonder how he got the cook and Yvette to go along with it all.
Could it be that the cover story was for the blackmailing accomplices as well? Who can tell how well Mr. Boddy treated his spy ring. Perhaps they were eager to end the whole thing just as much as they thought Wadsworth did.
Or, they got strong armed into it by the FBI. Who knows.
Now, for the 3rd ending, where Wadsworth is the blackmailer.
First thing about this one is immediately asked and answered
Prof. Plum: “Wait a minute! So who did *I* kill?”
Wadsworth: “My butler.”
Now it is rather amusing to try to envision the actor who played Mr. Boddy with such perfect sleaze and grittiness being a butler, and for that reason alone, I’m guessing Wadsworth is pulling his leg with that answer. But what with Wadsworth being the real blackmailer, one begins to wonder about the other informants and spies that were working the party or arrived later.
First off, did *they* know who ran the blackmailing ring? I would guess that they must’ve, but let’s explore the possibility that either they never had met the ringleader in person before, or the one who was playing the part of Mr. Boddy in the beginning had always been acting as the ringleader to them as well long before this night.
Nothing much changes with their behaviour if they had also been tricked into thinking that Lee Ving’s character was the blackmailer, but what changes if we assume that the informants were also meeting him in person for the first time?
The only thing that comes to mind that doesn’t work with that assumption is him and Yvette knowing each other at the start. So, either Lee Ving’s character had always played the part of the ringleader, or Wadsworth had told his informants some sort of story about what was supposed to happen that night and to pretend that Lee Ving’s character was the real blackmailer for the sake of the guests.
Here’s my theory on what Wadsworth’s plan must’ve been:
I think that Wadsworth told all his informants that the blackmailing ring was in danger of being exposed and needed to dissolve it. “But never fear, we can all walk away from this scott-free with my clever plan. I will pose as a butler who is trying to bring down the ring, Lee will pose as the blackmailer, and we will invite everyone to the mansion. Lee will present the guests with different weapons and sic them on me, but he’ll grab a hold of the gun while the lights are out and fire it at himself. Don’t worry, Lee, they’ll be loaded with blanks. Then, with them thinking the blackmailer is dead, we convince them to cover up his murder and pretend none of the blackmailing ever happened. It’s perfect! They never talk, we never see a courtroom!”
So Yvette, the cook, and Mr. Boddy arrive at the house thinking they’re fooling the blackmail victims into thinking they’ve murdered the ringleader, Wadsworth will convince them to cover the events of the evening up, and everyone walks away and ‘pretends that none of this… ever happened.’ Once the informants start REALLY dropping like flies, it’s too late for the informants to stop it and Wadsworth’s real plan plays out.
So that is Wadsworth: either a Widower of a blackmail victim with a grudge, an FBI agent undercover, or an evil mastermind whose dastardly double-cross scheme to ditch his blackmailing enterprise ALMOST works out.
