Hello everyone, welcome back to the theater!
I’m sorry this is coming so late, I’ve been really busy. I’ll try to get caught up!
For this one, we shall be looking at ‘Scrooged.’ Made in 1988 and directed by Richard Donner, this comedy/fantasy/ drama is a modern- day version of the classic story ‘A Christmas Carol,’ and stars Bill Murray, Karen Allen, Bobcat Goldthwait, and John Forsythe.
The Scrooge figure in this version is Frank Cross (Murray), a massively selfish and cynical TV executive who’ll do anything for ratings. He learns that the network is going to be filming a live telecast of ‘A Christmas Carol’ starring Buddy Hackett as Scrooge and Mary Lou Retton as Tiny Tim. He, however, desires to instead show an incredibly violent TV movie he created, and even fires one of his employees, Elliot Loudermilk (Goldthwait), on Christmas Eve simply for politely criticizing the commercial that had been done for it. He treats his secretary Grace (Alfre Woodard, basically if Bob Cratchet was a black woman) like dirt, is extremely distant from his younger brother James (Played by Murray’s real- life brother John Murray), and regards Christmas as nothing more than a day that he can exploit for ratings.
Soon, the Jacob Marley figure of this story shows up: The ghost of Cross’s former boss, Lew Hayward (Forsythe), who rather than being wrapped in chains, is instead a walking, talking, rotted corpse dressed in the same golfing outfit that he apparently died in (As he puts it, a mid- putt heart attack instantly turned him from a successful executive into “A worm- feastâ€). Hayward explains to Frank that he will be visited by three ghosts to save his soul before it’s too late, and Frank of course assumes the whole thing’s a hallucination (Rather than attributing it to food disagreeing with him like Scrooge did in the original, Frank attributes it to alcohol) until the ghosts show up one by one.
First, the Ghost of Christmas Past (David Johansen), who here is a surly supernatural taxi driver who shows Frank’s unhappy childhood, then shows him how he ruined the nice relationship he had with the warm- hearted Claire Phillips (Karen Allen) to pursue his own career. Shortly after this, he’s in the real world just long enough to see Claire, who now runs a homeless shelter and appears to still be fond of him, but he blows her off when she makes it clear that she can’t abandon her responsibility to everyone in the shelter.
Then, the Ghost of Christmas Present (Carol Kane), who here is a sweet yet incredibly violent fairy (Think Glenda from ‘The Wizard of Oz’ on crystal meth), first shows him the good time James and his loved ones are having at their simple Christmas Eve party, then shows him Grace’s family, including her incredibly troubled youngest son Calvin (The Tiny Tim of the story, except he’s mute rather than having a bad leg), as they try and enjoy their own Christmas Eve.
Finally, after Cross is again briefly returned to his normal life and nearly gunned down by his furious ex- employee Loudermilk, it’s time for the Ghost of Christmas Future to show up. This ghost is similar to how he’s normally portrayed in other versions of ‘A Christmas Carol,’ and through this scene, Cross sees not only that he won’t be remembered fondly by anyone after his death, but also what a bad influence his own selfish life had been on others around him such as Claire.
Cross returns to the real world and finally decides to make a change. He gives Loudermilk his job back, reconciles with Claire, sets out to help Grace and young Calvin in any way he can, and interrupts the live ‘A Christmas Carol’ telecast to give a quite touching speech on the joy of Christmas and all that he’s learned, which turns out to be a ratings hit. It ends with everyone (Including all the ghosts) joining him in joyously singing ‘Put a Little Love in Your Heart.’
‘Scrooged’ does have its flaws. One is that, similar to when I talked about ‘The Monster Squad’ in my Monster- Fest series, ‘Scrooged’ is a movie that can’t seem to decide if it wants to be a light- hearted comedy or a dark fantasy film. The film rapidly alternates between being funny and quirky (Usually the scenes showing what a jerk Cross is), and being incredibly dark and rather scary (i.e. The sight of Lew Hayward’s ghost, the entire Christmas Future scene). Also, Bobcat Goldthwait’s voice can get on one’s nerves rather quickly. This is one of the better performances I’ve seen from him (He is quite funny in his scenes), but I’d imagine it’s not something everyone would like. Lastly, there’s another character, an ambitious up- and coming TV producer played by John Glover who’s shown to be obviously after Cross’s job, who’s a bit unnecessary. Glover gives a good performance as him, but the movie could have easily been done without him.
However, despite these flaws, ‘Scrooged’ is still quite good. It makes for a great modernization of ‘A Christmas Carol,’ I loved their takes on all the classic characters from the story. The music by Danny Elfman (About a year before he would truly gain recognition as a composer for his work on Batman) is much like how his music usually sounds: Spooky yet catchy and rather beautiful. The makeup effects are great, especially for Lew Hayward’s ghost. He really did look like he’d been dead for seven years, I can see why the film got an Oscar nomination for best makeup. The movie’s ending was very well done, too, it really gets you feeling good.
The performances are quite good, too. Of course, this is really Bill Murray’s show. He gives an awesome and hilarious performance from start to finish, making Frank obnoxious at times, sympathetic at other times (Especially when he finally begins to get what the Spirits are trying to teach him), and funny all the way. His monologue at the end is always great to see. Karen Allen makes Claire sweet, charming and very likable, seeing her tragic past relationship with Frank (Or as she nicknames him, “Lumpyâ€) makes you sad, but then seeing them eventually reconcile in the end is wonderful. John Murray makes James a really nice guy, who continues to be kind to Frank and reach out to him any way he can in spite of what a jerk Frank is to him.
And, so, that’s ‘Scrooged.’ It’s a great spin on a classic tale, and one I’m glad I was reintroduced to. Check it out when you can.
See you again soon!
