Scrooged **** (1988, Bill Murray, Karen Allen, John Forsythe, Carol Kane, Robert Mitchum, Anne Ramsey) – Classic Movie Review 566

Bill Murray gives a splendidly sour and grumpy star turn as Frank Cross, a hateful, curmudgeonly, Scrooge-like American TV executive, in the 1988 comedy film Scrooged.

Director Richard Donner’s 1988 update on Charles Dickens’s perennially popular novel A Christmas Carol is an amusing if a shade hypocritical lecture from Hollywood about goodwill to all men and the commercialisation of Christmas. Though a bit hit and miss, and slapsticky, Scrooged is good-natured and funny if you are in the right tolerant Christmas mood.

In an ideal part for him that fits his grouchy screen persona perfectly, Bill Murray gives a splendidly sour and grumpy star turn as Frank Cross, a hateful, curmudgeonly, Scrooge-like American television executive who plans to show a starry live version of A Christmas Carol worldwide on Christmas Day in TV show called Scrooge.

It will surprise you not, I guess, that the ruthless, cynically selfish TV executive gets haunted on Christmas Eve by three spirits bearing lessons on how to live a better life. It will surprise you not, either, that Cross finally realizes what Christmas is really all about in a heart-warming finale. David Johansen is the Ghost of Christmas Past, Carol Kane is the Ghost of Christmas Present (‘I may be invisible, but I am not deaf!’) and Robert Hammond is the Ghost of Christmas Future.

Among all the clever players supporting Murray, there are a couple of other big hit turns: Carol Kane as a spirit with a vicious punch and Robert Mitchum as Preston Rhinelander, the cynical TV boss wanting to cast mice as Santa’s reindeer. ‘All I’m suggesting is that we occasionally throw in a little pet appeal. Some birds, a squirrel… Mice! Exactly. You remember Kojak and the lollipops? What about a cop that dangles string?’

As you can see, the robust-toned humour’s not really suitable for younger children.

Bizarrely, Murray urges the audience to join in with the cast when they break into song. This is your option, should you choose to make it. In a cinema, this could work. At home, less so, probably.

Bill Murray’s actor brothers John Murray, Joel Murray and Brian Doyle-Murray also have roles. John Houseman, Lee Majors and Robert Goulet all appear as themselves, with Houseman hosting the TV show called Scrooge. MASH’s Jamie Farr plays Jacob Marley.

Also in the cast are Michael J Pollard, Alfre Woodard, Buddy Hackett, John Glover, Bobcat Goldthwait, Nicholas Phillips and Mabel King.

Thomas R Burman and Bari Dreiband-Burman’s makeup was Oscar nominated, the special effects by Dream Quest Images, Eric Brevig and Allen Hall were nominated for a Saturn Award, and Danny Elfman won the BMI Film Music Award.

The film is ‘Dedicated with Love and Affection’ to actress Anne Ramsey, production manager Roger Rothsten and art department construction coordinator Bob Scaife. ‘We miss you… ‘ Anne Ramsey died of throat cancer in 1988, aged 58. She appears in Scrooged with her actor husband Logan Ramsey and they also acted together in The Sporting Club (1971), The Law (1974), Blind Ambition (1979), Any Which Way You Can (1980), Say Yes (1986), Doctor Hackenstein (1988) and Meet the Hollowheads (1989).

© Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Movie Review 566

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