Scrooged (1988)

A selfish, cynical television executive is haunted by three spirits bearing lessons on Christmas Eve.

Director:

Richard Donner

Writers:

Mitch Glazer, Michael O'Donoghue

Stars:

Bill Murray, Karen Allen, John Forsythe

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 1 win & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Bill Murray	...	Frank Cross
Karen Allen	...	Claire Phillips
John Forsythe	...	Lew Hayward
John Glover	...	Brice Cummings
Bobcat Goldthwait	...	Eliot Loudermilk
David Johansen	...	Ghost of Christmas Past
Carol Kane	...	Ghost of Christmas Present
Robert Mitchum	...	Preston Rhinelander
Nicholas Phillips	...	Calvin Cooley
Michael J. Pollard	...	Herman
Alfre Woodard	...	Grace Cooley
Mabel King	...	Gramma
John Murray	...	James Cross
Jamie Farr	...	Jacob Marley
Robert Goulet	...	Robert Goulet

Storyline

Francis Xavier Cross is a cynical, mean spirited television executive, he treats his loyal assistant with contempt. He just sacked a member of staff on Christmas Eve for simply disagreeing with him, and he's alienated himself from his brother who still insists on inviting Frank to Christmas dinner despite him refusing to go every year. However, Frank is forced to learn the true meaning of Christmas when he's visited by three ghosts.

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Plot Keywords:

compassion | ghost | redemption | greed | tv show | 

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Taglines:

Bill Murray is back among the ghosts. Only this time, it's three against one.

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Fantasy | Romance

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Certificate:

PG-13

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

23 November 1988 (USA)

Also Known As:

Scrooge: A Christmas Carol

Filming Locations:

Woodside, Queens, New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$32,000,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$60,328,558

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures,Mirage Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

101 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Stereo

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Michael O'Donoghue: One of the film's writers as a priest.

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Goofs

When Eliot fires the first shot into the ceiling, the barrel is angled yet the debris falls straight down on him.

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Quotes

James Cross: You know what they say about people who treat other people bad on the way up?
Frank Cross: Yeah, you get to treat 'em bad on the way back down too. It's great, you get two chances to rough 'em up.

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Crazy Credits

About a third of the way through the closing credits, Bill Murray appears with the word "Scrooged" across the screen in front of him. He looks down and brushes the front of his jacket a few times, with each brush a couple of the letters in the title chase off the screen as if he's brushing them off his jacket.

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Alternate Versions

Following the September 11 attacks, the footage of an airplane blowing up in mid-air in reference to terrorism seen in Frank's violent "Scrooge" promo was edited out of television broadcasts. The entire violent promo is now edited out of television broadcasts.

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Connections

Version of The Passions of Carol (1975)

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Soundtracks

The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)
Written by Mel Tormé and Robert Wells
Performed by Natalie Cole
Produced by Jimmy Iovine
Courtesy of EMI, a Division of Capitol Records, Inc.

User Reviews

Fun to watch every day of the year.

This is a Christmas movie that also is very enjoyable to watch outside of the holiday's.

Another name for the movie could be "The Bill Murray Show", he simply makes this movie and I can't even imaging how the movie would have been without him in it. He's amazingly funny and on top of that he also is a wonderful actor. You can see that in some of the scene's he improvised a lot and he did that brilliantly! All the other actors and characters are merely sidekicks.

The story is basically a modern version of the classic Dickens novel "A Christmas Carol" and it's done wonderfully. It's great to see how the the classic story is translated into the 20th century. Everything works very well: The settings, the characters and the events, everything.

From the hilarious opening involving Santa Claus and Lee Mayors (I say no more) till the wonderful ending the movie delivers non stop fun and pure entertainment with a nice love story, brilliant dialog and a great and important message in it. Only thing is that I feel that the movie could have done without the whole Loudermilk thing, but oh well...

Very recommendable and close of being perfect.

9/10

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