Barry Coe: Ben Gregory

Quotes 

• Kathy Richards : You make me sick.

  Eric Jason : Sick about what?

  Kathy Richards : You talk about Christmas like it was no good for anything except making money.

  Ben Gregory : What else is Christmas good for except making money?

  Kathy Richards : What else? That's the one day family and friends get together and show their love for each other! It's the one time when everybody gives instead of takes. I know that means nothing to you two sophisticates, but it's mighty important to the rest of the world.

  Ben Gregory : [to Eric]  Do you tell her, or do I?

  Eric Jason : You.

  Ben Gregory : Look you around, young lady. Gaze you upon the shopping tills. Give ear to the criers and the voyeurs of the marketplace. If you had an ounce of sense in your beautiful cotton-pickin' head, you will observe that Christmas is nothing but a billion-dollar hoax thrust upon a gullible public.

  Eric Jason : Other people get their share of the loot - why shouldn't we get ours?

  Ben Gregory : Yeah! A poor starving author and his loyal helper.

  Kathy Richards : You're hopeless.

• [Kathy agrees to loan Ben $100 in an effort to cause Fogarty to develop a Christmas spirit] 

  Kathy Richards : You know why I'm giving you this?

  Eric Jason : Why?

  Kathy Richards : Because I hope just a little tiny bit of what happens to Mr. Fogarty rubs off on you.

  Eric Jason : It will! It will!

  Ben Gregory : [to Kathy]  You will be the wiser and we will be the richer!

• Ben Gregory : So our Scrooge took off like a flying fish. That doesn't mean it won't come out all right on paper.

  Kathy Richards : On paper! What about those people, those widows and orphans?

  Ben Gregory : Simple. We make our Scrroge get the Christmas spirit like he was supposed to and all those widows and orphans will be happy as clams at high tide.

  Kathy Richards : Mister Fogarty's not Scrooge; you're Scrooge - both of you! And you can keep on being Scrooges for all I care. If that's what it takes to be a writer, I don't want any part of it! And I don't care if I ever see either one of you again!

• [last lines] 

  [Ben pulls a Christmas gift from his pocket] 

  Ben Gregory : Let's see now - this one is for a Miss Kathy Richards.

  Kathy Richards : What?

  Ben Gregory : If she's been a good girl.

  [Kathy opens the box to find a necklace, earrings and a wad of cash] 

  Kathy Richards : My hundred dollars! It's lovely.

  Ben Gregory : Mele Kalikimaka.

  Kathy Richards : [reading the card]  "From a couple of Scrooges"... A couple of ex-Scrooges.

  [Kathy kisses Ben and Eric] 

  Eric Jason : Oh, ho-ho-ho! Mele Kalikimaka now!