Scrooged
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| Scrooged | |
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 Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Richard Donner |
| Produced by | Richard Donner Art Linson |
| Written by | Charles Dickens Mitch Glazer Michael O'Donoghue |
| Starring | Bill Murray Karen Allen John Forsythe Bobcat Goldthwait Carol Kane Robert Mitchum Michael J. Pollard Alfre Woodard |
| Music by | Danny Elfman |
| Cinematography | Michael Chapman |
| Editing by | Fredric Steinkamp |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures Mirage |
| Release date(s) | November 23, 1988 |
| Running time | 101 min. |
| Country |  |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $32 million |
| Gross revenue | $60,328,558 |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Scrooged is a 1988 comedy film modernization of Charles Dickens's novella, A Christmas Carol. It was produced and directed by Richard Donner, and the cinematography was by Michael Chapman. The screenplay was written by Mitch Glazer and Michael O'Donoghue. The original music score was composed by Danny Elfman.
The cast includes: Bill Murray, Karen Allen, Bob "Bobcat" Goldthwait, John Forsythe, Carol Kane, David Johansen, John Houseman, John Glover, and Robert Mitchum. It also features cameo appearances by Olympic gymnast Mary Lou Retton, musicians Larry Carlton, Miles Davis, David Sanborn, and Paul Shaffer, actor/singer Robert Goulet, and actors Jamie Farr, Buddy Hackett, Lee Majors, and Pat McCormick as well as the Solid Gold Dancers.
Bill Murray's real-life brothers, Brian, John, and Joel appear in the film.
While a commercial success, the film was reviewed negatively by many critics, notably Roger Ebert and Vincent Canby. The film was marketed with the tagline "Bill Murray is back among the ghosts. Only this time, it's three against one."
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[edit] Plot
Francis Xavier "Frank" Cross (Bill Murray) is a stuck-up, cynical television programming executive whose concentration on his lucrative, fast climbing career cost him his true love, Claire Phillips (Karen Allen); alienated him from his family; and obliterated any chance of having a happy and fulfilling life. Essentially, Frank has become nothing but an expensive black suit who barks orders and overworks his assistant Grace Cooley (Alfre Woodard), forcing her to constantly break plans with her family.
When he is given the task of heading up a live broadcast of A Christmas Carol, his life inexplicably begins to mirror the story he's producing. First, the ghost of his mentor, Lew Hayward, visits him to show him the error of his ways. The Ghosts of Christmas Past (David Johansen), Present (Carol Kane), and Future then appear, and Frank repents. The reformed Frank reunites with Claire, who now runs a shelter for the homeless, and he finds in the end that there are more important things than winning the ratings war.
[edit] Cast
- Bill Murray as Francis Xavier "Frank" Cross
- Karen Allen as Claire Phillips
- John Forsythe as Lew Hayward
- John Glover as Brice Cummings
- Bobcat Goldthwait as Eliot Loudermilk
- David Johansen as Ghost of Christmas Past
- Carol Kane as Ghost of Christmas Present
- Robert Mitchum as Preston Rhinelander
- Nicholas Phillips as Calvin Cooley
- Alfre Woodard as Grace Cooley
- Michael J. Pollard as Herman
- Mabel King as Gramma
- John Murray as James Cross
- Jamie Farr as Jacob Marley
- Buddy Hackett as Scrooge
- Pat McCormick (comic) as Ghost of Christmas Present (TV)
- Brian Doyle-Murray as Earl Cross
- Mary Ellen Trainor as Ted
- Wendie Malick as Wendie Cross
[edit] Cameos
- Robert Goulet as Himself
- John Houseman as Himself
- Lee Majors as Himself
[edit] Trivia
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Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- In the opening scenes where Cross's hollow coldness is being established, he can be seen working out in a room with a wallpaper border that reads 'Cross: A thing they nail people to'.
- The film's closing theme song, "Put a Little Love in Your Heart", written in 1968 by Jackie DeShannon, was performed by Al Green with Annie Lennox.
- The legend "Dick + Lauren" can be seen "carved" into a tree as part of the set decoration for the 1971 Frisbee the Dog children's show. This is a reference to the marriage of director Richard Donner and his wife, producer Lauren Schuler-Donner.
- Naturally, most of the characters are based on characters in A Christmas Carol: Frank Cross is Ebenezer Scrooge; his brother James is the Dickensian Scrooge's nephew Fred; both Eliot Loudermilk and Grace could be said to share the role of Bob Cratchit; Grace's son, who is mute, is Tiny Tim; Lew Hayward, Frank's former boss, is Jacob Marley; Herman and his fellow indigents are the "portly gentlemen" who are refused financial help; and Claire is Scrooge's former fiancée, Belle. The ghosts, while under the same names, are altered for an urban setting. The Ghost of Christmas Past is a cab driver with a Brooklyn accent and the Ghost of Christmas Future appears as Death but with a TV screen for a face. The Ghost of Christmas Present is more or less a campier female version of the ghost in the original story.
- This film features the final mass media appearance of the Solid Gold Dancers, as their show had already been cancelled for a few months when the film premiered.
- Composer Danny Elfman's score was extensively edited and dialed down in the final release, and left off the resulting soundtrack album entirely. An eight-minute suite from the film is available as part of his Music for a Darkened Theatre compilation. In the liner notes for the album, Elfman described the score as "one of life's bitter pills".
- In Brazil, the movie was named "Os Fantasmas Contra-Atacam" (The Ghosts Strike Back), an apparent reference to Bill Murray's Ghostbusters role as Peter Venkman.This also happened in Spain, where the film was retitled "Los fantasmas atacan al jefe" (Now the ghosts go after the boss). In Italy the movie was released as "S.O.S. fantasmi" ("S.O.S. ghosts"), also with a probable reference to Ghostbusters.
- A 3D Paramount Pictures logo was introduced at the beginning of this film but wasn't seen in future Paramount Pictures releases. However, other alterations of the famous Paramount logo can be seen in Raiders of the Lost Ark and Coming To America.
- At one point in the film, Dickens's novella is incorrectly called "Scrooge"
- Three members of the cast also appear in The Lethal Weapon films.
Murtah's son, The Police Shrink and The Meter Maid that Had a crush on Riggs all had bit parts in this film.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Scrooged at the Internet Movie Database
- Scrooged at Allmovie
- Scrooged at Rotten Tomatoes
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