I’ll get the plugs out of the way now. I can’t end my last post before Chrstmas by asking people to buy t-shirts.
But since you mentioned it, here’s my redbubble store, and my podcast and comic. And if you want to contribute but don’t want to buy a subscription to my Substack, you can always just give a little here at BuyMeACoffee.com. I’m not a coffee drinker, so I usually call it something else, but the money still counts. But if you do want to subscribe, I’ll make it easy for you:
Anyway, onward to the madness!
I’m pretty much a sap for Christmas movies and shows. Well, some of them. Since it’s one of the times of year I get nostalgic and cling to my traditions, as I’m sure many Christmas-celebrators do, I actually can’t say that I have seen any holiday specials of the last couple decades (Sorry Last Christmas.) I’m sure that they are fine, but I have enough stuff to watch around the holidays that adding new ones just seems too hard. Love Actually is about where my Christmas movie revelry ends. But I’ve already written about that one.
So, this year, I decided to write about another one of my favorite Christmas movies, Bill Murray’s Scrooged. It’s a movie I have always found pretty funny since I saw it in the theaters way back in 1988, a whopping 35 years ago. But it’s only when I did a little Googling for this post did I realize some of the backstory about it. First of all, I remember when I saw it at 12 years old that I was mostly excited because it was Peter Venkman from Ghostbusters, but I only discovered today that it was his first real role after starring in that movie (He did have that cameo in Little Shop of Horrors.) These days, Murray does a few movies a year, or at least as often as Wes Anderson calls him, so can you imagine him taking four years off? He apparently wanted to take a break from acting after Ghostbusters, but he also thought a lot of the scripts that were being sent his way weren’t that good, so he just didn’t work during that time. When Scrooged came along, he thought it would be interesting to do a funny version of Scrooge (Oh, and they also paid him $6 million). However, in his mind, the script still needed work, so he hammered it out with director Richard Donner and screenwriters Mitch Glazer and Michael O’Donoghue, and I suppose if Charles Dickens was alive, Murray would have brought him in, too.
According to interviews, Murray was miserable making this movie, and he and Donner didn’t really get along. Donner is quoted as saying that Murray was, "superbly creative but occasionally difficult - as difficult as any actor," which seems like a nice way of saying that he was hard to work with. Murray, meanwhile, said that Donner kept telling him to make it “louder,” even joking that he thought Donner was deaf. There are also quotes out there from the screenwriters that Donner changed so much and Murray improvised so much that only about 40% of the original script made it into the movie. Also, Murray’s big speech at the end wasn’t part of the original script, but Bill started going for it and, in a case of life sort of imitating art, they just kept the cameras rolling and that’s the ending we got. No Donner Cut on this one.
There is also a story that Murray’s big denouement at the end was so long that people thought he was having some kind of mental breakdown, because he had been feeling pressure being that sole star of the movie, basically appearing in every scene, which was new for him. The truth, as some interpreted it, was that he just wanted his big, acting moment.
None of this is all that unusual for big, studio movies, of course. Creative differences, disgruntled writers and stars getting their input is the order of the day in Hollywood. The cool thing is that they still made a pretty entertaining movie. And no matter who was really calling the shots, there was something that I noticed when I watched it this year that I hadn’t noticed before. I’ve never read the original story, but every version I have seen features the tragic love story, in different forms. Even Scrooge McDuck in Mickey’s Christmas Carol eschewed his lady love (and came off as a real McJerk) by foreclosing on his girlfriend’s family cottage because they were a few hours late on the mortgage payment. Even for December, that’s cold.
The Scrooged version is a little different however. A little less mean, but definitely cold in a different way. In Scrooged, the Ghost of Christmas Past shows Frank Cross (Murray) a memory of himself, portraying Frisbee the Dog on a network children’s show, telling his longtime girlfriend, Claire (Margot Kidder) that he can’t meet their friends for dinner because the President of the network has invited them to dinner on Christmas Eve. That in itself maybe isn’t so bad, since Murray did eventually become Network President himself, but the way he puts it to Claire, suggesting that she puts his needs, “and the needs of the Frisbee show,” ahead of her own, that really twists the knife. She is clearly disappointed, and rather sarcastically says that she didn’t know how important the show was, and he responds that he is willing to forgive her sometimes. This leads to Claire suggesting that they take some time apart from each other, meekly pointing out that he has been under a lot of pressure. He again ignores her pain and simply says, “It’s been rough.” Frank is then called away to begin playing Frisbee again, puts on his goofy dog head, and tells Claire that he will try to stop by their friends’ later if he can, which she knows is bullshit. Or Frisbee-shit.
We then cut to present-day Frank, sitting with the Ghost, who nails how stupid he was very succintly:
It is a great line, but unnecessary in a way, because the look on Murray’s face says it all. Basically known for his comedic roles up to this point, this was probably the saddest anyone had ever seen him look. Of course, it is easy to say that he gave up his dream girl for a kids’ TV show but like I said, he did become Network President, but there was a price to be paid. Obviously based on their conversation, this wasn’t the only hurdle in their relationship, but putting his career first was definitely the biggest one, and Frisbee the Dog was just one example, and Present-Day Frank knows it.
The hits keep on coming for Frank after that. After the Ghost sends him back to the real world, he actually seeks out Claire at the homeless shelter where she works. He first encounters Herman, a homeless man who is basically replacing the child street urchins from the Dickens version. He then sees Claire, and at first the conversation is nice, as he starts talking about regret and they agree to go out for Chinese food. Unfortunately, she is also trying to feed a lot of homeless people on Christmas Eve, and when she tells him to wait a few minutes while she sorts out some details, he reverts to his old self and says, “Take the rest of your life,” and leaves. Admittedly, he did just spend the last several minutes talking to a ghost who showed him all the times he was a dick, so he is a little freaked out, but still, that was a bad move.
Later, when Frank is being shown present things that he could perhaps prevent by Carol Kane’s Ghost of Christmas Present, he finds Herman in a sewer, frozen to death. Frank first makes jokes, but quickly realizes that this is real, and Herman, who had asked him to spare a couple bucks earlier, is dead. Not that the couple bucks would have helped very much, but Frank becomes incredulous and yells at Herman for not staying with Claire who would have helped him, which is basically a metaphor for Frank himself. I love that the movie isn’t just showing Frank that poor people exist and he should use his wealth to help them. This tragic scene isn’t just about him being a Scrooge, but it’s also about the love that he gave up. Deep stuff for a holiday comedy.
The rest is mostly basic Christmas Carol recasting. Bob Cratchit is replaced by Frank’s executive assistant, Alfre Woodard’s Grace, who has a son who is mute, replacing Tiny Tim. Scrooge’s nephew is replaced by Frank’s brother, who is played by John Murray, Bill’s real-life brother, and in the movie is a hilariously goofy yuppie. Murray’s other brother, Brian Doyle-Murray (who basically appears in all of Bill’s movies) plays young Frank’s Dad in the flashback scenes. Despite the sadness that we are supposed to feel because Frank’s Dad seems to have little time for him, I always found it funny that he gives young Frank a side of veal, even though Frank had asked Santa for a choo-choo. When they leave the house and Present-day Frank is crying after seeing his mother, he tells the Ghost that he was merely touched by the gift: “A four-year-old kid receives what at today's prices is a $40 or $50 piece of milk-fed veal..” Classic.
The tiny details help separate this from all the other Christmas Carol retellings, and I haven’t seen them all, but the main difference, and improvement, for me is the love story aspect. It seems like most of them involve Scrooge and Cratchit having a moment at the end, and that is cool, too, but with the story they were telling, the Cratchit story is secondary, and let’s face it, less believable. I know that she was the sole breadwinner for her large family, but she still had a pretty good job. I know it was the 80’s, and salaries risen a lot over the years, so it wasn’t what she would be making now, but still, she probably made more than I make. Frank does say something to the Ghost about how Grace might be due for a raise, but it’s not like he’s the head of Payroll. He probably doesn’t even know what she makes. He does make her work Christmas Eve, and tears her son’s drawing off the wall, so he’s obviously not a great boss, but I don’t know if that makes him a Scrooge.
Nah, this is one time where I actually feel the redemption of the character comes from his reuniting with Claire, and how he realizes where he really went wrong. You could argue that Hollywood movies almost always focus on the love story, and I have criticized many a film that went overboard in that respect. But in this one, it works. He treated Claire horribly, and yet she saw the good in him, and when he came around, and realized his transgressions (with some ghostly help), she was there for him.It’s great that he doesn't want to staple antlers to mice anymore, and that he cares for his brother, and that he gives Bobcat Goldthwait his job back, but the real redemption comes when he wins back his love, and that would make any Christmas merry.
Thanks for reading everybody! Happy Holidays to yyyyoooouuuuuu!