SCROOGED (1988)
THE CHRISTMAS MOVIE
Like eggnog spiked with bourbon, Scrooged is both extremely festive and extremely potent. The coal-dark comedy takes Dickens’ legendary misanthrope, Ebenezer Scrooge, and recasts him as vile TV executive Frank Cross (Bill Murray). How mean is Frank? Well, at one point he offers this novel solution to the problem of tiny antlers not sticking to a mouse’s head with glue: “Did you try staples?” And while Frank does reach redemption, it’s not before he’s been a huge asshole for most of the runtime. The fact it works so well has a lot to do with Donner’s instincts for character-work, knowing just how far to go with the darkness before leavening it with some light.
“He was so full of fun, and a bigger-than-life character himself,” remembers Karen Allen, who played Frank’s lost love, Claire, of the director. “He brought a sense of playfulness to the set every day and it was contagious.” Donner once described his role on Scrooged as being “a traffic cop”, giving Murray the freedom to roll in whatever direction he felt like. This led to the film’s delightful ending, in which Murray, while delivering a soliloquy, decided on a whim to look into the camera. Donner went with it, nudging crew into the frame for a lengthy, fourth-wall-breaking shot in which he himself appears in front of the camera, holding a child.
Famously, Donner and Murray clashed during the shoot. “I often think of Dick trying to corral Bill to rehearse scenes, which was no easy task,” says Allen. “Bill never wanted to do it and would try to slip away or find some way to distract us all until it had grown too late.” Murray has largely disowned the film ever since. But despite that, Scrooged has become a cult Christmas classic, immortalising the words, “That bitch hit me with a toaster!” and turning ‘Put
A Little Love In Your Heart’ into a festive staple.
“It’s great when a film you’ve worked on has a life beyond its initial release,” Allen reflects.
“It doesn’t happen that often. Because it is one of the few irreverent Christmas films, it stands out in the season as being different.” The only shame is that Bob Goulet’s Old Fashioned Cajun Christmas never became an actual thing.