Classic Movie Review: It's a Very Murray Christmas in 'Scrooged'

It’s strange, as much as I admire Bill Murray, I haven’t been much of a fan of his many movies. I like them but rarely love them. I have a rather controversially low opinion of Groundhog Day that many have argued with me over and, as for the rest of Murray’s oeuvre, the only Murray movie I watch regularly is Lost in Translation. I like Ghostbusters but I might as well hate it because in the internet age if you don’t LOVE Ghostbusters, apparently you don’t like it at all.

So if I don’t love Bill Murray’s work then where am I on Scrooged? I may not LOVE most of Bill Murray’s film work but I really do like Scrooged. In fact, of all of the awful Christmas movies out there, and I have suffered more than my share, Scrooged is the one I can watch more than once. You can have your A Christmas Story, your gross-out Christmas Vacation and even the over-played It’s A Wonderful Life, Scrooged is the only Christmas movie I can truly get behind.

Scrooged stars Bill Murray as television executive Frank Cross. Frank is evil. He’s a truly bad guy. Much of the first act of Scrooged finds Murray comically over-doing Frank’s villainy, most notably at the expense of the hapless Elliott Lowdermilk (Bobcat Goldthwaite) an underling that Frank fires on the day before Christmas. Elliott’s crime? He criticized Frank’s promo for their live broadcast of Scrooge which attempts to terrify viewers into watching the broadcast.

Frank Cross is a perfect candidate for a Christmas haunting. He has a family he never sees, an assistant he mocks and verbally abuses (Alfre Woodard), especially when she needs to take her son to the doctor rather than stay and work, and a former love, Claire (Karen Allen), who still thinks there is good in him. From here, the story plays out just like the story of Ebenezer Scrooge but with terrific gags and a performance by Bill Murray that sets Scrooged apart from its source material.

Murray is electric in the role of Frank Cross. From the first moment on screen he is dominant and over the top. The comic evil of the start of the movie never fails to get laughs and the slow build toward his transformative epiphany, dotted by terrific cameos by David Johanson and Carol Kane as ghosts, is absolutely inspired. The trips into Frank’s past are beautifully played and the present set scenes with Carole Kane are some of the best physical comedy of Murray’s career. I adore the Murray and Kane sequence in this movie and wish it had been longer somehow.

Bobcat Goldthwait also turns in another terrific cameo in a movie stuffed with high end cameos. Goldthwait’s lovably pathetic Elliott is the subject of a terrific running gag that never fails to get a laugh. When Elliott comes back late the film with a shotgun in hand, the dark humor is loud and hysterically felt. Goldthwait and Murray have terrific chemistry in their brief moments as a comic duo in Scrooged.

Another ingenious aspect of Scrooged is the employment of the great Robert Mitchum in a completely, unexpectedly, perfect small role. Playing the boss of Frank’s network, Mitchum is delightfully clueless whether he’s talking about Dormice or how cats and dogs are beginning to watch television. Mitchum is known for his work in far more serious and often intimidating roles. I was delighted to see his soft comic touch in Scrooged.

The fact of the matter is, I don’t like Christmas movies and I am not much of a fan of Bill Murray movies, aside from Lost in Translation, (Bill Murray Movies as defined as films centered on a Bill Murray character, not his cameos or supporting work) so for me to say I really enjoy Scrooged is saying something. I adore Scrooged. Among the movies of Bill Murray’s career where he’s playing a variation on a Bill Murray type of character, it’s by far my favorite of his work.

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