IMDb RATING
6.9/10
117K
YOUR RATING
A selfish, cynical television executive is haunted by three spirits bearing lessons on Christmas Eve.A selfish, cynical television executive is haunted by three spirits bearing lessons on Christmas Eve.A selfish, cynical television executive is haunted by three spirits bearing lessons on Christmas Eve.
- Nominated for 1 Oscar
- 1 win & 5 nominations total
- Director
- Writers
- Mitch Glazer
- Michael O'Donoghue
- Charles Dickens(suggestion)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaFilming began in December 1987. With Christmas approaching, director Richard Donner asked if the production could have Christmas Day off, but Paramount Pictures executives refused, insisting that filming should continue on Christmas Day. However, Donner outwitted them. At the end of the day on December 24th, he fired the entire cast and crew. Two days later, on December 26th, he rehired everyone. The break allowed the cast and crew members to spend Christmas with their families.
- GoofsAfter the encounter with the Ghost of Christmas Past, Frank decides to visit Claire at work. The business card she had given him says "Operation Reach Out", but the doors Frank walks into say "Operation Outreach".
- Quotes
Frank Cross: The bitch hit me with a toaster!
- Crazy creditsAbout a third of the way through the closing credits, Bill Murray appears with the word "Scrooged" across the screen in front of him. He looks down and brushes the front of his jacket a few times, with each brush a couple of the letters in the title chase off the screen as if he's brushing them off his jacket.
- Alternate versionsTBS runs an "edited for content" version of this film, that deletes or changes profanity and questionable dialog.
- SoundtracksBrown Eyed Girl
Written by Van Morrison
Performed by David Johansen (as Buster Poindexter)
Produced by Hank Medress, David Johansen (as Buster Poindexter)
Courtesy of RCA Records
Featured review
Puts A Little Love In Your Heart
Charles Dickens's classic Christmas tale gets a late 20th Century makeover with Bill Murray as our protagonist. Murray plays a hardboiled TV executive who only sees Christmas as a commercial opportunity to get the best ratings.
The usual ghosts from Christmases past, present, and future visit Murray and in a more contemporary idiom explain the error of his ways. No need to explain this universally beloved plot, I think other than the Christmas story itself, more people know this story than any other in the English speaking world.
A couple of Hollywood veterans John Forsythe and Robert Mitchum have some nice supporting roles. Both are TV executives, Forsythe from his past and who Bill Murray was something of a protégé. Robert Mitchum is the Bill Paley/David Sarnoff network tycoon and who already sees some flaws in Murray's approach and is grooming a smarmy John Glover to take his place.
The Bob Cratchit part is split in two with Murray's secretary going home to a not so Merry Christmas with the family when the expected bonus she was counting on doesn't materialize, she gets a network monogrammed towel like everyone else. She's played by Alfre Woodard and she's drowning in some real 20th century debt. The junior executive Murray fires is Bobcat Goldthwait and he doesn't take his Christmas Eve sacking in the resigned frame of mind the original Cratchit it. As this is the ever zany Goldthwait his method of dealing with it is unorthodox.
The spirits of the past, present, and future are played by David Johanssen, Carol Kane, and Michael J. Pollard. Of the three and in fact in the film Carol Kane is the best. She certainly has an original way of getting one's attention.
Karen Allen plays the girl that Murray loved and lost and Scrooged gives him an interesting opportunity to make that up as well as change his way of living.
Scrooged is first and foremost a Bill Murray show and Bill Murray delivers on all levels. All the spirit of Dickens is maintained, in fact when the cast in the finale starts singing Put A Little Love In Your Heart over the closing credits, isn't that what Charles Dickens meant to say what Christmas does?
The usual ghosts from Christmases past, present, and future visit Murray and in a more contemporary idiom explain the error of his ways. No need to explain this universally beloved plot, I think other than the Christmas story itself, more people know this story than any other in the English speaking world.
A couple of Hollywood veterans John Forsythe and Robert Mitchum have some nice supporting roles. Both are TV executives, Forsythe from his past and who Bill Murray was something of a protégé. Robert Mitchum is the Bill Paley/David Sarnoff network tycoon and who already sees some flaws in Murray's approach and is grooming a smarmy John Glover to take his place.
The Bob Cratchit part is split in two with Murray's secretary going home to a not so Merry Christmas with the family when the expected bonus she was counting on doesn't materialize, she gets a network monogrammed towel like everyone else. She's played by Alfre Woodard and she's drowning in some real 20th century debt. The junior executive Murray fires is Bobcat Goldthwait and he doesn't take his Christmas Eve sacking in the resigned frame of mind the original Cratchit it. As this is the ever zany Goldthwait his method of dealing with it is unorthodox.
The spirits of the past, present, and future are played by David Johanssen, Carol Kane, and Michael J. Pollard. Of the three and in fact in the film Carol Kane is the best. She certainly has an original way of getting one's attention.
Karen Allen plays the girl that Murray loved and lost and Scrooged gives him an interesting opportunity to make that up as well as change his way of living.
Scrooged is first and foremost a Bill Murray show and Bill Murray delivers on all levels. All the spirit of Dickens is maintained, in fact when the cast in the finale starts singing Put A Little Love In Your Heart over the closing credits, isn't that what Charles Dickens meant to say what Christmas does?
helpful•147
- bkoganbing
- Oct 18, 2011
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Scrooge: A Christmas Carol
- Filming locations
- Toronto, Ontario, Canada(Exterior)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $32,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $60,328,558
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $13,027,842
- Nov 27, 1988
- Gross worldwide
- $60,329,560
- Runtime1 hour 41 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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![Bill Murray in Scrooged (1988)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZDExMjFhYTItNmFkNC00YzQ0LWE1OGMtN2ExNGFkNWMxMjA4XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNjc5NjEzNA@@._V1_QL75_UX90_CR0,1,90,133_.jpg)