"Scrooged" (1988) - Part 3

A few thoughts about the characters from "Scrooged," the comedic modern version of "A Christmas Carol" from 1988, and how they relate to the characters from the original book.

The movie follows the basic structure of the book, with Frank Cross, the Scrooge surrogate played by Murray, ostensibly being redeemed by visits from the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come and within those sequences are people in his life who are parallels to characters from the book, but they're changed around a bit.

Frank's secretary is obviously meant to represent Bob Cratchit in that she works directly under him and has a bunch of kids, the youngest of which has an affliction (the Tiny Tim surrogate) and is somewhat put-upon. She doesn't act in a Cratchit-like manner, however, as she doesn't seem to take just anything her boss dishes out. She's competent and Frank relies on her.

I think Bob Cratchit is also kind of spun off into the "Elliot" character played by Bobcat Goldthwait, whom Frank fires on the day before Christmas Eve. Are they borrowing this idea from the 1938 MGM version of "A Christmas Carol" with Regnal Owen? The scenes with Elliot to me are so over the top that they clash with the tone of the rest of the movie.

So, while some of the Cratchit-ness is spread around, the characters of Jacob Marley and Fezziwig are merged into that of Frank's former boss, played by John Forsythe. This character fills the Marley role of warning Frank to change his ways, but also hosts the Christmas party in the past, as Fezziwig did. That kind of makes Fezziwig evil, though, doesn't it? Ooh, I don't like that!

The would-be Belle character of "Claire," as played by Karen Allen, has a greatly expanded role here. She seems to be modeled off of "Alice," the Belle character from the 1951 "Scrooge" with Alastair Sim, in that she's a social worker and did not marry someone else in the interim.

It feels like Claire has been waiting for Frank to come around, and while this leads to a happy ending (I think?), it weakens the idea that Frank truly missed out on some happiness in his life, especially considering the character is not all that old and has plenty of time ahead to spend with Claire.

The idea of Scrooge's nephew Fred is taken by Frank's younger brother "James," who's played by John Murray, younger brother of Bill. They seem to have a relatively good relationship, even if Frank gives James cheap Christmas gifts. Frank also doesn't seem to resent James being married.

Two other brothers of Bill Murray also get in on the act. His older brother Brain Doyle Murray plays Frank's father on the Christmas Past sequence and their younger brother Joel plays one of the guests celebrating with James (who's John Murray). I think that Joel looks like a family member and maybe is supposed to be a cousin, but the relationship is unclear.

There are a couple of other characters with fairly prominent roles in the movie who don't appear to have a connection with the book.

One is the Frank's somewhat clueless big boss, played by Robert Mitchum, and the other is Frank's smarmy rival, played by John Glover. Their only purpose seems to be to provide further stress for Frank. They could each probably use some ghostly intervention themselves!

So, there are some interesting characters with an interesting cast.

As with anything, your mileage may vary!