25 Days of Christmas on Film & TV - Day 9

Day 9

Scrooged

Time for Sunday's Day 9 pick and its one of my favourites Scrooged. Its an 80's remake/retelling of Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol. Billy Murray plays Fran Cross a TV executive he has made the TV station the top in America and is really rich but has become cruel and heartless in the process. On Christmas Eve is visited by his dead media mentor Lew Hayward who tells him that he will be visited by three ghosts to see the error of his ways. We then have a few really funny scenes in a restaurant when Frank thinks he is losing his mind! The Ghost of Christmas past comes in the form of a New York Cab driver that takes Frank back to his past. Where we seen his childhood home through to his first job in TV where he meets his true love Claire. We seen Frank move into a tiny flat with Claire they don't have much but are happy, slowly Frank moves up the ranks in the TV station and chooses his job over Clare and loses her.

The next ghost is the Ghost of Christmas Present comes in the form of a live size pixie who is sweet, dizzy and maybe a little rough who loves to hit Frank maybe a little too hard! She shows him how his assistant Grace Cooley who he works too hard for not allot of money lives in the rough area of town in a small little flat for her large family. She shows Grace's little boy Calvin mute since his Father died. After the second ghost's visit, Eliot Loudermilk, (who Frank fired on Christmas Eve before the ghost's visits) storms into the office with a shotgun and tries to murder Frank. Just as the third ghost appears the Ghost of Christmas Future in the form of a seven foot cloaked ghost with a TV screen for a face. It shows Frank that Calvin has ended up in a mental hospital and Claire has become as cold and uncaring as he is.

Frank sees the error of his ways and begs for a second chance he wakes up in his office just as Eliot Loudermilk is about to storm the office. He rehires Eliot with a pay rise, steps in front of the camera just as the Christmas special is wrapping up and declares his love for Claire and breaks into a song " Put a little love in your heart"

I love this movie Billy Murray is on top form as Frank its really funny but also touching and I love the ending with one of my favourite songs.

Think of your fellow man
Lend him a helping hand
Put a little love in your heart