12 Days of Christmas Movies, Day 9

"Scrooged" (1988)

“Back off, big man. That may work with the chicks, but not with me.”

During the final scene of "Scrooged," Bill Murray jumped off the script to deliver an improv speech about the meaning of Christmas. It's a pleasant signifier on the transformation of his character, Xavier Cross, from heartless corporate douchebag to community patron saint. After the cameras stopped, according to his biography, Michael O'Donogue, the screenwriter, shouted, "What the fuck was that?!"

A more perfect anecdote about this film, I couldn't develop. This retelling of the Dickens classic does everything right, mostly by doing everything wrong. Cross, our Scrooge allegory, is not merely led on an introspective quest to find out where all the goodwill of his younger years vanished, the important points are hammered into him physically.

Many scenes are memorable for their sheer over-the-top quality, but there are little nuggets to be found as well, like Cross' demand that miniature antlers be stapled onto the heads of mice to turn them into reindeer. One of my favorites, a scene that comes from left field, is the moment when Cross is mistaken for Richard Burton by a trio of homeless folks. Murray's sarcasm is great here, but there's an underlying care that he portrays in the character; Cross could have gotten up and left his homeless fans, but instead he fakes his way through a soliloquy as would have made Dick Burton fall out. Murray would fine-tune his lovable jackass persona just in time for "Groundhog Day."