The movie that brought you "The night the reindeer died" and "Robert Goulet's Cajun Christmas"
This was the first Bill Murray vehicle I saw after Ghostbusters, somewhere in the mid eighties and remember being quite disappointed, as I was excepting something more light and fluffy, not the dark, sometimes painfully cynical adapation of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol. The story is of course quickly told: Heartless arsehole Frank Cross (Bill Murray in maybe his best role. Well, apart from Lost in Translation), the president of TV-network IBC is preparing the most triumphant night of his career: a collection of christmas specials for christmas eve, including the famous The Night the Reindeer Died featuring Lee Majors and a AK-47 toting Santa Claus, an alligator studded Robert Goulet's Cajun Christmas and a live telecast version of A Christmas Carol, featuring mice with stapled antlers, a 3/4 naked female dance troop and Mary Lou Retton.
Urgh.
So he is getting visited by his ex-boss (fresh from Dynasty: John Forsythe as a Zombie. Nice sendup of his eternal casting as a charm dripper) who tells him to expect the usual three ghosts: Christmas past, present and future. Of course they arrive, showing him his personal history and the causes of his cynical and mean life, and shazam: he mends his ways, celebrating christmas spirit live on air in a 15 minute monologue, interrupting his own telecast.
And so happy end ensues.
Now of course this sounds corny, and made in 1988 for Paramount by old action head Richard Donner (of Lethal Weapon, for crying out loud), not particulary known for his emotive directing, this turns this into a christmassy rollercoaster that's a bit gory, a bit funny, a bit touching, but always entertaining. This is not because of the rather tiresome dialogue or the sometimes outright stupid script but for exactly two factors: actors and soundtrack.
As an ensemble comedy, this movie just works. Murray, Robert Mitchum, Karen Allen, the incredible Bob Goldthwait (of Police Academy "fame") just feed of each other, helped by numerous cameos of crappy american soap actors. The soundtrack, composed by Danny Elfman and featuring songs by Miles Davis, Danvid Sanborn, Julian Lennon, Buster Pointdexter and of course Al Green and Annie Lennox is bloody awesome and still a perannial favourite of mine.
Watch it for Murray's one-liners, Carol Keane's Ghost of Christmas Present and for "The night the reindeer died", but not more than once a year, and only in December.
Merry Christmas.