
by MaureenD
The Wool-Shift-Dust coverage of adaptations of A Christmas Carol and the arrival of Groundhog Day inspired these musings on the similarities and differences between Scrooged (1988) and Groundhog Day (1993).
A Tale of Two Murrays
In both Scrooged and Groundhog Day, Bill Murray portrays — well, let’s say a jerk — as someone motivated by a supernatural experience to become a better person. Scrooged and Murray’s character, Frank Cross, are a direct parallel to Dickens’s novella; thus, he changes in one night. In Groundhog Day, we don’t really know how long it takes Phil, who bears the same name as his nemesis, the groundhog Punxsutawney Phil, to change. According to Original Story Writer Danny Rubin, thousands of years could have gone by. Because his reclamation is so much more convincing in Groundhog Day, one could argue that Bill Murray’s characters are just slow learners. One night wasn’t going to cut it.
Scrooged is a cynical satire about modern society and the television news industry. There is an underlying measure of contempt for productions of A Christmas Carol, wherein lies some of its self-loathing. The film seems primarily interested in presenting wacky alternative universe depictions of Dickens’s characters in gory ‘80s makeup. Thus, Frank is visited by grotesque ghosts that slap him around and spend more time berating than guiding him.
Viewers tend to either love or hate Scrooged. Some may see it as an opportunity to cleanse their cinematic palettes from sugary Christmas adaptations. Today, the film feels dated, not only in its slapstick comedy and Night of the Living Dead makeup but also in its gender roles. Karen Allen’s character, Claire, Frank’s love interest, seems to be on too many anti-depressants. Carol Kane, as the Ghost of Christmas Present, spends most of her screen time beating the crap out of Frank, which is disturbing no matter how much you think he might deserve it. Many plot devices are trite and weak. Anyone who doesn’t guess that Tiny Tim’s stand-in Calvin Cooley will speak at the end must have been out for popcorn. It is not believable that Frank is converted. Spirited (2022) does a better job of modernizing the story without sucking the life out of the original.
Scrooged is Bill Murray without Harold Ramis. Murray should thank his lucky stars for Ramis, who wrote the script not only for Groundhog Day but also for Meatballs (1979), Caddyshack (1980), and, of course, Ghostbusters (1984). Ramis could temper Murray’s acerbic wit and season it with charm. The character of Phil fits Murray like a glove, though remarkably, Ramis initially had Tom Hanks in mind but decided he was just "too nice."
Groundhog Day Gets Right What Scrooged Gets Wrong
Scrooged has little character development, and it is hard to believe that Frank has really changed. But even though some events in Groundhog Day are equally fantastic and even ridiculous, there is sincerity at its core. We are with Phil on his journey, and his final evolution is believable.
Groundhog Day is a brilliantly edited film of a character trapped in the time loop of a repeating day. It was the cinematic inspiration for Edge of Tomorrow (2014). But unlike that later Sci-Fi film, in Groundhog Day, we never learn why Phil’s day keeps repeating. Was there a hidden fairy godmother or a guardian angel? We never find out, and it doesn’t matter. Trapped in the limbo of Punxsutawney, Phil responds with various stages of grief, including eating whatever he wants, robbing banks, and seducing women.
Old Man
In both films, Murray’s character feels responsible for whether a homeless man survives or freezes to death. Groundhog Day's handling of this storyline offers the sharpest contrast to Scrooged’s.
In Scrooged, Frank meets Herman, played by Michael J. Pollard, in a shelter run by Claire.

The slapstick vibe of Scrooge doesn’t give us time to care about Herman, and when he freezes to death, he looks more like an ice sculpture than a real person. The makeup crew must have had carte blanche. Again, Pollard is an excellent character actor, best known for C. W. Moss in Bonnie and Clyde (1967), but here the script and direction fall flat.
Conversely, the storyline of “Old Man” in Groundhog Day is the most poignant in the film.
Phil encounters Old Man, played by Les Podewell, begging as he heads into town. Podewell so perfectly embodies this character that it is easy to forget he is an actor playing a part.
Their interactions trace Phil’s character development.
In their first encounter, Phil avoids giving Old Man money by pretending to search his pockets but quickly walking past him.

But later, as he matures, Phil stops and offers him a wad of cash.

Eventually, Phil discovers that Old Man is dying in an alleyway.

In a really jarring scene, Phil performs mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to try to save his life.

In another scene, Phil takes him to a hospital, but Old Man dies anyway.
When Phil demands to see his chart, the nurse tells him, “Everyone must die.”
Phil responds, “Not today.”

Phil tries many other ways to save Old Man’s life, including feeding him at the town diner. But each time Old Man dies.

These vignettes encapsulate the central themes of the meaning of life, time, death, and reincarnation and add depth to a film that is essentially a rom-com.
Harold Ramis said that for Phil, immortality was a curse; he was a victim, and death would be a gift. This reminded me of Tolkien’s premise that death is the “gift of Ilúvatar,” and it helped me understand it more deeply.
This film doesn’t let the characters or the audience off easily with a quick, sentimental redemption. Phil must learn compassion and acceptance. Because he cannot save Old Man, Phil turns his attention to saving others in the town, such as catching a boy who falls out of a tree, performing the Heimlich maneuver on a man choking in a restaurant, and changing a tire for a stranded group of old ladies.
Phil’s love interest in Groundhog Day is Rita, played by Andie MacDowell. There are many similarities between Rita and Claire: both are idealistic foils to the calculating capitalism of Frank/Phil. However, MacDowell has much more to work with regarding the script and direction and thus can hold onto her dignity.
When Phil finally connects with Rita, she isn’t the trophy he has won. Their relationship is the natural consequence of his spiritual evolution. As Ramis put it, Phil needed to love himself first. Only then is he released from the bardo of the recurring Groundhog Day, able to welcome a new day and possibly Spring, and at last, the song on the radio switches from “I got you, Babe?”
Though Scrooged and Groundhog Day, produced five years apart, share the same leading actor and very similar themes, their enormous difference makes Groundhog Day a must-see whenever it airs. In contrast, Scrooged can easily be put off for another day.
