Buy it... if you seek the origination point for many of the holiday and suspense techniques explored with far greater notoriety by Danny Elfman in Batman Returns and The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Avoid it... if you have long awaited an official release of this very short score and expect to hear more original music that compares favorably to the five minutes of outstanding, previously released highlights for full orchestra and choir.

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Scrooged: (Danny Elfman) The 1988 holiday blockbuster Scrooged was overhyped at the time because of the return of elusive and difficult actor Bill Murray to the big screen, though its sarcastic and ultimately redemptive modern adaptation of the classic Charles Dickens tale of 1843, "A Christmas Carol," remains well respected. While Murray's generally flippant demeanor may have seemed too comically nasty for the contemporary television executive filling in for Ebenezer Scrooge, the actor supplied a surprisingly convincing performance on top of his usual sarcastic jabs (ironically making him far less of a disgrace to Dickens' concept than Matthew McConaughey would be in 2009). Murray's character is the stereotype of an evil executive, firing employees on a whim, worried about his career above all else, and incapable of recognizing the true romance right in front of him. When visited by the required three ghosts, he eventually sees a better path, though not before director Richard Donner forces him through some truly gruesome experiences. Extremely disturbing imagery trumps the lighter comedy in Scrooged, though the film's highlight could very well be a combination of the two in an early scene depicting a deviously entertaining television commercial in which acid rain melts civilians, an airliner explodes upon takeoff, and a motorist is seemingly executed in a road rage incident, all in an effort to encourage travelers to stay home and watch television instead. When Donner was first looking for a composer for Scrooged, he reportedly had former collaborator John Williams in mind, though after some diligent convincing, he decided to give a chance to the rising Danny Elfman instead. Known best for ridiculous comedies, Elfman had not yet proven his capabilities in edgier topics. During his busy year of production in 1988, he was afforded two opportunities to re-package his newfound comedy sensibilities with an orchestra into the subversively supernatural realm. The duo of Beetlejuice and Scrooged presented the composer with highly unique topics perfect for such a transition, both exploring gothic territory that would well prepare Elfman for Batman the following year. The twisted holiday spirit of Scrooged especially foreshadowed popular techniques common to Elfman's early years that manifested themselves with greater notoriety in Batman Returns and The Nightmare Before Christmas. The horror elements in Scrooged, particularly when matched with the composer's "la-la" vocal mechanisms, equally previewed his direction with Nightbreed and The Frighteners.

There was initial worry by the filmmakers that Elfman may not be able to capture the darkness necessary to appropriately compliment Scrooged, but Donner was eventually quite pleased with the composer's largely morbid creation. Despite this fact, Elfman did meet resistance for the first time in his career while recording Scrooged, creating alternate takes of several cues and witnessing a substantial portion of his music left unused in the final edit of the movie. Like Michael Kamen in the just prior Die Hard, Elfman integrated a substantial quantity of classical and traditional holiday melodies into his score, though much of this material was dialed out. The composer's biggest impact on Scrooged came in the supernatural material which expresses his primary two themes of grandiose stature in the most robust orchestral and choral ways. The main theme consists of a series of ominous four note phrases (not really original; Toto's Dune arises once again) presented with grim brass resolve immediately in "Main Titles." This idea is reprised for Murray's character as he stomps about the picture with attitude, eventually overtaken by Elfman's secondary identity for the supernatural elements. This cascading theme of paired notes, often laced with faux-innocent choral accents, immediately opens the score and becomes progressively scarier in its statements until it transforms into a funeral march by the horrific "Crematorium" scene. While these two main themes battle in the score's most ambitious orchestral passages, two minor melodies weave in and out of the periphery. Elfman's lightly keyboarded romance theme isn't particularly well realized in the score, though more consistent and stylistically important is a slurred clarinet theme for the character that Murray's executive fires at the outset of the film. Listeners will hear several similarities to Beetlejuice in cues like "Lew's Reprise," thumping piano, eerie dissonant synthetic effects, blurting tuba rhythms, and sour woodwind lines all common to this period in the composer's career. Also recognizable are the trumpet lines in "Waiter Ablaze" and the action bursts in "Wild Cab Ride," clear precursors to Batman. While these passages will be a delight for any Elfman collector, Scrooged is still a score of limited memorable highlights. The statements of the two main themes are always welcome, though while the supernatural motif reaches its natural conclusion in "On Fire," the main theme for Murray's character doesn't really wrap itself up in any way. The optimistic "Big Speech" cue at the end only accompanies the last minute or so of the actor's notable performance in this scene (though Elfman did originally record a much longer feel-good cue for this scene that was rejected) and doesn't satisfyingly mutate the prior themes into a new identity.

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Overall, Scrooged is not a very long score, with less than half an hour of Elfman's original material ultimately placed in context. Regardless of that brevity, though, it for a long time remained an unreleased entity that created a hole in many Elfman collections. Nearly nine minutes of the score was released by Elfman on his "Music for a Darkened Theatre: Volume 1" compilation of 1990, including the cues "Main Titles," "Show Time at IBC," "Elliot Gives Blood," "Waiter Ablaze," "Asylum," and "Crematorium." Those listed cues aren't entirely accurate however, for included in that suite is "Wild Cab Ride," the action highlight of the score. For casual listeners, the suite of music from Scrooged on "Music for a Darkened Theatre: Volume 1" will be a sufficient summary of the best material from the film. Those expecting to hear substantial extensions of those highlights will be disappointed by the rest of the score. In 2011, La-La Land Records finally released Scrooged properly, including the half hour of finished original score and nearly twenty minutes of the extensive traditional and classical material recorded (but not frequently used) for the picture. The only "bonus cue" of note (unless you itch for that nasty piece of electric guitar fear-mongering in "Frank's Promo" for that outrageous commercial of death) is Elfman's original version of "The Big Speech," which stands as one of the composer's earliest purely optimistic orchestral recordings. In the score proper, there are a handful of noteworthy cues to be appreciated on this product in full for the first time. The "Terrorist Attack" on Santa seen at the start of the film includes some straight forward militaristic bravado. The three cues involving Lew, the first ghost, include the most ambitious renditions of the main theme, the final half of "The Hand Grab" especially powerful and foreshadowing Elfman's techniques at handling the concept of falling with trumpets. Also of interest is "The Big Freeze," Elfman's synthetic effects and choral lament over plucked rhythms extremely similar to Beetlejuice. Ultimately, the three highlights of Scrooged are the "Main Title" summary of the two main themes, the action romp in "Wild Cab Ride," and the brilliantly balanced atmosphere of bright, drum-tapped excitement and ominous suspense in "Showtime at IBC." All three of these cues were available in the suite on "Music for a Darkened Theatre: Volume 1," however, diminishing the impact of the fuller album. Sound quality is not spectacular but seems more dynamic than Beetlejuice in most parts. While it's great to appreciate the score's lesser known portions on the limited 2011 product, it is difficult to recommend that album to an audience outside of Elfman's most supportive fanbase. There is definitely a sentimental place for this score, but be aware of the brevity of its highlights and full length. ***   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

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For Danny Elfman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.18 (in 61 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.17 (in 115,373 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.