22 minutes, 22 seconds: Scrooged

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Welcome to a brand new blog feature on Pfangirl Through the Looking Glass - 22 minutes, 22 seconds. I'll admit I was heavily inspired by the 20:07 series over at one of my favourite movie blogs, The Film Experience, but imitation is the highest form of flattery. Or so they say...

Anyway, the idea behind 22 minutes, 22 seconds is for me to dig into my DVD collection and screen capture what's happening 22 minutes and 22 seconds into my favourite films. Why this specific moment in a movie's running time? Well, 2 reasons:

1) 22 is my favourite number.
2) Normally with films, by the time 22 minutes have passed, character and plot basics have been established and it's time for the movie to really get rolling. It's a point where some very interesting, often pivotal, events take place.

Seeing as we're in the lead-up to Christmas at the moment, I think it's appropriate to start off this feature with some festive hits of yesteryear.

First up: Bill Murray's 1988 comedy, Scrooged, which put a distinctly 1980s spin on Charles Dickens' classic tale about a nasty miser who is forced to re-examine his life on Christmas Eve when he's visited by 4 spirits.

In this scene, Murray's Frank Cross has just woken in his office after an encounter with the deteriorating corpse of his former boss and mentor (John Forsythe) - who, in his anger at Frank's selfishness, drops him from the skyscraper window. Frank opens his eyes here to find his phone mysteriously auto-dialing his long-lost love, Claire (Karen Allen), a social worker.


The call goes through to Claire's answering machine and Frank dives for the phone.

*Beep*
Frank: Claire! This is Frank. Cross. I know it's been 15 years since we talked but - but I really need to talk to you right now.


And so begins Frank's change of heart as he realises he's spent his whole life prioritising the wrong things...

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