Ms. Scrooge (1997 TV Movie)

Katherine Helmond: Maude Marley

Quotes 

• Maude Marley : I always did like a big entrance, didn't I? How's tricks, Ebenita?

  Ms. Ebenita Scrooge : Maude?

  Maude Marley : You haven't said a word about my outfit.

  Ms. Ebenita Scrooge : Oh, it can't be Maude. She's dead. I buried her.

  Maude Marley : And rather hastily, I might add. Afraid I might come back to life? Reclaim my possessions? Now I can't.

  [Ebenita reaches for the phone] 

  Maude Marley : No! That line is dead, darling. Save us both time, Ebenita. I'm dead, I'm here, and I'm talking to you. Now, I'll cut to the chase. I actually need your help to rest in peace. That's all anybody ever talks about in the afterlife, how they do things differently. The grass is forever greener, but when I was alive, I lived by one question only: What's in it for me? I'll admit I was a little self-centered then, cared not a whit for the little people. That's why every year, on the anniversary of my death, I have to roam the world and see the happiness I can never share unless...

  Ms. Ebenita Scrooge : Yes?

  Maude Marley : Unless you listen to me and turn your little life around.

  Ms. Ebenita Scrooge : What's so little about my life? Business has never been better. I own three buildings and a house with ten rooms.

  Maude Marley : And how many rooms in your heart and how long will your chain of grief be when you join our miserable band?

  Ms. Ebenita Scrooge : I don't have to do anything.

  Maude Marley : No, you don't. Not if you change. My fellow ghosts will show you how.

  Ms. Ebenita Scrooge : More ghosts?

  Maude Marley : Yes, but tightly organized on the other side. Actually, you'd probably love it for a while. Tight schedules, time clocks, the works. However, the only problem is it never ends. It goes around, and around and around!

  Ms. Ebenita Scrooge : Get away!

  Maude Marley : Anyway, expect your first visitor when the clock strikes midnight, your second visitor at one, and your third at the stroke of two. Regular as clockwork.

  Ms. Ebenita Scrooge : What is the point of all of this?

  Maude Marley : Change, Ebenita, for your sake as well as mine. Either get me out of this or join the crowd forever!

  Ms. Ebenita Scrooge : Ghosts, you can have this place. I'm going to be someplace else!