Gutbrain Records

Wednesday, 2 February 2005

I'm a Bill Murray fan and I've seen the movie Groundhog Day several times. Out of curiosity, I just searched around for some info on the accusations of plagiarism directed against it.There were at least two.

One of them involved a short film called 12:01, apparently about a man stuck in a 59-minute time loop. The film, by Jonathan Heap, was based on a short story by Richard Lupoff. According to The Apothecary's Drawer, they "were outraged and tried to go after the rascals who robbed us, but, alas, the Hollywood establishment closed ranks..."

Another person who felt robbed was Leon Arden, the author of a book called The Devil's Trill (a.k.a. One Fine Day). Arden's novel appears to be about a man who is stuck in a one-day time loop. It has a few things in common with the movie Groundhog Day, including a similar romantic plot. Arden sued the movie studio for 15 million dollars and lost. On Maud Newton's blog he's quoted as saying, "I think the worst thing for me... was when all the reviews of the film came through and all of them said how wonderful the idea was. Many said the idea was 'genius'. I can't tell you how bad that felt. Because they were really saying how good I was, but nobody knew."

So, did Groundhog Day steal its idea from either or both of these works? I don't know. I do know that nobody I've mentioned so far is the first person to come up with this idea, genius or not.

On January 1, 1939, The Shadow's radio audience heard "The Man Who Murdered Time", about a mad scientist who uses a time machine to loop New Year's Eve. In anticipation of perpetually reliving these 24 hours, he's borrowed tons of money (which he won't have to pay back) and invited his hated cousin over so he can enjoy the pleasure of murdering him again and again and again. Lamont Cranston is aware of the time loop, thanks to the same mental powers that make him The Shadow, but his resistance is weakening. If he doesn't stop the madman soon, he will also succumb and the whole world will be stuck in the loop forever.

I haven't listened to this episode in a while but I remember a couple of similarities it has with the movie Groundhog Day. In one scene, Lamont demonstrates the loop to Margo Lane by predicting that a waiter is about to drop a tray of dishes. The same scene, with Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell, occurs in Groundhog Day. Also, both stories loop a holiday, not just any old day.

I'm not sure who wrote "The Man Who Murdered Time". At the end of the episode the announcer says that the story "is copyrighted by The Shadow magazine," but I think they always say that. I've glanced at the 264 Shadow novels I've downloaded from Blackmask, but so far none of them appears to have the same plot, though some of the titles — "Time Master", "No Time for Murder", "Happy Death Day", Murder Every Hour", "The Man Who Died Twice" — are promising.