Ebenezer

Elevator pitch, "Ebenezer" is Dicken's "A Christmas Carol" but retold in the old west. It is a made for TV movie from 1998, so keep that in mind when judging the movie, the low budget it evident in several scenes throughout the movie. With the story now taking place in this classic western setting, you want more than just doing the same thing but in a different town. The movie does capitalize and incorporates old west flavor into the story. There is gold rush, card playing and duels. Not all these elements work well in the story, but it is a nice change of pace to have them.

For my Christmas Carol nitpicks: Tiny Tim isn't tiny enough. He is too obsessed with Scrooge. The Cratchets Turkey is too big. Scrooge is watching too many of the flashbacks from the street. And the ghost of Christmas Past did nothing to improve his outlook on Christmas, if anything it makes him hate the holiday more.

It is a nice mix up to the classic tale, but the two elements still work better separately.

If it wasn't for Jack Palance I'd probably only rate this a 2* Instead of Victorian England the setting is the Old West and Ebenezer (Jack Palance) is a lying cheating card shark and money lender, the story feels watered down and the performances from Ricky Schroder and Amy Locaine are as wooden as my dining room table However Jack Palance is actually a great Ebenezer and his transformation is a more believable than a lot of other Actors who have played Scrooge.

It's worth watching for Palance's performance but it's far from the best retelling of a Christmas Carol.

Although Dickens' tale is "Westernized" (it's hard to imagine Scrooge getting into fistfights and high noon shootouts as he does in this movie), it works here, thanks to the performance of Jack Palance. He also does a decent tale of playing the redeemed and transformed Scrooge. Some versions have Scrooge convert too readily, or the folks he previously screwed over accepting him too easily.

Palance's Scrooge "converts" just slowly enough that it's believable. Also, the townsfolk are at least initially reluctant to accept his transformed version.

There are also some interesting variations. Scrooge actually gets to see his future self's last few actions in life (most versions just kill him off-screen, leaving Scrooge to face his corpse or hear people talk about how he died).

Weak spots include some really bad dialogue ("You're my favorite nephew" - "I'm your only nephew!") and mediocre casting of the first two Spirits. There's also a subplot with the last person Scrooge ripped off, Sam Benson, which awkwardly interrupts the Spirits' visits.

Overall, though, the movie's strength lies in Palance's performance, and it's a great one. I'd say he's the best Scrooge (albeit an American/Western one) since Sim.

I caught this umpteenth reformulation of the Dicken's tale quite by accident--and it was truly like watching an accident happen. Awful does not capture the turgidity of this misbegotten project--"A Christmas Carol" set in the Klondike. True, it does have Jack Palance as the Scrooge character; but even Mr. Palance needs a script and a director--both of which are missing here. His performance, over the top and nasty though it is, is the only thing worth watching. The script captures none of the detail / feeling of the original story and Scrooge isn't very interesting--just mean and nasty. No original innocence. The actors, as in alot of made for TV movies all have a cookie cutter sameness--like they were mostly gotten from modeling agencies. The idea "might" have been workable if a little humanity and humor been present in the script and few decent actors been hired. Watch Alastair Sim, George C. Scott for great Scrooges--or Michael Caine (no slouch) in "A Muppet Christmas Carol" if you are in a more whimsical vein--but pass this one by.

This was a very good re-telling of the "Christmas Carol" story. I really liked the slight changes in the end and think others will as well if, like me, they take every opportunity to watch Scrooge! Take a chance on this one and live a little.