Dickens Goes West in ‘Ebenezer’

Undeterred by the carols in the streets or the good cheer in the air, the card sharp sets about fleecing a homesteader on Christmas Eve. Black hat swooping low over his eyes, the bad guy growls, “Christmas, hogwash.”

Jack Palance plays the tough-talking, hard-drinking, fist-fighting title character in “Ebenezer,” the Wild West retelling of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” that debuts tonight on the TNT cable channel. This Ebenezer Scrooge is no harmless old crank; he’s a gun ready to go off--and that makes his redemption all the more cathartic.

It helps to approach Dickens’ story with this sort of inventiveness nowadays, what with theaters and TV channels flooding the market with competing versions of the tale. Last year, the USA network offered the compelling “Ms. Scrooge,” with Cicely Tyson portraying a title character haunted by America’s racial divisions. This year, “Ebenezer” is setting a mark that all other renditions will have to beat.

Characters old and new mingle in Donald Martin’s screenplay, which director Ken Jubenvill brings to rip-roaring life.

On a fateful holiday eve in the 1870s, a young homesteader played by Rick Schroder drops in for a drink at the saloon run by Palance’s Scrooge. Soon, the young man is caught up in a high-stakes card game (he’s secretly hoping to secure his future and speed up his marriage to the luminous Erica, played by Amy Locane), but because Scrooge plays dirty, the youth ends up moaning, “What was I thinking?” Scrooge spits back, “You were thinking of money, young man. It’s completely understandable. Now, what else is there in this world?”

Scrooge is soon rethinking that very question as spectral visitors--including a Native American Ghost of Christmas Past (Michelle Thrush)--propel him toward a showdown with himself at high noon.

It’s a chilling tour through dark places in the human heart, but there’s plenty of humor to light the way. Saddle up and take the ride.

* “Ebenezer” debuts tonight at 8 on TNT. The network has rated it TV-PG (may not be suitable for young children).