Ebenezer ★★½ 1997 (PG)

Ebenezer (Palance) is a crumedgeonly crook in the wild west who doesn't believe in Christmas and even cheats at poker. He's told by the ghostly Jacob Marlowe (Halliday) to change his ways or else—and Ebenezer is visited by several spirits that show him the error of his ways. A western version of Charles Dickens' “A Christmas Carol” that's quite colorful. 94m/C VHS . Jack Palance, Rick Schroder, Amy Locane, Albert Schultz, Richard Halliday, Richard Comar, Michelle Thrush, Susan Coyne, Joshua Silberg, Morris Chapdelaine; D: Ken Jubenvil; W: Donald Martin; C: Henry Lebo; M: Bruce Leitl. CABLE

Ebenezer the name of the memorial stone set up by Samuel after the victory of Mizpeh, when the Israelites recovered the ark of the Lord from the Philistines (1 Samuel 7–12); in Hebrew the name means ‘the stone of help’, and from this the term has come to be used for a Nonconformist chapel.