Power Pictures, Wishire Court Productions
Cicely Tyson, Katherine Helmond, Michael Beach, John Bourgeois, Rae’Ven Larrymore Kelly, Karen Glave, Ken James
Yet another modern update on the Scrooge story. This one is very consistent in following the original story and at the same time updating it to modern times pretty well. Cicely Tyson is Ebonita Scrooge, a banker with a secret room that is a vault for counting the money. She learned through hardships early on to only look out for herself. Maude Marley was a tough taskmaster, but then partners with Ebonita until she died and was buried on Christmas day so as not to lose a day of work. You get the idea.
Some of the changes are somewhat strange, considering how close to the original most of the story is. Here, there’s no nephew. Instead it’s Reverend Luke (Michael Beach) who is trying his best to reach Ebonita but she’s not interested. Then there’s the fact that she shows up at Cratchit’s house on Christmas Day, unlike the original. But the modern update works pretty good, and this is one of the best woman Scrooges I have seen.
This is not a bad rendition of the holiday tale. It’s not perfect, but it’s not that far off.
** Ms Scrooge (1997),
