The Christmas Star

Unrepentant convict Horace McNickle (Edward Asner) escapes from prison by stealing the Santa Claus costume during the Salvation Army party. Vicious landlord Mr. Sumner (Rene Auberjonois) intends to evict everyone during the holiday season. Money is tight for the Jameson family and they're one of those being evicted. Young boy Billy Jameson finds Horace sleeping in the basement and believes him to be the real Santa Claus. Police detective Waters (Fred Gwynne) suspects that Horace is after his missing stolen loot.

This is essentially a Christmas Carol with two Scrooges. It's uber-cute when the kids come down to the basement to sit on Santa's lap. This may work better if McNickle gets visited by the three ghosts of Christmas throughout the movie. Instead, it takes a surreal turn in the last act to do its own version of Christmas ghost. The encounter between McNickle and Sumner also needs to be expanded and revised. This is an interesting murkier take on the many Christmas movies.