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Information Exchange => Reader Comments => Topic started by: Andrew on December 21, 2007, 10:26:42 PM



Title: Santa Claus (1959)
Post by: Andrew on December 21, 2007, 10:26:42 PM
Old Saint Nicholas lives in an orbital fortress and uses child labor to keep costs low (the elves had a union).  However, this Christmas might not be so jolly.  A devil named Pitch is out to cause mischief and ruin everything.

Click here to go to the Review (http://www.badmovies.org/movies/santaclaus/)


Title: Re: Santa Claus (1959)
Post by: peter johnson on December 23, 2007, 01:18:50 AM
     You can't mention everything about this movie, but one thing that struck me is the mechanical cat that takes off like a greyhound-racing bunny after Dante decides to chase it instead of Santa --
     Santa also pulls some pretty incredible faces throughout the movie -- faces that have nothing whatever to do with anything happening onscreen.
     I saw this several times as a very young -- 5 or 6 or 7 year old -- child in Kilmarnock, Virginia, as the Fairfax theatre would run it every Christmas as a kiddie matinee.  The whole theatre would erupt in screams when Pitch got the cannon dart in his behind.  Ass humour probably predates Astrolopithecus.
     I recall too that over the years, the print that the theatre used got greener and greener as the colour was bleached out of it, until it started to resemble a green-tinted black & white film with yellow scratches.
Just a plain weird picture . . .
peter johnson/denny crane


Title: Re: Santa Claus (1959)
Post by: Rob Michel on December 23, 2007, 03:02:36 PM
dear lord I wouldn't watch the un-MST3Ked version of this unless i was paid well for my pain and suffering. Saw this on there and it is pretty painful...


Title: Re: Santa Claus (1959)
Post by: Keiper on December 24, 2007, 10:47:45 AM
You made my day with that Burgermeister Meisterburger reference. My Christmas is now complete! Thankyou.


Title: Re: Santa Claus (1959)
Post by: Mr. Director on December 25, 2007, 10:02:15 AM
I have this on DVD, and it's one of my favorite holiday films. I only wish the uncut version was available on home video. The current DVD release omits the scenes of the damned souls being led off to Hell, something I believe every family film needs.


Title: Re: Santa Claus (1959)
Post by: HarlotBug3 on December 26, 2007, 07:31:05 PM
dear lord I wouldn't watch the un-MST3Ked version of this unless i was paid well for my pain and suffering. Saw this on there and it is pretty painful...

I still have this one on my to-watch pile (gotta love the dollar bin) and I'm motivated now twice over! MST3K must have taken this one to the cleaners!

Oh, and don't think we didn't catch Santa's plan to give the boy a baby brother in 9 months...

 :wink: :thumbup:


Title: Re: Santa Claus (1959)
Post by: onionhead on December 28, 2007, 12:00:53 PM
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006HU2YG/badmoviesorg
This is the unedited, unexpurgated, unabridged version that I picked up during the summer.  It hurts, but I think it's worth it.

Quote
EDIT By Andrew:
That is the same version I link to in the review and also the DVD I used to write the review.  However, it does not include the scene with the damned souls being led to Hell like "Mr. Director" mentions above.  I have never seen that scene.


Title: Re: Santa Claus (1959)
Post by: onionhead on December 28, 2007, 03:06:01 PM
Oops, sorry.  I stand corrected.
Yer lucky--it doesn't happen very often.


Title: Re: Santa Claus (1959)
Post by: AmandaW on December 31, 2007, 12:06:30 PM
Oh God I've seen this one...  gotta love how Pitch is ordered to make EVERY CHILD ON EARTH do evil, and he spends pretty much all night on poor little Lupita...


Title: Re: Santa Claus (1959)
Post by: Giant Claw Jr on October 09, 2008, 12:39:53 AM
Tjis along with SANTA CLUASE CONQUES THE MARTIANS,SANTA CLUASE THE MOVIE,POLAR EXPRESS, and CHRISTMAS WITH THE STUPIDS have got to be the worse holiday movies save for that GRINCH movie


Title: Re: Santa Claus (1959)
Post by: Karla on November 19, 2008, 03:40:48 PM
I absolutely adored this film! Definately the BEST Christmas movie!!!!!


Title: Re: Santa Claus (1959)
Post by: FLU-BIRD on December 16, 2008, 11:09:41 AM
was this movie real nessecary to make i mean the devil PITCH looks like the one from  UDERWOODS DEVILED HAM without the pointy tail and its as painful as that crappy ROBIN WILLIAMS movie TOYS


Title: Re: Santa Claus (1959)
Post by: HarlotBug3 on December 16, 2008, 06:13:32 PM
Yes, the bargin bin is a treasure trove.

It's so very cliche, I know, but this is absolutely NOT a movie to watch sober. Use egg nog if you start to feel guilty.



Title: Re: Santa Claus (1959)
Post by: chris on December 26, 2008, 09:41:22 AM
Saw the uncut spanish version on youtube it includes the damned souls being led to hell bit as well as different opening title screen also santa doesn't laugh as much in the spanish version and the narrator doesn't narrated as much, but still has that creepy feel to it anyway. It just doesn't sound as badly dubbed as the english version


Title: Re: Santa Claus (1959)
Post by: Josh on September 27, 2009, 08:48:02 PM
How could you give this horrible piece of turd four slimes?? It deserves a skull, or at least ONE slime! I couldn't even sit through the MST3K version! I can't believe you could sit through the non-riffed version. You're a braver man than I thought.


Title: Re: Santa Claus (1959)
Post by: InformationGeek on December 17, 2009, 06:36:48 PM
I remember seeing the MST3000 verison of this not that long ago and I thought the film was extremely odd and questionable at times with certain things (What's with the illegal child labor there Santa?).

Anyways, very good review and pretty funny as well.  Makes you wonder what the film creators were smokin' when they created this thing.


Title: Re: Santa Claus (1959)
Post by: Flu-Bird on December 18, 2009, 12:06:57 PM
Oh man you talk of stereotyping showing those little african kids  with the bones in their hair and OLD PITCH looks like DARTH-MOL one must wonder JUST WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?


Title: Re: Santa Claus (1959)
Post by: Nukie 2 on December 23, 2009, 09:14:22 AM
Quote
Merlin the Magician invented LSD, angel dust, cocaine, and Splenda.

 :bouncegiggle:

I think I'll watch this now!


Title: Re: Santa Claus (1959)
Post by: noodles on December 24, 2009, 10:17:16 PM
After reading this review a little over a week ago I had no choice but to watch the movie and managed to find a really cheap copy on eBay. It arrived this morning, just in time for Christmas, and I just finished it. Until I find something worse, this is the movie I will watch every Christmas. The horribleness is just too funny. :bouncegiggle: Thank you for leading me to find my new favorite bad Christmas movie.  :teddyr:


Title: Re: Santa Claus (1959)
Post by: Andrew on December 27, 2009, 10:56:44 AM
After reading this review a little over a week ago I had no choice but to watch the movie and managed to find a really cheap copy on eBay. It arrived this morning, just in time for Christmas, and I just finished it. Until I find something worse, this is the movie I will watch every Christmas. The horribleness is just too funny. :bouncegiggle: Thank you for leading me to find my new favorite bad Christmas movie.  :teddyr:

Very welcome, and you'll probably be hard-pressed to find an oddity that is more enjoyable than that one.  It's still one of my b-movie holiday favorites!


Title: Re: Santa Claus (1959)
Post by: SecondClassCinema on December 22, 2014, 09:38:35 AM
What a great review and media package for this movie!  We recently reviewed this for our b movie podcast and it was a good time.


Title: Re: Santa Claus (1959)
Post by: Pacman000 on December 31, 2018, 02:43:26 PM
Finally saw this one too.

First thought: This movie had a budget; the sets are too large & ornate for a quick cheapie. And indeed it did have some resources behind it; it was filmed at Mexico's largest film studio. The cinematography is poor, but the few bits pieces of old Mexican movies I've seen are poorly shot. The dancers' choreography seemed off too; even if this movie wasn't cheap I'll bet it was made in a hurry. They needed more time to practice.

The parts in Santa's workshop aren't too unusual; they're just fleshing bits of a legend that's usually just left to the imagination, with a bit of modernization thrown in. How does Santa keep an eye on kids? Advanced Spy Gear. Where does Santa's magic come from? Merlin.

Some of the exact details are freaky tho. Santa's spy gear includes a Martian Eye from War of the Worlds!? And I expected one of those giant flowers to try to eat Merlin; The Little Shop of Horrors must've made a deeper impression than I thought.

And then there's Pip, the demon who tempts kids. You know what? His presence makes sense. A movie needs a bad guy; so they took the phrase "the Devil made me do it" literally. And he even gets a good line "they hear me as their own thoughts," said while he's coolly laying on a window ledge, taunting a treed Santa Claus.

This is the only movie I know which riffs itself. "No time for playing horsey, Merlin! Santa's in Trouble."