Santa Claus (1959)

[InformationGeek]

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.

[Flu-Bird]

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?

[Nukie 2]

Merlin the Magician invented LSD, angel dust, cocaine, and Splenda.

I think I'll watch this now!

[noodles]

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. Thank you for leading me to find my new favorite bad Christmas movie.  

[Andrew]

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. Thank you for leading me to find my new favorite bad Christmas movie.  

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!

[SecondClassCinema]

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.

[Pacman000]

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."