Film Year: 1964
Genre: Fantasy, Comedy
Director: Nicholas Webster
Starring: John Call, Leonard Hicks, Vincent Breck, Bill McCutcheon, Vivtor Stiles, Donna Conforti, Chris Month, Pia Zadora
CT Number: 5
The Movie
This infamously cheap Christmas film tells the story of Martians realizing that their children live monotonous, dull lives. Somewhat envious of the sense of wonder that the children of Earth have, Martians come to Earth to kidnap Santa Claus and make him deliver the Christmas spirit to the children of Mars. However a joyless grump of a Martian named Voldar likes things just the way they are.
HOORAY FOR SANTY CLAUS!
There's a lot of vile spewed toward this movie for being obnoxious and cheap, with a crappy story to back it up. Let's face it, it's a fairly lousy movie and it's easy to dislike.
...but...
I don't know. Maybe I'm just a softy at Christmas, and it's the feel-good optimism of the season that gets to me, but bad holiday movies don't seem to annoy me as much as other people. I even have some deep down, probably misguided, enjoyment in Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. It's a pretty bad movie, but it has something of a schmaltzy heart to it. There's genuine effort to make an enjoyable movie for kids, even if the production values won't allow it.
Does it have aspects that grate me? Absolutely. Droppo is a bit much, and his shtick tends to run way too long and is never really that funny. Voldar is a fairly weak villain, providing a bit of a forced conflict that I strain to become invested in. I find myself gravitating more toward the emotional conflict of the Earth children who have been taken against their will, not really mistreated, but miss their families and their home.
These are mostly the tip of the iceberg on what's wrong with this movie, but I forgive it's sins. This movie's dumb, but harmless.
The Riff
Santa Claus Conquers the Martians wasn't the first time something was re-riffed in this small, incestuous (given the fact most of the high profile projects were made by the same people) world of film riffing. That honor goes to Gamera and the ensuing Sandy Frank catalog in season three of Mystery Science Theater. However the art form had changed so much in the three years it was introduced that nobody really minded back then. There was also What About Juvenile Delinquency?, a short that was on MST that Rifftrax redid, to a lackluster response. Rifftrax had also begun reriffing films Mike Nelson provided audio commentaries for as "Three Riffer Editions" through their site. So this idea of reriffing films was nothing new.
There was something about them redoing Santa Claus Conquers the Martians though that seemed bothersome to some fans. The MST episode is considered a classic, and most of Cinematic Titanic's troupe had contributed to that particular riff (J. Elvis Weinstein and Mary Jo Pehl had nothing to do with it, granted), so there was a fear of nothing new really being brought to the table. The one benifit was that with the passage of time new, more current references could be made to create a new experience.
CT's riff on Santa Claus Conquers the Martians has a little fun pointing out the retreaded film in its intro, in which Trace runs in terror upon hearing the title of the movie, and Joel makes the claim that "Some of us have seen this movie before," to which J. Elvis responds "Not me! HA-HA!"
If I were to give this version the edge in one area then I have to admit that the riffs on the film's comic relief character Droppo are a step up. I got one of my biggest laughs from "Oh, so Chaplin had to leave the country but this guy's allowed to stay?" And then there is an exchange from the characters in the film "Do you think this is some sort of joke?" "Ask Droppo!" to which Trace responds "So you know it's not a joke!" And I'll just say right now my big guilty pleasure riff of this release is "Stop! Droppo Time!" There's some pretty good lines spread throughout this show, though I have to say laughter fell silent occasionally, and during those occasions the sense of familiarity to this movie gets to me. I think that makes this installment a bigger drag than it needs to be, but maybe that's just me.
The look of the Titans' podium has changed with this show, mostly with Joel's area, which has changed a second time. This time he's given a bar railing, similar to what J. Elvis and Trace stand against. I preferred his previous stance, but this might have been due to comfort reasons. We also see further changes as the "Stop the Movie" host segments are limited to one in this outing, which will be the status quo until the live show releases, which have none. Perhaps this is for the best, because the Titans tend to struggle to find more than one skit to amuse per show, though I feel that if they think they can sustain more than one they should use as many as they want (though the Titans' run has ended, so this is a non-point). The lone host segment is a slight goodie, as Joel hands out Christmas presents to the rest of the Titans, though they seem to be too good to be true. I'm also quite fond of the intro, which features Christmas party talk and Trace's prior mentioned terror upon hearing the title.
Cinematic Titanic never reriffed another movie that MST did, though I don't think it was due to negative reception. I think a few people didn't like it, though most I talk to seem to think quite fondly of this experiment. I lean toward the "Meh, it's alright" opinion, myself. I think in the legacy of Cinematic Titanic this one doesn't stand out by any means. Unfortunately I can't get it out of the back of my head that it might have planted the seed in Rifftrax's head that we wanted a lot more of MSTed movies reriffed, as they seemed to have ran with the idea in recent years, up to and including their own riff on Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. I don't mind them occasionally, but they aren't at the top of my "must see" list.
Average
The DVD
Cinematic Titanic released this show on DVD exclusively through their website. The film was a bit pixelated, though picture and audio quality was mostly fine. There were no bonus features.
After the Titans shut down and their DVDs went out of print, Shout Factory released a Complete Collection, of which Santa Claus Conquers the Martians seems to be the same transfer. It shares a disc with the following show, Frankenstein's Castle of Freaks.
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