Film Year: 1959
Genre: Fantasy
Director: Rene Cardona, Ken Smith
Starring: Jose Elias Moreno, Jose Luis Aguirre, Lupita Quezadas
MST Season: 5
The Movie
Before Tim Allan put on the suit, before Christmas Almost Wasn't, and before he even Conquered the Martians, Santa Claus starred in this weird little number from Mexico. Being the uncultured American swine that I am, I'm not fully certain what the lore of Santa Claus in Mexico really is. But I wonder if 1959's Santa Claus Mexican film is any indication of what it's like whether or not our interpretation of the myth is just as strange to them as this film is to us.
Santa Claus is the mythological man who gives presents to good children all over the world every Christmas, though in this instance he lives on the moon instead of the North Pole, enslaves children instead of elves, and is serviced by Merlin the Wizard for magical spells that allow him to do his job every year. This year a devil named Pitch intends to harass Santa, prevent children from getting presents, thus leading them to grow up to be rotten and bad so the gates of Hell will welcome more souls. Santa tries to overcome Pitch's tricks and complete his mission, as they contend for the soul of a poor girl named Lupita, who only wants a doll for Christmas.
If you give credit where credit is due, Santa Claus is a very interesting film to watch. It's inventive and imaginative and it's constantly doing something...interesting. There's also something that needs to be said about how it incorporates further Christian values into Christmas instead of treating Santa as a toy machine for everyone. The idea it presents is that Santa rewards one's morality and encourages them to continue to be a good person, while those who are bad risk turning down a dark path to the dark afterlife that could await them. Lupita is a very good focus point in this movie, because it's very easy to feel for her. It's clear she lives a hard life and she tries to make the best of it without turning her back on the morals she has been taught, and the audience genuinely wants her to get the one gift she asked for because we feel she deserves it.
But it's not as simple to judge a movie based on its good intentions. Santa Claus is an acid trip. It's a weird world, shot strangely, and brought to life almost nightmarishly. There are so many freaky designs thrown in our faces, with robot reindeer, giant mouths on a giant computer, and literal depictions of the depths of hell. It's a strange and surreal trip, one that might be worth watching if you're interested in movies that will throw everything it has at you, and then pull something different out of its ass five minutes later.
Santa Claus might have been a favorite movie of mine on the show if it weren't somewhat sluggish. It takes a while to get going and even when it does it doesn't have a full forward momentum. Santa Claus is never boring, but at times it tries to be. It's almost as if it's daring us to be bored by going into two different directions. And that aspect makes my head hurt.
Santa Claus is the mythological man who gives presents to good children all over the world every Christmas, though in this instance he lives on the moon instead of the North Pole, enslaves children instead of elves, and is serviced by Merlin the Wizard for magical spells that allow him to do his job every year. This year a devil named Pitch intends to harass Santa, prevent children from getting presents, thus leading them to grow up to be rotten and bad so the gates of Hell will welcome more souls. Santa tries to overcome Pitch's tricks and complete his mission, as they contend for the soul of a poor girl named Lupita, who only wants a doll for Christmas.
If you give credit where credit is due, Santa Claus is a very interesting film to watch. It's inventive and imaginative and it's constantly doing something...interesting. There's also something that needs to be said about how it incorporates further Christian values into Christmas instead of treating Santa as a toy machine for everyone. The idea it presents is that Santa rewards one's morality and encourages them to continue to be a good person, while those who are bad risk turning down a dark path to the dark afterlife that could await them. Lupita is a very good focus point in this movie, because it's very easy to feel for her. It's clear she lives a hard life and she tries to make the best of it without turning her back on the morals she has been taught, and the audience genuinely wants her to get the one gift she asked for because we feel she deserves it.
But it's not as simple to judge a movie based on its good intentions. Santa Claus is an acid trip. It's a weird world, shot strangely, and brought to life almost nightmarishly. There are so many freaky designs thrown in our faces, with robot reindeer, giant mouths on a giant computer, and literal depictions of the depths of hell. It's a strange and surreal trip, one that might be worth watching if you're interested in movies that will throw everything it has at you, and then pull something different out of its ass five minutes later.
Santa Claus might have been a favorite movie of mine on the show if it weren't somewhat sluggish. It takes a while to get going and even when it does it doesn't have a full forward momentum. Santa Claus is never boring, but at times it tries to be. It's almost as if it's daring us to be bored by going into two different directions. And that aspect makes my head hurt.
The Episode
It's become something of a tradition that each host of the series gets to riff their own Christmas movie, providing a rotation of holiday specials depending on who you might favor. Mike is offered his chance less than ten episodes in, whether he's ready for it or not, and he's given a film that's much stranger than his fellow hosts had to contend with. Stranger than Santa Claus Conquers the Martians? Surely you jest! Oh boy, if only it were an exaggeration...
Santa Claus is an open target for whatever the series wants to throw at it. It invites it. It likes it. It feels as if it's getting off on the reactions of the viewer. That might be half the fun of this episode alone, because this movie is certainly one of a kind. The riffing thrown at it is a pretty solid reactionary riff, though the film's tendency to meander sometimes causes my interest to wander. It becomes very tedious early on during an extensive and mildly offensive "Children around the world" sequence where Santa plays an organ while kids in stereotypical garbs from various countries sing native songs. Mike and the Bots put their tongues in their cheeks and try to amp up the offensive nature to an absurdist level, and while it's kinda funny it is just telling the same joke for too long and it becomes dull. The further the movie ramps up the more enjoyable the riffing experience becomes, as it's just such a cuckoo world this movie offers and there is a lot of room to play. It can be said that maybe they safely coast on the craziness of the movie too often, and when the movie slows down that can be a problem, but it's a fun episode overall.
The holiday host segments aren't exactly favorites of mine, though I do quite like the gift exchange, especially Mike's "Joike" sweater (see, Gypsy started knitting it for the other guy and...). The song, "Marry Christmas, If That's Okay" is cute but it's no "Patrick Swayze Christmas." The Bots trying to contact Mike's family "The Nelsons" is one-note, but fine. The Santa Klaws band is...interesting. These segments don't really generate a lot of enthusiasm in general from me.
Santa Claus is a good, funny episode but for me it fails to really leave an impression (other than the bizarre movie itself), though it's popularity shows that I'm in the minority on that. For me it's no match for Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, but it was a solid effort to live up to it. It's worth putting on during the holiday season, though most of the time I'll be doing one of my Christmas errands as it plays in the background.
Good
The DVD
Santa Claus slid down our chimneys in Shout Factory's Volume XVI set, with solid video and audio. Special features kicked off with a twenty minute documentary called Santa Claus Conquers the Devil, a look back on the production of this weird holiday treat and interviews with Kevin Murphy and Paul Chaplin reflecting on the episode and their own battle as Santa and Pitch. There is also a theatrical trailer, a radio spot, and a stills gallery. The disc concludes with a promo for The Wonder World of K. Gordon Murray documentary. This disc shares a lot of bonus features with VCI's release of the uncut feature film, though the Conquers the Devil documentary is extended with MST info.
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