ironhorse_iv Review of Santa Claus

Santa Claus (1959)

What the hell am I watching!? Mexican Santa Claus is out of this world weird.

[3/10 · 7 January 2021]

Heavily lampoon on the Season 5, Episode 21 of 'Mystery Science Theater 3000', this 1959 Mexican fantasy film directed by Rene Cardona has St. Nick (José Elías Moreno) battling a demon named Pitch (José Luis Aguirre 'Trotsky') for the souls of the children of Earth. Without spoiling the movie too much, there are two versions: The original Spanish language film & a poorly edited English dubbed producer cut that was released under the direction of Ken Gordon Murray in the 1960s. Not only does the American version of the Christmas flick featured only limited production credits and no cast information. At least one brief scene of Satanic cult-like priests in white robes and hoods marching through the deserts of Hell was cut & damage. For decades, the original film was approximately three minutes longer than the 94 minutes version seen in the United States. Now with the internet, audiences can view both of them. Regardless of which version you watch, the Eastmancolor process use in this was poorly and cheaply done. The Earth-like color tones were particularly unstable, ugly looking and highly prone to fading. It was awful looking. Not in good quality. To add onto that, the film was supposed to be semi religious and dreamlike. Yet it comes across more like a semi nightmarish fuel movie with the excess visuals of white smoke and flashes of blinding bright lights. Writer Adolfo Torres Portillo was probably drunk on agave full bottles of tequila when he created this. After all, this motion picture features bloodcurdling laughing from 'Evil Dead' haunting like Christmas animatronics, offensive "It's a small world' stereotypical child slaves, and scenes of out of place Roman blacksmith god Vulcan (Ángel Di Stefani) and British wizard Merlin (Armando Arriola) cooking spells as if they were characters from 'Breaking Bad'. Furthermore, by having most of the film's location take place on three floating cloud castles full of Peeping Tom machines made with over sexualized body parts in the fifth dimension; it caused more people to freak out! It's probably more than seeing unusual children asking Santa Claus for machine guns, submarines and some Uranium-238 as Christmas gifts. Despite the creepy visuals. The movie does set an alright morality tale between two children and the temptation to do wrong. One of them Lupita (Lupita Quezadas) has nothing but the love of her family to get by, the other Billy (Antonio Díaz Conde Hijo) has everything he wants except his family's love. Seeing the movie deal heavily with them is an emotional rollercoaster; especially in moments where one of them beg his parents to stay with him and the other questions why gifts are never around. You might shed a tear regardless of the fact that the English dialogue does not match the lips of the characters at all. I just wish the flick had better solutions to those problems than Santa slipping a cocktail that cause the rich boy's parents to remember their child and a giant doll for the poor girl. I felt that both stories should had been intermingled in the climax. Have Billy's parents give Lupita's father a job after seeing how much he's willing to risk to get a doll for his own daughter. Thus, Billy's parents learn a life lesson's themselves; sending off a redemption arc to reconnect with their own son. Instead of Lupita's family still ending up dirt poor. As for humor & action. The movie's home alone booty trap comedy is a mixed bag. It's hilarious at certain parts. Yet some of the exposition parts doesn't really played much of a factor such as the case of Santa going hungry as he can only eat food from the Fifth Dimension. Nor did we saw Pitch force feed chocolate ice cream for his punishment. It was no Chekhov's gun. Regardless the interaction that the actor had with Trotsky was fun to watch. Surprising Moreno was pretty good as Santa Claus for somebody known prior as generally being cast as gang members. He really did know how to act when dealing with small children even if several of them reappear in other roles as Santa's helpers. As for K. Gordon Murray's narrative. I didn't like how he was incapable of letting scenes play out. He always has to spell things out with his commentary as if the audience was complete morons. It also doesn't help that Murray does the voice of Lucifer. It really did seem like he was talking down on people. Another problem with the film is the background music. The filmmakers overused 'Jingle Bells' way too much. It's ear worming. Overall: While the motion picture does have flaws. It's still a 'so bad, it's good' kind of a watch. To add onto that, the film is not as annoying & idiotic as other similar XMAS bottom feeder movies like 1964 'Santa Claus Conquers the Martians' and 1972 'Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny'. Still, it will be a snowball's chance in hell that I will ever revisit this film. "Santa Claus' is only good for morbid curiosity. A onetime watch.