Santa Claus Conquers the Martians
| Santa Claus Conquers the Martians | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Nicholas Webster |
| Produced by | Paul L. Jacobson |
| Screenplay by | Paul L. Jacobson |
| Story by | Glenville Mareth |
| Starring |
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| Music by | Milton DeLugg |
| Cinematography | David L. Quaid |
| Edited by | Bill Henry |
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Production
company |
Jalor Productions
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| Distributed by | Embassy Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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81 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $200,000 (estimated) |
Santa Claus Conquers the Martians is a 1964 American science fiction horror comedy film directed by Nicholas Webster, written by Paul L. Jacobson based on a story by Glenville Mareth, stars John Call as Santa Claus, and features an eight-year-old Pia Zadora as one of the Martian children. The film also marks the first documented appearance of Mrs. Claus in a motion picture (Doris Rich plays the role), coming three weeks before the TV special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer also featured the character.
The film was critically panned at the time of release and regularly appears on lists of the worst films ever made. It is regularly featured in the "bottom 100" list on the Internet Movie Database, and was featured in an episode of the 1986 syndicated series, the Canned Film Festival. The film took on newfound fame in the 1990s after being featured on an episode of the comedy series Mystery Science Theater 3000. The episode became a holiday staple on the Comedy Central cable channel in the years following its 1991 premiere. It has since found new life again, as it has been the subject of new riffing by Cinematic Titanic and RiffTrax, both productions of former MST3K writers and performers. Similar series, such as "The Best of the Worst" series produced by RedLetterMedia, have refused to review it because of its extremely poor quality. The film was also featured on the current run of Elvira's Movie Macabre.
The story involves the people of Mars, including Momar ("Mom Martian") and Kimar ("King Martian"). They're worried that their children Girmar ("Girl Martian") and Bomar ("Boy Martian") are watching too much Earth television, most notably station KID-TV's interview with Santa Claus in his workshop at the North Pole. Consulting the ancient 800-year-old Martian sage Chochem (a Yiddish word meaning "genius"), they are advised that the children of Mars are growing distracted due to the society's overly rigid structure; from infancy, all their education is fed into their brains through machines and they are not allowed individuality or freedom of thought.
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Wikipedia