Santa Claus (1960)

Really Surprised!

A Major Disappointment

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

From his castle above the North Pole in outer space, jolly old "Santa Claus" (Jose Elias Moreno) plays the organ for his workers in Toyland. Santa's helpers are children of "all races and creeds." They dress, work and perform in cultural dress. Like any grade school Christmas show, this long opening segment will be enjoyed by friends and relatives of the kids. Meanwhile, there is trouble brewing in Hell. Intent on destroying Christmas, Satan devilishly orders his dancing demon "Pitch" (Jose Luis Aguirre) to Earth. The mission is to make Earth's children naughty. If kids are behaving badly, Satan believes Santa Claus will become angry and end Christmas..."Santa's most devoted helper, Merlin the wizard," and his personal blacksmith help Santa in a plan to defeat the Devil. A poor Mexican girl resists the urge to steal a doll, but three boys behave badly. If you want to wean your children off Christmas, you could start by showing them this movie. This production is, for the most part, inept. More importantly, the Christian villain (the Devil) doesn't work in the "Santa Claus" story. A mischievous, overworked elf might have made a better antagonist. Two of the better segments occur when a rich boy and a poor girl receive their Christmas gifts. And, it was nice to see Santa poke the squealing Devil in his buttocks, in color.** Santa Claus (11/26/59) Rene Cardona ~ Jose Elias Moreno, Jose Luis Aguirre, Cesareo Quezadas, Armando Arriola

After watching Santa Claus conquer the Martians, this film is a classic. By today's standards, this film looks cheesy but good cheese. The story of Santa Claus who must the devil who really isn't that evil but a nuisance. This Mexican film is quite a treat to watch with its colorful art direction and costumes. The beginning shows children of all cultures in celebrating the Christmas holiday. My film version was dubbed in English with an English narrator. It's the story of good versus bad. The devil here is known as pitch who must answer to Lucifer in hell. Pitch isn't necessarily an evil but funny looking in appearance and mostly causes trouble for Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. This film shouldn't scare children too. This film was included in a Christmas DVD collection.

With the aid of Merlin, Santa Claus must defeat the evil machinations of the devil Pitch to ruin Christmas.Why is this film in the Bottom 100? I wonder these things, having seen numerous Bottom 100 films -- many simply do not deserve to be there, and although it is an honor of sorts, it is one that should be earned. This film is no great feat, but it is far from the worst. Is "Hell's Threshold" in the Bottom 100? No. But it darn well should be! The worst part of this film is the first ten minutes. I really did not need to see every country represented by talentless little toddlers. I got the point after two or three. How many groups were there? Maybe twenty? Oh my! But after that, not a bad film. Pitch is a funny villain, Santa is a good hero. And Merlin, while an odd addition to Christmas, actually makes some level of sense. (Santa has to get his magic somewhere, does he not?)

Santa ClausWith his powers of perception, Santa could easily identify and eliminate bad children before they grew up into threats.Unfortunately, the St. Nick in this fantasy has opted out of selective infanticide.Dispatched by the Devil to turn the children of the world against Santa (José Elías Moreno), Satan's main minion Pitch (José Luis Aguirre) unsuccessfully convinces boys and girls to be bad.He then sets out to personally sabotage the robotic reindeers guiding Santa's sleigh and steal the sleeping dust and magic flower that the mage Merlin gave Santa for protection.A Satanic Christmas story from south of the border, this English dubbed Mexican import from 1959 is poorly shot, acted and scripted. But it's low product value and occult themes have established this as a true holiday cult classic.What's more, after his experience with the children of Mexico Santa decided to outsource his toy manufacturing to them.Red Lightvidiotreviews.blogspot.ca