Santa Claus (1960)

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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

I want to say, right from the start, that this film is boring, the pacing is unbelievably slow, every single scene takes a really long time. The film is also pretty poorly made, with bad set design, and poor acting but those are minor details compared to the all pervading slow pacing. You cannot fathom how boring a film could be until you have seen this, trust me, watching paint dry is more exciting.The lack of action aside, I consider it a pretty good film, not as the children's movie it is supposed to be, because this is not for children. What I like about it is how messed up this stuff is; let me give you a few examples.The film starts with an introduction of Santa's workshop which is not run by elves, but by children, Santa seems to think child labor is a good thing. To make it even more offensive, the children are all a bunch of racial stereotypes. Further more, Santa spies on all the children of the world with his high tech surveillance equipment built by the clearly deranged wizard Merlin. After watching a few of the children's rather creepy dreams, Santa goes down to earth to deliver presents but ends up fighting Satan instead. I tell you, this stuff is bizarre, I just wonder how they were able to make it so boring.

Feliz Navidad. i mean that from the bottom of my heart. i'm sorry that most reviewers here showed their other bottom to this interestingly quaint film. to all of the gringo schmucks in this country that trash anything that seems too different or foreign...Hello! this film is a foreign film from another culture. of course it seems foreign and strange to Americans. but be honest. no stranger or more convoluted or complicated than half the nonsense we watch here. is this movie really any weirder than 'Avatar' or 'The Matrix' or any of the endless parade of weirdness on the sci fi channel or in all these idiotic reality shows? probably not.i like this Christmas movie. i think it's kind of imaginative and really very lavishly produced. and yes. i think it's still pretty strange even though i have tried to come to terms with it and understand it. look. i first saw this on MST 3000 and thought it was one of the strangest films i'd ever seen. considering all the really strange entertainment i have exposed myself to most of my life, that really said something. i was immediately taken with the film and made an effort to find out more about it and acquire it on DVD. whatever you may think of the quality of this production, most people who reviewed it seemed to think it stood out good or bad. some people even claim it's the worst ever. if it's the worst EVER, that's quite an achievement.it's hardly the worst ever. but is it genuinely a good film? this is kind of scary, but i'm not sure. i believe in reserving too much judgment, so i'm not sure if my brains have become wack from too much tolerance. when i was younger i used to sit back and cackle and trash every bad movie i saw. now that i'm much older i think the subject of bad movies and entertainment is more complicated. i try to understand the films and the filmmakers more, rather then just sharpening my knives and attacking them. there is so much misunderstanding in the world and people should also realize that every judgment they make comes with a lot of baggage of preconceived notions. i really shouldn't have to tell any of you that.this film is not without quality. the production looks like it had more money sunk (did i say sunk? doesn't sound good) into it than a lot of so-called bad movies. it features a fairly authentic Santa Claus and some striking enough surrealism. the Little red haired kid with the bouffant hair style looks like a kid designed by Henry Selick.speaking of Selick. this whole movie sort of out bones Selick's 'Monkeybone'. it's very surreal but i don't think it really understands how over the top it's being with the whole "pitch" thing, the laughing reindeer, and Lupita's dream sequence with some scary life-sized rag dolls.i do have to also add how hilarious the American stereo type was. American whites have so classically stereo typed so many cultures and ethnicities that they deserve the weird stereo type this film has of America. when all the little children of the world sing in an international sequence, they show all the children of the world in there cultural attire. when it comes to the United States, they show children dressed in cowboy outfits strumming a guitar and singing "mary had a little lamb". well. how insulting. not all Americans are frick'in cowboys and not all Anglos sing the Anglo/English song "mary had a little lamb. but we deserve that weird condescension.all in all i think this movie is one strange hoot. but i love it. just like the American Christmas classics 'Frosty' or 'Rudolph', i welcome this off the wall classic from Estudios Churubusco in Mexico. it now seems like the holidays wouldn't be the same without it. "FELIZ NAVIDAD" to everyone around the world. and especially from all us Cow boys and girls here in the States i sing, "mary had a little lamb all ya dawgies. yee haw".