On the 10th day of B-Movie Christmas…
Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964)
Director: Nicholas Webster | Writers: Glenville Mareth, Paul L. Jacobson
Stars: John Call, Leonard Hicks, Vincent Beck
The Martians kidnap Santa Claus because there is nobody on Mars to give their children presents.
-IMDB
1964 was a very interesting year for Christmas films and after The Magic Christmas Tree, I had to make sure to include this on the list. The Martian king and queen consult are worried about their kids on Mars so, naturally, they consult the 900-year-old Hebrew Martian wizard who tells them they need a Santa Claus-like figure in their lives to spark the kids’ imaginations.
There is actually an interesting narrative in there about the negative impacts of raising children too rigidly and promoting freedom of thought. However, the Martian King and Queen are too lazy and/or inept to copy the Santa formula from Earth and just decide to kidnap the real deal instead.
Well, Earth has a lot of people who look like Santa, especially around Christmas. So, as seems to be the Martian custom, they kidnap two kids to help them find the real Santa Claus. Once they get that settled, one of the angry Martians who is against the plan tried to kill Santa and the kids. Can you imagine trying to pitch a Christmas movie in 1974 with a plot like this?
Well, the real Santa survives and builds a toy factory on Mars to supply the Martian kids with toys, obviously, but the angry Martians don’t quit. They sabotage the factory, clumsily, and accidentally kidnap (again) a fellow Martian who wants to be like Santa.
All this is happening with an incredibly low budget, so the robots are basically cardboard, the Martians just wear helmets and capes with green face paint. Totally alien. Santa never really conquers anything either, he sorta just wins over some key people and secures his own release.
Recommendation: If you are in the mood to stretch your Christmas movie boundaries, you can’t stretch them too much further than this.
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