2 Responses to Christmas past

1. Scott says:

   December 15, 2007 at 10:37 am

   Too funny! They just don’t make movies like they used to. I just barely would have missed the curve on this one in my childhood (I was 3 at the time) but you might be surprised to know that not only did this movie make it to DVD, but Netflix has it. I don’t expect much, but it would probably be fun from a nostalgic point of view. Pia Zadora is in it!
   –The film looks as if it was made in someone’s garage on a budget of $1,000. (“Chad Vader” is as opulent as “Gladiator” in comparison). There is an MST3K version as well. The “polar bear sequence” may be too intense for young viewers.
   –Then again, probably not.
   –Larry

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2. Richard H says:

   December 15, 2007 at 7:12 pm

   Started watching the full Youtube version and gave up about 3 minutes into this classic. My stomach couldn’t take anymore.
   I can’t believe Joseph E Levine produced this…
   This is the man that was the executive producer of films like “The Graduate”, ” The Lion in Winter”, “Long Day’s Journey into NIght”, “Carnal Knowledge”. What the ….?
   No Larry, it was not shoot in someone’s garage for $1,000. But close.
   According to IMBd: “Most of the film was shot in an abandoned aircraft hangar on Long Island, New York.”
   Important techical detail revealed by IMBd: “The Martian guns are actually painted Whammo Air Blasters.”
   Another interesting tidbit from IMBd: “The Air Force stock footage seen as the military “pursues” the Martians is the same footage used in the opening credit sequence of “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb” (1964).”
   Did Stanley Kubrick know this? Did Stanley Kubrick WATCH this movie? “Dr. Strangelove” has footage lifted from “Santa Claus vs. the Martians”? I’m crushed!
   According to IMBd, this the only screenwriting credit for someone called Glenville Mareth. Maybe Dalton Trumbo was the real screenwriter using a front name.
   This would be unlikely though. It was 1957 when Dalton Trumbo won an Oscar for a movie screenplay using a front name because he was blacklisted. He was off the blacklist in 1964 when this classic was made.
   The Director, Nicholas Webster, went on to a career doing T.V. series episodes, but did make another classic Mars movie in 1968 titled “Mission Mars”. The IMBd plot synopsis has this: “Three American astronauts who land on Mars discover the body of a frozen Russian cosmonaut and a mysterious talking orb.” Can’t wait to see that one on Youtube!

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