Santa Claus Conquers The Martians....an appreciation thread

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Chip TRG, Nov 15, 2008.

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  1. Chip TRG

    Chip TRG Senior Member Thread Starter

    That's right...you heard me.

    This movie has everything......Pia Zadora as a kid alien.....An evil alien that looks like the leader of the Jim Croce fan club......Alien names like Voldar and Dropo......the fact that it was shot in an old airport hanger on Long Island.....AND the fact that it even uses the same stock footage of Air Force Bombers that was seen in DR. STRANGELOVE.

    Bash it if you will, and believe me, it deserves every degrading comment you can come up with, but I really do want to know where I can find the cleanest copy of this movie on DVD. It runs rampant among the $1 Public Domain DVD's, which, of course, all look like crap from various garbage sources. Has there ever been a decent release of this classic dud that I love so much?

    And to quote Santa......

    Oh, no, I'm not tired. But my finger is!
     
  2. BradOlson

    BradOlson Country/Christian Music Maven

    I have the Westlake DVD and it's not that great a print either.
     
  3. JamieC

    JamieC Senior Member

    Location:
    Detroit Mi USA
    I remember when this came out it was weekend matinees. You know, movies aimed at a theatre of kiddies hopped up on Kool Aid and Raisinettes. Sort of a one weekend only kinda thing.
    I picked up a dollar DVD on Eastwest this week(Santa Claus "Defeats" the Aliens-love their title changes). Haven't watched the thing yet.
     
  4. mike65!

    mike65! Senior Member

    Location:
    Connecticut
    I picked up the dvd for a buck at Target a year ago, this one done by PC Treasures. The quality isn't that bad. The colors are somewhat saturated, which is better IMO than being washed out. The sound wasn't futzed with either, a tad hissy, probably no NR from the print source.

    It also has the cartoon shorts The Night Before Christmas and Somewhere In Dreamland.

    Over all, a dollar well spent. :thumbsup:
     
  5. reechie

    reechie Senior Member

    Location:
    Baltimore
  6. Steve-oh

    Steve-oh Senior Member

    Location:
    Michigan, USA
    I loved the Mystery Science Theater 3000 gang's commentary on this, and now many of those folks are working on a similar project, Cinematic Titanic, where they are soon to release a new round of commentary:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44BV-5BTry0

    EDIT: Ah, Reechie beat me to it.
     
  7. BradOlson

    BradOlson Country/Christian Music Maven

    Valley Star's VHS copy of this movie uses the "Defeats The Aliens" title as well.
     
  8. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    I saw this movie in the theater when I was 10, and I thought it was the biggest piece of cr@p I'd ever seen. Horrible movie.

    There are some movies that fall into the "so bad, they're good" category. This one goes from "so bad, through good/unintentionally funny, then all the way to horrible and beyond." Unwatchable.

    The rights on the film are all screwed up, so I think nobody knows who owns the negative or where it is. I think everything that's been released on home video is all from public-domain prints, most of them 16mm TV prints, so they look awful.

    Getting good negative or IP elements on PD titles like this is a nightmare. And then when some company does this, another video company can come along and just steal the transfer and release it under their own name. (This happened on a project I worked on in the late 1980s, a great transfer of Abbott & Costello's Africa Screams from a near-perfect 35mm print.)
     
  9. JBStephens

    JBStephens I don't "like", "share", "tweet", or CARE. In Memoriam

    Location:
    South Mountain, NC
    I love it! The very epitome of bad cinema, right up there with Plan Nine.

    Kenner Air Blaster weapon - $7.00.
    Gas pipe fittings for helmets - $3.98.
    Crush them, crush them Torg, do as I say! - Priceless.
     
    Chip TRG likes this.
  10. ChrisM

    ChrisM Reclusive Enabler

    Location:
    SW Ontario, Canada
    It appears that more than a few of us saw this at the Saurday matinee when we were kids. I saw that they ran it on TV a few years ago. Only managed to catch a few minutes of it. Horrible print! I'd probably pick it up on DVD for a buck if I saw it.

    Cheers,
    Chris
     
  11. JamieC

    JamieC Senior Member

    Location:
    Detroit Mi USA
    Well THAT explains why Africa Screams looks so good for a cheapie. Nice work, hope you got paid.
     
  12. Henry the Horse

    Henry the Horse Active Member

    I also saw this at a matinee when it was first released. Does anyone remember/know what year?
    It was one of the first movies I saw in a theater.
     
  13. BradOlson

    BradOlson Country/Christian Music Maven

  14. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    That mastering session was supervised by Bob Furmanek (brother of the famous Ron), who knew the Lou Costello family pretty well. Somehow, they were involved with the laserdisc release in the late 1980s. Looked really good.

    It's just like audio: 90% of making old stuff look & sound good is just getting good materials to work with. Without that, you spend most of your time putting bandaids on problems, which is a total drag.
     
  15. guy incognito

    guy incognito Senior Member

    Location:
    Mee-chigan
  16. Henry the Horse

    Henry the Horse Active Member

    Are you sure about the year? I thought I was younger than that when I first saw it. The memory plays tricks sometimes.
     
  17. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host

    Believe it or not, there is a surviving camera neg and mag on this movie, I kid you not.

    Problem is the person that has it is one of those film collectors who thinks everything is worth a million bucks (you know the type, like going into your local thrift shop and seeing a 10 cent Dinah Shore 78 marked at $50.00)

    At any rate, movies like INVADERS FROM MARS, etc. do exist in neg form but stuff like this gets buried with wacky collectors.
     
  18. BradOlson

    BradOlson Country/Christian Music Maven

    I hope that this collector will eventually see the light that people would want to buy this restored.
     
  19. PaulKTF

    PaulKTF Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    I wouldn't mind seeing a pristine print; but I think the murky quality of the public domain print that's circulating sort of adds to the charm of the movie.
     
  20. BradOlson

    BradOlson Country/Christian Music Maven

    It does add to the charm, I agree.
     
  21. BradOlson

    BradOlson Country/Christian Music Maven

    Yep, it was 1964
     
  22. Chip TRG

    Chip TRG Senior Member Thread Starter

    I believe he is correct. It gets blurred because the film had such a second life as a TV-run cheapie. Most forget that it was actually a full theatrical release.

    I'm not a poster collector as much as I am a film collector, but one of my prized posessions is an original 40"x60" theater poster for SCCTM. Lobby cards would be nice one day!
     
  23. ChrisM

    ChrisM Reclusive Enabler

    Location:
    SW Ontario, Canada
    Lobby card...
     

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  24. BradOlson

    BradOlson Country/Christian Music Maven

  25. BradOlson

    BradOlson Country/Christian Music Maven

    BTW, I consider this the Plan 9 From Outer Space of Christmas movies, and I do recommend every Plan 9 fan to watch this.
     
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