It was Christmas in July (July 1964 to be exact) when news first broke industry trade, reporting that Jalor Productions was about to film a low-budget science-fiction film titled – we kid you not – Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. Despite warnings from producers and others along New York’s film row that “it couldn’t be done,” Paul L. Jacobson (president of Jalor) pulled off a minor miracle by completing a ten-day lensing schedule, requiring 14 sets and 100 percent union crews under a budget of $200,000. What developed was a holiday movie for the kiddies that has since built a cult following.
Renowned as a holiday cult classic, Santa Claus Conquers the Martians tells the story of the depressed children of Mars, who watch too much Earth TV. To bring them out of their funk, the Martian leaders travel to Earth to kidnap two local kids and Santa Claus himself, forcibly keeping them in a factory to make toys. But you cannot manufacture happiness, and Santa must teach his alien overseers the true meaning of Christmas. The premise might come across as hokey for those who never saw the movie, but one has to remember the film was created for children under the age of ten who prefer their movies laced not with LSD… but with ice-cream and tickle-rays. The movie generated decent box office revenue upon initial release, but fell into the public domain and ultimately faded into obscurity. Years later a new audience discovered the film when it was critiqued on Mystery Science Theater 3000 in 1991, giving the movie new life and a cult following who now screen the movie annually at home as part of their holiday yule log.
Filmed at Michael Myerberg’s Long Island Studios (an abandoned aircraft hangar from WWII where such productions as A Thousand Clowns and A Carol for Another Christmas were also produced) with Nicholas Webster as director, prevailing labor conditions in New York City still make film historians today wonder if many involved in the production were paid under the table. Even with cast and crew paid not one penny over scale, reportedly, Jacobson ensured crewmen were not required for one particular day’s shooting.
Embassy Pictures quickly picked up the distribution rights, premiering the movie in an estimated 100 theaters in Chicago and Milwaukee, beginning November 21 and 22. As part of a national promo push, a music campaign tied with RCA Victor’s new Al Hirt record, “Hooray for Santa Claus,” was sent out across the country throughout the same month. That song, complete with bouncing ball, was featured prominently during the film’s closing credits. In Chicago and Milwaukee alone the film grossed $135,700 during opening weekend. As the weeks continued through the holiday season, and as the film continued to get distributed across the country, Santa Claus Conquers the Martians turned a tidy profit because of the low-budget production costs. The movie opened in New York City the weekend of December 16.
The movie was not without competition when a Florida showman, K. Gordon Murray, felt that the holiday offering was encroaching upon his territory. For the past four years he built up business for a 1959 Mexican production, Santa Claus, which concerns Satan (yes, the Devil himself) who sends his minion, Pitch, to foil Santa’s holiday plans. Pitch, in turn, recruits three naughty boys to help him set death traps for Santa. In 1964 alone Murray was renting out English-dubbed versions of the Mexican film (Murray himself supplied his own voice for one of the characters) and expanded from 30 prints to 100 in an effort to compete against Murray’s new production. The film’s unusual booking pattern was limited to seven weeks a year, three in November and four in December. The rest of the year it sat in a Miami film vault. Murray was first exposed to Santa Claus when it was an entry in the 1959 San Francisco Film Festival at which was named the “Best Family Film” of the year.
Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, however, was not restricted to seven weeks and continued to run in theaters across the country through February. The movie ran mostly during matinees (rarely evening hours) but that did not stop the movie from receiving additional box office revenue the next year courtesy of limited distribution during the re-release, then made available for television beginning in 1970. The movie also secured a three-picture contract with Jacobson and Myerberg in 1965, none of which met fruition. In 1972 Jacobson entered into partnership with Jules Power, producer of the Mr. Wizard television series, to produce a series of low-budget theatrical pictures; none of which met fruition. If you are starting to see a pattern, you are not mistaken. Jacobson attempted to produce so cheaply that his business partners hesitated greenlighting any projects on the table. By 1973 Jacobson was insisting any movie could be produced under $500,000, a larger figure after his business partners insisted on meeting union requirements. Regardless of his attempts to produce a second, third and fourth pictures, Santa Claus Conquers the Martians ultimately became the only movie written and/or produced by Paul L. Jacobson, who died in Port Washington, New York, in 2015.
Santa Claus Conquers the Martians celebrates 55 years this December and you may even catch a glimpse of Santa Claus wandering the hallways during the weekend. The movie was Pia Zadora’s film debut; she played a Martian child. The movie also features the first documented appearance of Mrs. Claus (pre-dating the Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer television special by three weeks). The movie was also the inspiration for Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny (1972), produced by R&S Film Enterprises in Dania, Florida.
Because the movie fell into the public domain, you can find copies of this holiday offering in varied quality from 16mm transfers. To be fair, I have yet to see a bad print transfer. But in December 2012, Kino Lorber released the movie on both DVD and BluRay from a superior 35mm print, to ensure the highest quality. As a child, I enjoyed the movie every year when telecast over PBS, so naturally I purchased the Kino release (pictured on the left, referred to as "Special Edition"). If you have never seen the movie, and remember no one is twisting your arm to make you watch it, accept my recommendation to watch the film this holiday for your amusement.
Small postscript: the Kino DVD appears to be out of print. The BluRay is still available on Amazon.
