Santa Claus: The Movie

What a strange but oddly watchable holiday movie SANTA CLAUS: THE MOVIE is 40 years after it bombed in theaters back in 1985.

The story OF the film is certainly more entertaining than most of the actual movie. A complete waste of top-billed Dudley Moore, most of the film's charms come from Henry Mancini's music score and a lot of scenes with Santa and his reindeer flying across the skies of Manhattan.

The scene with Santa soaring around and between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center haunts.

Producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind knew a thing or two about soaring. Their massive hit "Superman" had blown up the box office in 1978 thanks to Christopher Reeve flying to blockbuster status.

They approach the legend of Santa Claus with the same eye for special effects and big budget wonders, but this time out, there's not a lot of magic to be found for most of the film.

David Huddleston is fine as Santa, bringing caring, warmth and the appropriate heft to the role, but scenes depicting the North Pole, the toy factory and a winter wonderland somehow manage to look very cheap.

Shot on the 007 Stage at Pinewood, some of the sets are massive, but very tacky.

Besides Huddleston, the film gets several other things right.

John Lithgow is a great villain, BZ, a nasty modern day Scrooge and the head of BZ Toys. His Christmas bears are stuffed with sawdust, nails and glass, which conjures up a great Dan Aykroyd bit in the original season of SNL. He's big, loud and sports the worst set of choppers this side of the pond.

Burgess Meredith is in the film for three minutes but brings real power to his role as The Ancient Elf who sends Santa Claus out for his first global trip on Christmas Eve.

The score by Mancini was one of the biggest of his career, filling 85 minutes of the film's 107 minute running time. It's beautiful, fun and is the most memorable part of the movie. The title song "Every Christmas Eve" with lyrics by the legendary Leslie Bricusse (Scrooge, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory) is a classic.

The scenes with live reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh are impressive and well shot.

But, Santa's bag is less than half full of the "good".

If he's checking his list twice, he's going to find a lot of coal.

Poor Dudley Moore must have been paid a fortune. He looks miserable throughout spilling lines about having "elf control" (self control, get it!). He's a gifted comedian, but seeing him shackled by the family friendly rating and the role is dismal. Moore called the film "a career ender" when he saw the first screening with Lithgow. He wasn't wrong, he never had another major hit after this dropped like a reindeer turd at the box office.

Other than Christian Patrick as Joe, the street kid, the child actors are bad. Carrie Kie Heim as Cornelia, a little rich girl who befriends Joe, is saddled with a truly lethal haircut and a lot of wooden lines of dialogue. Huddleston does his best with the kids, and he and Patrick build some nice rapport.

The screenplay by David Newman is....not his finest hour. This guy wrote "Bonnie and Clyde","Superman" and "What's Up Doc"! I have no words....everybody has an off day....

The film is packed with commercial brand placements for McDonalds and Coca-Cola. I am sure their cash helped pay for the then huge $50 million budget, but the film only did $27 million in theaters. That's a lot of Big Macs lost.

Director Jeannot Szwarc had "Jaws 2" and "Somewhere In Time" under his belt, but after this and the Salkind's "Supergirl" bombed, he went on to direct TV series episodes for the rest of his formidable career.

SANTA CLAUS: THE MOVIE is, to this day, a massive hit in the UK. It's a generation's favorite Christmas film and still plays well there. Here in the states, it's a fascinating relic from the 80's that has moments of holiday spirit with a lot of excess filler in between the presents.

It gets a C. For the record, I had to work really hard to forget that Patch TV commercial to get anywhere near that C rating.