Santa Claus: The Movie

For films with similar titles, see Santa Claus (disambiguation).

Santa Claus: The Movie
Theatrical release poster by Bob Peak
Directed by	Jeannot Szwarc
Screenplay by	David Newman
Story by	David Newman Leslie Newman
Produced by	Pierre Spengler Ilya Salkind
Starring	Dudley Moore John Lithgow David Huddleston Judy Cornwell Burgess Meredith
Cinematography	Arthur Ibbetson
Edited by	Peter Hollywood
Music by	Henry Mancini (score) Leslie Bricusse (lyrics)
Production companies	Santa Claus Productions Ltd. Calash Corporation N.V.
Distributed by	TriStar Pictures (United States) Rank Film Distributors (United Kingdom)
Release date	November 27, 1985 (1985-11-27)
Running time	108 minutes
Countries	United Kingdom United States
Language	English
Budget	$30–50 million
Box office	$23.7 million

Santa Claus: The Movie (titled onscreen simply as Santa Claus) is a 1985 British-American Christmas film starring Dudley Moore, John Lithgow, and David Huddleston. It depicts the origin of Santa Claus (played by Huddleston), and his modern-day adventure to save one of his elves (Moore) who has been manipulated by an unscrupulous toy company executive (Lithgow). It was directed by Jeannot Szwarc and was the last major fantasy film produced by the Paris-based father-and-son production team of Alexander and Ilya Salkind.

Released in North America by TriStar Pictures on November 27, 1985, Santa Claus: The Movie flopped at the box office and received negative reviews from critics.

Plot

In the Middle Ages, a woodcutter named Claus delivers hand-carved toys to the children of his village each Christmas, accompanied by his wife Anya and their reindeer Donner and Blitzen. Upon attempting to cross the forest, their sleigh is caught in a blizzard and all seemingly succumb to the cold, but awaken in the North Pole, whose every inhabitant becomes immortal. They are greeted by resident elves, whose leader Dooley tells Claus’s coming was prophesied and that his destiny is to deliver elven-made gifts to all the children of the world.

The following Christmas Eve, Claus is given the title of "Santa Claus" by the ancient elf, who explains the night will last as long as necessary for him to deliver gifts to every child on Earth. He makes the voyage in his sleigh, pulled by Donner and Blitzen and six other reindeer, who are fed hay sprinkled with magical dust which grants them the power of flight. As the centuries pass, the mythology and traditions deepen surrounding the mysterious Christmas benefactor, Santa Claus.

By the late 20th century, Santa is exhausted by his ever-increasing workload and Anya suggests he enlist an assistant. Santa selects Patch, an industrious inventor with dreams of modernization, who creates a machine which increases productivity of toys through automation. While delivering toys in New York City, Santa befriends a homeless orphan boy named Joe, whom he lets ride with him in the sleigh. After attempting and failing a maneuver dubbed the "Super Duper Looper", Santa returns Joe and meets a wealthy orphan girl named Cornelia, who befriends Joe.

When Patch's mass-produced toys all malfunction, he resigns as Santa’s assistant and he leaves the North Pole in disgrace. He ends up in New York City, where Cornelia’s unscrupulous step-uncle B.Z. is facing federally mandated shutdown of his toy company for intentionally producing unsafe toys. Hoping to redeem himself, Patch approaches B.Z. with his idea for lollipops laced with the magic flight dust, which will grant the power of flight. Realizing the potential, B.Z. has Patch strengthen the formula and distribute them from a flying car on Christmas Eve. The lollipops prove more popular than Santa's toys, leaving Santa feeling disheartened.

After the success of Patch's lollipops, B.Z. begins planning "Christmas II" on March 25, where Patch this time will distribute candy canes laced with magic flight dust. However, Cornelia and Joe overhear that the candy canes will explode when exposed to heat, and that B.Z. intends to flee with all the money made from their sale to Brazil, leaving Patch to take the fall for the product liability. B.Z. discovers the two eavesdropping and captures Joe. In desperation, Cornelia writes a letter to Santa, who breaks history of December-only flights and flies his sleigh to New York in January to help. Patch discovers Joe tied up and frees him. Seeing a wood carving resembling Patch which Santa made for Joe, Patch realizes Santa misses him and he and Joe head for the North Pole in the flying car, with the candy canes on board.

Realizing Patch and Joe are in danger, Santa and Cornelia pursue them in the sleigh. Santa sees the candy canes are reaching critical levels, but they cannot catch up in time to rescue them. Santa realizes the only way to save them in time is to successfully perform the "Super Duper Looper"; the reindeer are initially scared, but determined to save Patch and Joe, perform the dive and catch Patch and Joe as they fall from the exploding car. Cornelia alerts the police to B.Z., who attempt to arrest him but he escapes by eating several magic candy canes at once and leaping from a window, only to float uncontrollably into space. Patch returns to the North Pole, where Santa lets Joe and Cornelia live with him in the workshop.

Cast

• Dudley Moore as Patch
• John Lithgow as B.Z.
• David Huddleston as Claus/Santa Claus
• Burgess Meredith as the Ancient Elf
• Judy Cornwell as Anya
• Jeffrey Kramer as Towzer
• Christian L. Fitzpatrick as Joe
• Carrie Kei Heim as Cornelia
• John Barrard as Dooley
• Anthony O'Donnell as Puffy
• Aimée Delamain as a storyteller in Claus' village
• Dorothea Phillips as Miss Tucker, Cornelia's nanny
• John Hallam as Grizzard, B.Z.'s chauffeur
• Judith Morse as Miss Abruzzi, who works for B.Z.
• Jerry Harte as a Senate Chairman
• Ian Wise as Salvation Army Bandsman (Central Park scene)

Additional elves were played by Melvyn Hayes, Don Estelle, Tim Stern, Peter O'Farrell and Christopher Ryan, as Goober, Groot, Boog, Honka, Vout and Goobler respectively. Other minor roles were played by Paul Aspland, Sally Granfield and Michael Drew as reporters; Walter Goodman as a street corner Santa; John Cassady as a wino; and Ronald Fernee and Michael Ross as policemen.

Production

Development

Conceived by Ilya Salkind in the wake of the apparently waning critical and U.S. box office success of 1983's Superman III and its immediate follow-up, 1984's Supergirl, Santa Claus: The Movie was directed by Supergirl director Jeannot Szwarc, from a story by David and Leslie Newman (though David Newman took sole screenplay credit). Pierre Spengler, Ilya's longtime partner and a longtime collaborator of the Salkinds', joined Ilya as the project's producer.

John Carpenter was originally offered the chance to direct, but also wanted a say in the writing, musical score, and final cut of the film. Carpenter's original choice for the role of Santa was Brian Dennehy. Szwarc, however, felt that he needed an actor with more warmth than Dennehy. Lewis Gilbert was another early choice for director but, despite initial interest, he could not agree with the Salkinds over certain aspects of the script. Robert Wise was also offered the chance to direct, but had a different approach to the story. Guy Hamilton, who'd had to withdraw from directing Superman: The Movie in 1976, lobbied hard for the chance to direct the film, but only on the condition that it be shot either in Los Angeles, Vancouver, or Rome. Ultimately, the Salkinds chose Szwarc because of their excellent working relationship on Supergirl.

Casting

Dudley Moore was the Salkinds' top choice to play the lead elf in the film, Ilya Salkind having remembered a scene in Arthur in which Liza Minnelli's character asks Moore if he is Santa's Little Helper. Moore was attached to the project early on, and had a say in both scripting and choice of director. David Newman's first script draft named Moore's character Ollie, but Moore decided that the name should be changed to Patch, which was the nickname of his young son, Patrick. Moore had briefly been considered to play the role of Mister Mxyzptlk in the Salkinds' aborted original script for Superman III, and for the role of Nigel in Supergirl. He turned down that role, but suggested his longtime friend and comic partner Peter Cook for the part.

Ilya Salkind wanted an American actor to portray Santa Claus because he felt that the film focused on a primary piece of Americana in much the same way that Superman: The Movie had. Szwarc screen-tested such actors as David White (who, being in his late 60s, was considered too old for the role) and Moore's Arthur co-star Barney Martin. For a while, Ilya Salkind actively pursued Carroll O'Connor for the role before Szwarc showed him David Huddleston's screen-test, which won Salkind over.

For the role of B.Z., the producers wanted a star with a similar stature to Gene Hackman when he had played Lex Luthor in Superman: The Movie. To this end, they offered the role to Harrison Ford who turned them down. They made offers to Dustin Hoffman, Burt Reynolds and Johnny Carson, each of whom also turned the part down. Eventually, John Lithgow was settled on after Ilya Salkind watched Terms of Endearment and realized that he had a Grinch-type look to him.

The role of the Ancient Elf was written with James Cagney in mind. Though he liked the film's overall idea, Cagney, at 84, turned the role down due to being too weakened by age to perform it. Fred Astaire was considered, but when this eventually came to nothing Dudley Moore suggested his friend Burgess Meredith for the role, which he in the end won. At the time of the film's announcement in mid-1983, the British Press carried reports that diminutive actors such as David Jason, Patrick Troughton and Norman Wisdom would be cast alongside Moore as fellow elves, but none of them were.

Filming

Santa Claus: The Movie was filmed in Buckinghamshire, England at Pinewood Studios, between August and November 1984. The film was photographed by Arthur Ibbetson, whose credits included Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971). Santa Claus: The Movie was his final feature film. Serving as film editor was Peter Hollywood. The production was designed by Anthony Pratt, with costume design concepts by Bob Ringwood. The visual effects unit, as well as several of the production staff, were Salkind stalwarts from the Superman films: Derek Meddings, director of visual and miniature effects; Roy Field, optical visual effects supervisor; and David Lane, flying and second unit director.

Reception

Santa Claus: The Movie received negative reviews upon release, with a rating of 22% on Rotten Tomatoes, from the 23 reviews counted. Box Office Mojo lists the film's total United States box office gross as $23,717,291, less than its $30–50 million production budget. The film was however highly popular in the UK, grossing £5,073,000. The film also would go on to become the most repeated Christmas film ever shown on British television.

Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert noted some positive points to the film, writing that the film "does an interesting job of visualizing Santa's workshop" and Santa's elves. He also praised the film's special effects, particularly the New York City fly-over sequence involving Santa. Ebert also had some praise for Lithgow's "nice, hateful performance", but wrote that "the villain is not drawn big enough". He ceded that young children would probably like most of the film, but that older children and adults are "likely to find a lot of it a little thin".

Vincent Canby of The New York Times was less positive than Ebert, calling the production "elaborate and tacky". He described the film as having "the manner of a listless musical without any production numbers". Unlike Ebert, he offered little praise for the film's production design. Canby quipped that "Santa's workshop must be the world's largest purchaser of low-grade plywood" and that the flyover sequences with Santa "aren't great". The only praise he had for the film's acting was for John Lithgow, who Canby wrote "(gave) the film's only remotely stylish performance". A more recent review by William Mager for the BBC echoed Canby and Ebert's comments.

In his book Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas, critic Alonso Duralde lists Santa Claus: The Movie in his chapter of worst Christmas films ever. His reasons include weak plot, garish production design, blatant product placement (particularly for McDonald's, though Coke and Pabst Blue Ribbon are also prominent), and scenery-chewing overacting on the part of Lithgow. Duralde ultimately concludes that the film is "a train-wreck of a Christmas film that's so very wrong that you won't be able to tear yourself away from it".

John Lithgow, in a 2019 interview, said that Santa Claus was "one of the tackiest movies I've ever been in. It seemed cheesy and it certainly never stuck...except in England. It is huge over there. I wish I had a nickel for every Englishman who's told me [it's their favorite film]. In England, that's half of what I'm known for".

Soundtrack

The soundtrack score was composed and conducted by Henry Mancini, composer of the themes from The Pink Panther and Peter Gunn, with veteran lyricist and screenwriter Leslie Bricusse contributing five original songs. The song "It's Christmas (All Over the World)" was written by Bill House and John Hobbs with Freddie Mercury in mind. While it is known that Mercury recorded a demo for the House/Hobbs song at Pinewood Studios, he was never to make a full commitment to the project, as he and his Queen bandmates had already committed themselves to the Highlander soundtrack. In the end, Mercury turned down the project, stating that he felt that Queen had become overcrowded with requests to work on film soundtracks; as a result, Sheena Easton was ultimately chosen to record the tune. As mentioned on the DVD commentary of the film by Jeannot Szwarc, Paul McCartney was asked to compose songs for the film. It is unknown why he did not do so in the end.

Track listing

1. "Main Title: Every Christmas Eve ¹ and Santa's Theme (Giving)" (Mancini/Bricusse)
2. "Arrival of the Elves" (Mancini)
3. "Making Toys" (Mancini/Bricusse)²
4. "Christmas Rhapsody: Deck the Halls/Joy to the World/Hark! The Herald Angels Sing/12 Days of Christmas/O Tannenbaum/The First Noel/Silent Night"
5. "It's Christmas Again" (Mancini/Bricusse)²
6. "March of the Elves" (Mancini)
7. "Patch, Natch!" (Mancini/Bricusse) ³
8. "It's Christmas (All Over The World)" (Bill House, John Hobbs)⁵
9. "Shouldn't Do That" (Nick Beggs, Stuart Croxford, Neal Askew, Steve Askew) ⁴
10. "Sleigh Ride over Manhattan" (Mancini)
11. "Sad Patch" (Mancini)
12. "Patch Versus Santa" (Mancini)
13. "Thank You, Santa" (Mancini/Bricusse) ²

¹Sung by Aled Jones.
²Performed by the Ambrosian Children's Choir.
³Performed by the Ambrosian Singers.
⁴Produced by Ken Scott and performed by Kaja.
⁵Produced by Keith Olsen for Pogologo Corporation, and performed by Sheena Easton.

The soundtrack was originally released on record and cassette by EMI America Records in 1985. Soon after, it went out of print and remained unavailable until 2009 when it was released on CD as a limited run of 1000 copies which sold out immediately upon release. This production suffered from several issues, most notably a master which had been subjected to heavy noise reduction resulting in a loss of sound quality. Additionally, the left & right channels had been erroneously flipped, a superficial re-edit had been performed on "It's Christmas (All Over the World)", and the song "Shouldn't Do That" by Kaja (Kajagoogoo) had been omitted due to licensing issues. In 2012 a deluxe three-disc set, including remastered tracks, outtakes and alternate versions and a 32-page booklet, was released.

Comic book adaptation

Marvel Comics published a comic book adaptation of the film by writer Sid Jacobson and artist Frank Springer in Marvel Super Special #39.

See also

• Santa Claus in film
• List of Christmas films

External links

• Santa Claus: The Movie at IMDb
• Santa Claus: The Movie at Box Office Mojo
• Santa Claus: The Movie at Rotten Tomatoes