Concocted by the Salkinds, the P.T. Barnum-ized international movie hustlers who managed to put together the 1978 Superman with Christopher Reeve, "Santa Claus" strictly follows the same story construction as 'Superman'. Like the Reeve epic (also co-written by the 'Santa' screenwriter David Newman), the film is split into two separate halves......the first half a dreamy, otherworldly fantasy depicting Santa's origins, the second half, a jolting switch to big city reality, where Santa and his chief elf (Dudley Moore) cross swords...or more likely, candy canes, with a rapacious tycoon (John Lithgow), a guy so greedy, he longs to create a sequel to Christmas shopping in March. (Haven't Target and Wal-Mart done that already?)
This sounds like a recipe for a perfect snow-storm movie disaster, but somehow the film still survives and endures with its charms intact. For Dudley Moore, it pretty much signaled the end of the line for his brief but busy career as an A-List comedy star. (Attempting to shoehorn popular comedians into big-budget special effects fantasies was not uncommon... Richard Pryor uncomfortably trooped through the Salkinds' "Superman 3",... and Eddie Murphy came close to crashing a Star Trek movie) Lithgow works feverishly overtime to outdo Gene Hackman's hammy stint as "Superman"s Lex Luthor....and the Big Jolly Guy himself is played by no less than the other Big Lebowski, David Huddleston.
Critics, at the time of its release, roasted the film as an insincere, mass-merchandised piece of lumpy holiday fruitcake.....their unkindest cut, that the film looked like something John Lithgow's evil magnate character would foist on the public. But thirty one years later.....and compared to the utterly soul-less machine-tooled CGI monstrosities churned out by the studios today, "Santa Claus" comes off as downright charming and innocent. The whole first half, photographed and staged as if taking place inside a Hallmark store snow globe, can still cast a greeting-card glow on you, whether you like it or not. Even when the film makes its jarring left turn into metropolitan Lithgow-land, there's minimal damage overall.
We say Bah Humbug! to all those l980's movie critics...and give "Santa Claus" 3 1/2 ornaments.....
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