The famously terrible auteur Ed Wood never lent his distinctive talents to a Christmas film, but with its truly baffling sci-fi narrative, accidental sense of high camp, and special effects that appear to have been rustled up by the nearest kindergarten class, Santa Claus Conquers the Martians is the next best thing.
The “Worst Films Ever” list regular, which is celebrating its 60th birthday, has an unusually solid pedigree. Just three years earlier, director Nicholas Webster had picked up an Emmy nod for his ABC documentary Walk In My Shoes. Meanwhile, the cast was littered with respected actors from the theater world: John Call, who played Santa, came straight from the original Broadway staging of Oliver, while Bill McCutcheon, here the film’s groan-worthy comic relief character, Dropo, would later earn a Tony. It even gave a screen debut to future Golden Globe winner Pia Zadora, seen here as a 10-year-old Martian addicted to Earth-made TV.
