It's a Winter Wonderland Wednesday down in The Dungeon, and since there's been so many Christmas movies made, I just thought I'd give you a random sampling of Santa interpretations that have shown up on the big screen over the years.
From 1950, here's Santa as portrayed by a puppet from the Mabel Beaton Marionettes!
This odd film was called "The Spirit Of Christmas!"
In this 1951 short called "Santa And The Fairy Snow Queen," this snoozing Santa Claus was played by Edmund (Adventures Of Superman) Penney.
I decided not to split hairs and make any distinction between the real Santa Claus and guys just dressing up and acting like him, like Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye here in........
..........."White Christmas" from 1954.
This 1959 Mexican Santa was played by José Elías (La Loba) Moreno in K. Gordon Murray's holiday creepfest simply titled "Santa Claus."
In 1989 they came out with part three of a sick Santa with a completely different personality called..........
In 1995 we have Mark (The Genie From Down Under) Mitchell as Santa in "The Munster's Scary Little Christmas."
Masterful cartoon voice over artist Sam (National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation) McMurray as Herman Munster has to give it a shot too.
2007 brought us "Black Santa's Revenge."
In the 2011 feature "A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas," Richard (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) Riehle is Santa Claus!
My recent favorite is Kurt Russell in The Santa Claus Chronicles. Great fun.
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen most of these, but the only Christmas movie I've watched with my wife, every year since we had it on video, is A CHRISTMAS STORY with the great Darren McGavin (and his Leg Lamp!). The scene at the Chinese restaurant is the capper, since my wife and I had to go for Chinese food on a couple of our holiday vacations. ;)
ReplyDeleteAnd speaking of vacations, NATIONAL LAMPOON'S CHRISTMAS STORY is another one we never missed, featuring the not-so-great Randy Quaid, before he completely lost his mind in recent years!
My wife loved ELF, but my disgust with Will Ferrell lost me every time, to another part of the house, but I'll try to watch it this year, in memory of my wife.
Our favorite visit to a movie theater was after the Christmas Eve candlelight service at church in 1996, when we couldn't find a restaurant or diner, or even a fast food drive-thru open, so we went to see the only movie in a theater that hadn't started playing yet, Tim Burton's hilarious MARS ATTACKS! And we watched it, me laughing my a$$ off, and my wife alternately embarrassed and grossed-out, in a large and empty theater with only two other people in attendance! It was one of our favorite Xmas memories!
Merry Merry and Happy Happy, everyone! And...if you have a spouse or other loved one to spend the holidays with, please...count your blessings. :)
I just saw ELF for the first time. I don't really have an axe to grind about Will Ferrell one way or the other, but I liked him in it.
ReplyDeleteI don't really have an ace to grind with Farrell, as much as I just don't like the guy, lol. As I mentioned, I'll watch it, just because my wife liked the movie. (I had tried to watch a few other films he was in, and there's just "something" about the guy that turns me off...anyway, nevermind, lol!)
ReplyDeleteKurt Russell is doing a good modern Santa, but Ed Asner in Elf is the best!
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