Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

Last Saturday, my parents and I saw the 1985 film ‘Santa Claus: The Movie’ at the cinema. I greatly enjoyed seeing this film. It’s quite tame in most parts and has a very calming quality that allows you to enjoy the festive feel of Christmas, especially in depicting a guy in a red suit who delivers presents. 🙂

Before seeing this film at the cinema, I had seen bits and pieces of it on TV, but never actually in full from beginning to end. It was lovely to check out this film from beginning to end. I found how different it is from seeing ‘The Santa Clause’ film trilogy, ‘The Santa Paws’ film trilogy and ‘Noelle’. 🙂

What interests me about this fantasy film is that it was produced by the Paris-based father-and-son production team of Alexander and Ilya Salkind. Yes! Those are the guys who produced the first three ‘Superman’ movies, starring Christopher Reeve. I never thought they’d make a Christmas film.

The film is also produced by Pierre Spengler, who worked with Alexander and Ilya Salkind on the first three ‘Superman’ films. ‘Santa Claus: The Movie’ is also directed by Jeannot Szwarc, who directed the 1984 film ‘Supergirl’. I’ve yet to see ‘Supergirl’. I must find time to see it on Amazon Prime Video.

‘Santa Claus: The Movie’ depicts the origin of Santa Claus. Not Saint Nicholas though, and I recently found out there were more Christian origins for him than I realised compared to how we know Santa today. 😀 In ‘Santa Claus: The Movie’, the character is played by David Huddleston, who’s very good.

Apparently, David Huddleston was in the ‘Star Trek: Next Generation’ episode ‘Emergence’, would you believe? In the film, Santa and his wife, played by Judy Cornwall (well-known as Daisy in ‘Keeping Up Appearances’) get caught in a snowstorm when they’re delivering presents to children.

They’re soon saved by the elves of the North Pole and Santa (originally called Claus) has been chosen to become Santa Claus and deliver the presents to children around the world before Christmas Day. This is an intriguing origins story for Santa. Not sure if this ties in to the other Santa stories I’ve seen. 😀

After going through the years from the Middle Ages to the 20th century, Santa has to save one of his elves – Patch, played by Dudley Moore – who has been manipulated by an unscrupulous toy company executive – B.Z., played by John Lithgow. It was fun to see John Lithgow in this ‘Santa’ film.

Years later, John Lithgow would go on to voice Lord Farquaad in the first ‘Shrek’ film in 2001. It was quite easy to recognise John Lithgow’s voice when he played B.Z. (not sure what that stands for) in the film and he gets to be an over-the-top villain. I found him enjoyably entertaining in the movie. 🙂

Apparently, ‘Santa Claus: The Movie’ has had a cult following over the years. When I saw the film recently on the big screen, it was given a 4K restoration. This is quite surprising, considering the film flopped at the box office and it received mixed reviews from critic. I guess the film won many hearts.

The cast also includes Burgess Meredith (who played the Penguin in the 1960s ‘Batman’ TV series with Adam West) as the Ancient Elf (I thought he was Father Time in the film). There’s Jeffrey Kramer as Towzer, B.Z.’s assistant; John Barrard as the head elf Dooley; and Anthony O’Donnell as Puffy.

There are two kids in the film, including Christian L. Fitzpatrick as Joe, a homeless kid who befriends Santa; and Carrie Kei Heim as Cornelia, who befriends Joe and happens to be B.Z.’s step-niece. There’s Aimée Delamain as the storyteller in the village that Claus and his wife visit in the Middle Ages.

There’s Dorothea Phillips as Miss Tucker, Cornelia’s nanny; John Hallam as Gizzard, B.Z.’s chauffeur; Judith Morse as Miss Abruzzi, who works for B.Z.; Jerry Harte as a Senate Chairman; and Ian Wise as a Salvation Army bandsman in a New York Central Park scene. There are some recognisable elves too.

There’s Melvyn Hayes and Don Estelle, who’ve been in ‘It Ain’t Half Hot Mum’, and Christopher Ryan who’s been in ‘Doctor Who’ as Lord Kiv in ‘The Trial of a Time Lord’ and as General Staal in ‘The Sontaran Stratagem’/’The Poison Sky’. I didn’t realise they were in this film since they didn’t say much.

‘Santa Claus: The Movie’ has been a nice Christmas film to check out at the cinema recently. I’m pleased I’ve seen it in full. I don’t know if this is a Christmas film I’ll see again and again, but I’m pleased I’ve seen it at last, especially when I’ve heard people talk about it and saying how good it is. 🙂

By the way, I’ve noticed McDonalds and Coca Cola product placements in the film. Makes me feel hungry! 😀

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim 🙂