FILM

Every Friday and Saturday night at 11:55pm, it's another Midnight Movie Classic at the Landmark River Oaks Theatre.

Friday-Saturday,  December 16-17:  Santa's Cool Holiday Film Festival

This cinematic Christmas stocking is loaded with retro-cool presents of all kinds. There are two cartoons from the brilliant Fleischer Brothers—"Christmas Comes But Once A Year" (1936), and "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" (1948)—plus time warps from the 1950s and 1960s, ranging from a Christmas adventure starring Howdy Doody to a couple of visits with Ozzie and Harriet to a holiday salute from ventriloquist Shari Lewis and her hand puppet Lambchop.

But the biggest, most brightly-wrapped gift under this colorful Christmas tree is a new digital restoration of the unforgettable 1964 B-movie Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, best known as the screen debut of actress/singer Pia Zadora. Martians come to Earth to kidnap Santa Claus because there is no one on Mars to give their children presents.

Earth kids Billy and Betty set out to save Santa and return him to Earth. The film is a baffling mixture of sci-fi, Christmas cheer and childish slapstick, all filmed in garish (or as the poster says, "Space-Blazing") color.

See all this, a bouncing ball "Jingle Bells" sing-along and much more, mastered from the best surviving prints!

Directors: Nicholas Webster, Thomas W. Holland
Cast: John Call, Leonard Hicks, Vincent Beck, Bill McCutcheon, Pia Zadora, Chris Month, Victor Stiles, Donna Conforti

MPAA Rating: NR
Run Time: 1hr 58mins
Release Year: 1964/2011
Country Of Origin: USA