“Santa Claus Conquers The Martians” is definitely one of the great so-bad-it’s-good movies. Really cheesy “special” effects (cardboard box robot with painted on dials in anatomically appropriate places), stilted cornball dialogue delivered absolutely deadpan by a mixture of actors ranging from actually pretty good but old school theatrical (Santa or the “sage” on Mars who appears and disappears in a comically bad puff of smoke, they had timing problems, bless their hearts), on down to what appears to have been the director’s clueless in-laws in spottily applied green face paint with hose-bedecked green helmets as “Martians.” they’ve got a sort of union thug air about them, lol.
Throw in a couple of really cute kids who try their darnedest to play their roles, a very period 60’s sensibility that veers into “ZAP! POW!” Batman campiness at the drop of a hat (released in 1964) and you have a very wacky, very fun bad movie.
It’s on YouTube in it’s entirety if you want to give it a spin, lol.