Mrs. Santa Claus (1996)

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

"Mrs. Santa Claus" is an enjoyable Christmas film that actually centers on Christmas. As a musical, it provides some entertaining songs by Jerry Herman. And it has a couple of good dance scenes. Especially good is the song, "We Don't Go Together." Of course, any musical to be great has to have very good or great singers - if not in the cast, then dubbed. While Angela Lansbury (as Mrs. Santa Claus) is a very good actress who can sing, she is far from a great singer. Several others in this film are just passable as vocalists. Only one person has a great voice - Debra Wiseman, who plays Sadie Lowenstein. The staging, costumes, and all technical aspects of this TV movie are superb. The plot is a good one, but it goes overboard in trying to cover all the big social issues in the U.S. of 1910. Women's suffrage, child labor laws, the great American melting pot and others have long histories. So, this plot plays with history and puts a sugar coating on the culture and mores of the time and place. For instance, women's suffrage began long before 1910. It's official birth was the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848. And, it was ratified as the 19th amendment to the U.S. constitution in 1920. By 1910 it would not have been so strange or out of place to see Sadie Lowenstein on a soap box for women's rights - even (or especially) in Manhattan's East Village. One glaring error that caught my attention right away was in the suffrage parade. Several marchers held an unfurled U.S. flag above their heads. It had clear rows of six by eight stars, for a total of 48. But, the U.S. had just 46 states in 1910. The 47th and 48th states (New Mexico and Arizona) would become part of the Union in 2012. In its portrayal of the great melting pot of the U.S. and New York, especially, the film transposes 21st century American idealism on the 1910 culture. Yes, people in many neighborhoods of mixed backgrounds - ethnic and religious especially, lived together and got along. But many more of the time were segregated by neighborhoods and distinct ethnic communities. The song, "Avenue A," narrowed the location in Manhattan to the 13-block street in Manhattan's East Village.Without great singers and superb music, I won't rate any musical higher than eight stars. This is not a "West Side Story," or "The Sound of Music," or "Funny Girl," or "Show Boat, " or "Porgy and Bess," or "Easter Parade." But for the overcrowding of social issues and juggling of history in the screenplay, it would have earned those eight stars. It is an enjoyable Christmas musical.Here are a couple favorite lines from the film. Mrs. Santa Claus in the opening scenes says, "Oh, team, we've done it - 1910 is a record year."Santa Claus (Charles Durning), as he places a letter in an outbox marked "Naughty," says, "There's always the naughty ones with the bad handwriting."

BEWARE OF FALSE REVIEWS & REVIEWERS. SOME REVIEWERS HAVE ONLY ONE REVIEW TO THEIR NAME. NOW WHEN ITS A POSITIVE REVIEW THAT TELLS ME THEY WERE INVOLVED WITH THE MOVIE. IF ITS A NEGATIVE REVIEW THEN THEY MIGHT HAVE A GRUDGE AGAINST THE FILM . NOW I HAVE REVIEWED OVER 300 HOLIDAY FILMS & SPECIALS. I HAVE NO AGENDA.The movie is set in December 1910. Mrs. Santa Claus is trying to convince her husband, Santa Claus, to take a new route, but he is preoccupied with the Christmas rush and won't listen. Disgruntled, she takes the sleigh out herself, but is forced to land in New York City, where she is stranded when one of the reindeer (Cupid) becomes injured. As "Mrs. North", she takes up board with a family of Jewish immigrants who do not celebrate Christmas. She befriends many of the local children and women, and becomes involved with political issues of the period such as child labor and women's suffrage.This film run 90 minutes and its very charming. This film is way above the average Christmas TV-Movie. You should watch this when you are making Christmas cookies. You can tell they put a lot a work in this production and it paid off.

It is quite an obvious film to make, I just wonder why they haven't made it a proper film for the cinemas, or at least base it on the book I've read by Penny Ives. Basically Mrs. Santa Claus (Angela Lansbury) gets bored of the same job of helping the elves at the North Pole, and her husband, Santa Claus (The Muppet Movie's Charles Durning), so she decides to go on a explore of New York. She ends up getting a short term job for mean Augustus P. Tavish (Terrence Mann) making toys for the shops, and the only help she has is from the children workers. There are some good songs in amongst the almost corny story, but it is quite a pleasant film for Lansbury to be in, and it is a good family film for Christmas. Also starring Mousehunt's Michael Jeter as Arvo, Lynsey Bartilson as Nora Kilkenny, Bryan Murray as Officer Doyle, David Norona as Marcello Damaroco and Debra Wiseman as Sadie Lowenstein. Okay!

This is a quality musical movie, with another ten star score from the great Jerry Herman, my favorite composer. Most others have said many of the things I wanted to say here, so I'll just say don't miss it. Someone questioned why politics were added. In Lansbury's biography, she states that she turned down the role at first because it was too "fluffy" and when they added the human rights thing she was more interested. Composer Jerry Herman was very ill with HIV at the time this was being filmed. She also did this as a favor to him. He really wanted her to do the TV movie of MAME, saying that she was still able to pull it off, but she felt she was too old for the role, and so to do something for her friend, she did this musical, and I am glad she did this (although MAME would have been awesome, and finally a good movie).The score, orchestrations are 10 out of 10, the only problem I had was with a few of the special effects, I felt they could have been a notch better.Lansbury and Durning are excellent. This is a great 2 hour experience of the kind of movie that is so rare, and it works because of all of the broadway talent involved, that's who should be making musicals. Director Rob Marshall (Chicago) did the choreography and that's superb.Great movie, great cast, great music! The DVD also has a great but short "making of." on it, the DVD is definitely in my collection! I wish some of Herman's other shows were good movies, Hello Dolly being the only good one, my opinion of course. There's The Grand Tour, Dear World, La Cage Aux Folles, Milk and Honey and Mack and Mabel, great musicals without being filmed.