Christmas-time Semiotic Legacies of the Mexican Cinema's Golden Age

originally published 12/11/07, 10:16 AM

Tex[t]-Galleryblog would be a Scrooge if it did not share this tasty semiotic artifact I ran across this morning, a lobby card while trawling the visual cultural riches of the internet. Rene Cardona's Santa Claus--think Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer filtered through the mind of a peyote- and absinthe-sodden Ken Russell--is a movie for the ages.

IMDB's listing on this Dante's Inferno-laced holiday classic is here--an Onion review of it is here. Those crazy 'bots on Mystery Science Theater did a send up of Cardona's classic--regular readers of this space who own the DVD are welcome to send me a copy for Christmas, pretty please!

Update:
Holy Mother of God, I have struck the motherload--dig this archive of black & white stills from this glorious and decadent evocation of Santa Claus!