User Reviews

BEWARE OF BOGUS REVIEWS & REVIEWERS. SOME REVIEWERS HAVE ONLY ONE REVIEW. WHEN ITS A POSITIVE REVIEW THAT TELLS ME THEY WERE INVOLVED WITH THE PRODUCTION & THAT IS WHAT IS GOING ON HERE FOR THIS FILM! TRUST ME THIS FILM IS TERRIBLE. NOW I HAVE REVIEWED OVER 200 Christmas MOVIES. I HAVE NO AGENDA. I AM FARE.

While preparing for his new position as a department store Santa Claus, Joe (Ray Montgomery) recalls his troubled marriage to Maria (Maria Palmer) and their eventual separation. As Christmas Day approaches, Joe and Maria's young daughter (Jeri James) unexpectedly appears in the toy department to give Santa her special Christmas wish.

This 30 minute Christmas Short is available to stream on Amazon but I would not bother to watch. It is not very moving. There is no magic to it. The cast is fine but the material fails them. I think the overall story might had been better served if the special had be an hour long. The short length makes the ending to jarring.

Although few have heard of it today, the first television network was the DuMont Network. Although NBC and CBS had been around in radio for years, their entry into television followed DuMont. But DuMont was poor by comparison and eventually the network folded in 1956. Many of the programs they made were destroyed in a fire...so shows like "Joe Santa Claus" are some of the few remaining artifacts from DuMont.

When the show begins, Joe is working for a department store. When his boss tells him he's being transferred to the toy department and will play Santa, you'd think he'd be thrilled but Joe is a grouchy jerk and is loathe to be Santa. The nice janitor cannot understand why Joe hates being Santa and Joe then tells him a story about his marriage and child...things Joe screwed up because of his chronic anger. In fact, Joe has lots of reasons to be happy but instead he's chosen to alienate himself from his loving family and has become miserable. Can playing Santa somehow help to redeem his nasty spirit?

Despite the audience hating Joe for most of the show, what eventually occurs is both heartwarming AND makes the show worth finding. Well made.

Joe Santa Claus is a Christmas episode from the Gruen Guild Theater series. Joe recalls his marriage and his daughter. He confides in a co-worker at a department store about his life. Joe is married to a war bride and they have a daughter. When things get tough and his wife wants to work, Joe drives them away. It has a happy ending though overall. This episode was featured on a holiday favorites DVD series.