40 Fun Facts About Don't Open Till Christmas

Which gruesome tourist attraction banned film shoots after hosting the crew of Don't Open Till Christmas?

The London Dungeon sequence was filmed twice to add more gore. The crew's conduct upset the management so much that later productions were refused entry.

Chief Inspector Harris hunts the Santa killer of Don't Open Till Christmas from which famous police base?

Scotland Yard puts two detectives on the case and the hunt ends badly for both. One is taken off the investigation and the other is electrocuted.

Caroline Munro, who has a cameo in Don't Open Till Christmas, played Naomi in which James Bond film?

The Spy Who Loved Me cast Munro as Naomi, a minion of the villain. She took the part in preference to playing the supervillainess Ursa in Superman.

Why was a Christmas-light electrocution scene scrapped from Don't Open Till Christmas?

The set caught fire while the scene was being staged, so the electrocution never reached the screen. It was one more mishap in a shoot that ran for nearly two years.

Many labels have issued Don't Open Till Christmas on DVD because the film is believed to have which legal status?

Public domain is the status the film is believed to have, which let numerous companies sell their own DVD editions. A Blu-ray edition followed in 2022.

Mark Jones, Sergeant Powell in Don't Open Till Christmas, appeared in a 1980 sequel from which blockbuster film series?

Star Wars gave Jones a part in The Empire Strikes Back. It sits among film credits that also took in Under Milk Wood and The Medusa Touch.

Edmund Purdom of Don't Open Till Christmas mimed in The Student Prince to which tenor fired from the part?

Mario Lanza lost the role but his recordings stayed, so Purdom lip-synched to them. Taking over parts from bigger names earned Purdom the nickname The Replacement Star.

Edmund Purdom quit directing after Don't Open Till Christmas and resumed acting in which city, his longtime home?

Rome had been Purdom's home for years while he worked in the Italian film industry. He never directed another film and died in the city in 2009.

Belinda Mayne, Kate in Don't Open Till Christmas, played Delta in a 1987 serial of which series?

Doctor Who cast Mayne as the Chimeron queen Delta three years after her slasher lead. Acting ran in the family: her father was the film actor Ferdy Mayne.

Alan Lake, the killer in Don't Open Till Christmas, was the third husband of which blonde bombshell?

Diana Dors met Lake on the set of the 1968 television series The Inquisitors. They married that November and later acted together on stage in Three Months Gone.

Chief Inspector Harris ends Don't Open Till Christmas by unwrapping which gift moments before it explodes?

A music box is the present delivered to Harris early in the film. He leaves it wrapped until the final scene, where it plays its tune through and then blows up.

Giles, the freed patient killing Santas in Don't Open Till Christmas, is which relative of Inspector Harris?

His younger brother is the twist. Harris had shortened the family name from Harrison after Giles was committed, which hid the link from his own colleagues.

Kate's father, dressed as Santa at a party in Don't Open Till Christmas, is killed with which thrown weapon?

A spear goes through his head in front of his daughter. Kate's boyfriend Cliff then becomes a suspect, because he was present at two of the attacks.

How does a murdered Santa's body reach the stage during Caroline Munro's performance in Don't Open Till Christmas?

Through a trapdoor is how the body arrives, rising into view in the middle of the show. The Santa had been chased into the theatre and killed with a machete.

Sherry Graham sees a Santa knifed in Don't Open Till Christmas while she is working at which kind of venue?

A peep show is where Sherry works as a stripper. Witnessing the stabbing makes her a target, and the killer later abducts her and chains her up in his hideout.

Giles phones the police in Don't Open Till Christmas claiming which job, a story his supposed employer denies?

A reporter is what Giles says he is when he rings Powell. The newspaper he names tells the police it has never heard of him.

Sergeant Powell pursues Kate's killer in Don't Open Till Christmas into which place, where he is electrocuted?

A junkyard is where the chase ends, with Giles turning the tables on the one detective still on the case. Harris had already been removed from it.

Which missing document makes Kate suspect Chief Inspector Harris of hiding something in Don't Open Till Christmas?

A birth certificate is the one thing Harris turns out not to have. Powell waves away Kate's theory, so she sets off to investigate on her own.

The killer in the opening alley murder of Don't Open Till Christmas hides his face behind what?

A translucent mask with a grin fixed on it hides the killer. He wears it to stab a man in a Santa suit and the woman he has met in a parked car.

Chief Inspector Harris is visiting which mental institution when Kate telephones his home in Don't Open Till Christmas?

Parklands is named by Harris's housekeeper when Kate rings. Kate goes there alone and learns that Giles had only just been released from it.

Caroline Munro, seen in a Don't Open Till Christmas cameo, starred in which other slasher for the same producers?

Slaughter High starred Munro as Carol Manning. It is set in an American high school but was filmed in England, under the working title April Fool's Day.

Gerry Sundquist, who plays Cliff in Don't Open Till Christmas, played Pip in a 1981 version of which Dickens novel?

Great Expectations gave Sundquist the lead a year before he played Gringoire in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The 1984 slasher turned out to be his last film.

Kevin Lloyd, who plays Gerry in Don't Open Till Christmas, later found fame as Tosh Lines in which police drama?

The Bill made Lloyd one of its most popular faces. He joined the cast in 1988 and appeared in more than 400 episodes over the next decade.

Edmund Purdom of Don't Open Till Christmas replaced Marlon Brando as the title character of which 1954 epic?

The Egyptian was 20th Century Fox's most lavish production of 1954. Purdom got the lead at the last minute, ahead of John Derek and Cameron Mitchell.

Sherry Graham, the eventual heroine of Don't Open Till Christmas, appears in the credits only under which label?

Experience Girl is the only credit she gets, because the part began as one kill scene. It was reshot twice with different actresses before being expanded.

Which Don't Open Till Christmas screenwriter directed for only two days and appears on screen as a circus Santa?

Derek Ford wrote the original script and took over when the first director walked out, only to be dismissed after two days. He is still in the film as a Santa.

Edmund Purdom signed on to Don't Open Till Christmas while playing the killer in which Spanish-shot slasher?

Pieces, a chainsaw slasher set on a Boston campus, shared its American producers with the Santa film. Purdom's price for starring again was the director's chair.

Which American producer of Don't Open Till Christmas began his career writing gags for comedian Milton Berle?

Dick Randall went from joke writing to making exploitation films in Italy, Hong Kong and Spain. He settled permanently in London in 1981.

Which editor of Don't Open Till Christmas took over as director to finish the film after two others had left?

Ray Selfe, a former cinema projectionist, stepped up from the cutting room. Many of his new scenes were extra deaths, which could be shot without the main cast.

Unhappy with Don't Open Till Christmas, co-writer Alan Birkinshaw took his screen credit under which pseudonym?

Al McGoohan is the name on the print, chosen because Birkinshaw was displeased with the finished film. He had been hired to rewrite the majority of the script.

Don't Open Till Christmas began its American cinema run on 7 December 1984 in which city?

New York City saw the film on 7 December 1984, through the distributor 21st Century Film Corporation. Alan Lake, who plays the killer, had died two months earlier.

Which company, later the label behind Dirty Dancing, first released Don't Open Till Christmas on VHS?

Vestron Video put the film out on tape in both the United States and the United Kingdom. The company had been founded in 1981 by a former HBO executive.

Which label, founded to restore lost X-rated films, released Don't Open Till Christmas on Blu-ray in 2022?

Vinegar Syndrome takes its name from the acidic smell of deteriorating film. Its Blu-ray of the Santa slasher came out on 25 October 2022.

Which Hollywood trade paper dismissed Don't Open Till Christmas on its release as a badly made horror film?

Variety was unimpressed on release. A later Fangoria retrospective was kinder, calling the story a mess but liking its Christmas murders and grubby 1980s London.

Don't Open Till Christmas shared its release year with which American slasher that drew protests over a killer Santa?

Silent Night, Deadly Night had its cinema run cut short by public protests at theaters. Its Santa is the killer, where the British film makes the Santas the victims.

Don't Open Till Christmas inverts the killer-Santa idea first filmed in which 1972 anthology adapted from EC Comics?

Tales from the Crypt was the first film to feature a killer dressed as Santa. Twelve years later the London slasher turned the men in red suits into the prey.

Belinda Mayne, Kate in Don't Open Till Christmas, played Vella in which 1983 fantasy film?

Krull came a year before her slasher lead. Mayne had already appeared in the Italian sci-fi horror Alien 2: On Earth.

Alan Birkinshaw, rewriter of Don't Open Till Christmas, made which film once called British cinema's most tasteless?

Killer's Moon earned that label in Matthew Sweet's book Shepperton Babylon. Its plot sets four escaped mental patients on a stranded coach party of schoolgirls.

A flashback in Don't Open Till Christmas shows young Giles's mother knocked down what during a Christmas party row?

A flight of stairs ends the argument. Giles had just walked in on his father, dressed as Santa for the party, cheating on his mother with another woman.

Alan Lake, the killer in Don't Open Till Christmas, played singer Jack Daniels in a film vehicle for which rock band?

Slade starred in Slade in Flame, and the singer was a significant role for Lake. Most of his film work in the 1970s was in low-budget comedies.