Plan 9 from Outer Space

Plan 9 from Outer Space
File:Plan 9 poster.JPG Plan 9 poster
Directed by	Edward D. Wood, Jr.
Written by	Edward D. Wood, Jr.
Produced by	Charles Burg J. Edward Reynolds Hugh Thomas Jr. Edward D. Wood, Jr.
Distributed by	Distributors Corporation of America Inc.
Release dates	July, 1959 (USA)
Running time	79 min.
Language	English
Budget	$60,000

Plan 9 from Outer Space is a 1959 science fiction/horror film written, produced and directed by Edward D. Wood, Jr.. The movie is widely regarded as a leading candidate for the title of "worst movie ever made", although this is subject to considerable debate amongst aficionados of bad cinema. It earned Edward D. Wood, Jr. (a devotee of Orson Welles) a posthumous Golden Turkey Award as the worst director ever.

Given its reputation as a bad film, it does not appear on the The Internet Movie Database's "Bottom 100" list of the 100 worst-reviewed films on the site. Reportedly, in his research for the film Ed Wood, Martin Landau watched all of Bela Lugosi's movies and said Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla "made the Ed Wood films look like Gone with the Wind."

History

Plan 9 was originally titled Grave Robbers from Outer Space, but it was changed to Plan 9 from Outer Space. The reason for the change is said to be because the original title was supposedly considered sacrilegious by the film's backers, the deacons of the Baptist Church of Beverly Hills (this story is documented in the film biography Ed Wood).

In reality, the Baptists who sponsored the film were not opposed to the title Grave Robbers from Outer Space. The exact circumstances are unknown, but the film, which took three years to release, was distributed as Plan 9 from Outer Space without any acknowledgement of the congregation. It is possible that Wood, or his distributor, were trying to avoid paying royalties.

To convince the church to bankroll the film, Wood had the entire cast baptized. However, since Tor Johnson, a professional wrestler, was such a huge man (well over 300 pounds) he couldn't fit into the church's baptismal. Thus the baptism was convened at a swimming pool.

Plot summary

The film is introduced and narrated by television psychic The Amazing Criswell, and involves aliens who attempt to conquer the Earth by resurrecting corpses from a cemetery.

The aliens have divined that the human race will soon develop the ultimate weapon: a bomb made of solarbenite that can "explode the particles of sunlight" and ultimately destroy the universe. They have attempted eight times to persuade humanity not to build the bomb, but find themselves unable to even get humanity's attention. "Plan 9", their plan to resurrect the dead, is their final, desperate attempt. Unbelievably, this is all claimed to be based on sworn testimony, even though Criswell says it takes place in the future.

At the end of the film, the aliens are defeated, although according to the film's internal "logic" this is a Bad Thing because it will allow the humans to develop the solaranite bomb and destroy the universe.

In many respects, the film is a remake of the science-fiction classic The Day the Earth Stood Still albeit with horror elements attached.

The film is infamous for "almost starring" (as modern releases invariably phrase it) Bela Lugosi. The scenes featuring Lugosi were not shot with this film in mind at all. They likely were test shots from a proposed Wood film "The Ghoul Goes West"; when Lugosi was released from rehab, he told an interviewer he was about to begin work on that said film. Wood essentially wrote it into the Plan 9 screenplay after Lugosi died in 1956 and re-wrote it so that his "character" returns from the dead as a vampire. However, this role was filled by the late Dr. Tom Mason, his wife Kathy O'Hara's chiropractor. Dr. Mason, in reality, looked nothing like Lugosi and was far taller. Reportedly Wood was amazed by how Mason's nose and eyes were Lugosi-like. Wood attempted (unsuccessfully) to hide the subterfuge by having Mason perform all his scenes while holding his cape in front of his face. However, in another Wood film shot later that year, Night of the Ghouls, Mason was allowed to show his face. These were his first and last films.

Cast

• Bela Lugosi - The Dracula Character (character name from Wood's screenplay)
• Maila Nurmi (Vampira) - The Ghoul's wife
• Tor Johnson - Insp. Daniel Clay
• Gregory Walcott - Jeff Trent
• Mona McKinnon - Paula Trent
• Duke Moore - Lt. John Harper
• Tom Keene - Col. Tom Edwards
• Dudley Manlove - Eros
• Joanna Lee - Tanna
• John Breckinridge - The Ruler
• Edward Reynolds - Grave digger (uncredited)
• Reverend Jim Lymon - Minister at Clay's funeral (uncredited)
• Dr. Tom Mason - The Dracula Character/Lugosi Double (uncredited)
• Paul Marco - Patrolman Kelton
• Conrad Brooks - Jamie the cop

Mistakes

Plan 9 From Outer Space is widely noted for having a plethora of obvious goofs. Some of the most glaring include:

• "Night" and "day" shots are interspersed constantly within the same scene (for example, Paula Trent runs in darkness through the cemetery, while the old man's corpse chases her in daylight). One porthole on the alien spaceship shows a cloudy day (shown during a scene set at night), while the others show only blackness.
• Mason's attempts to hide the fact that he is not Lugosi are wildly unsuccessful. As an early version of Leonard Maltin's movie guidebook put it, "Lugosi died during production, and it shows." (Lugosi actually died before production ever started.)
• Criswell's opening narration redundantly informs the viewer how "future events such as these will affect you in the future", and then immediately switches to saying that the story has already "happened on that fateful day".
• In the numerous graveyard scenes, as characters brush against tombstones, the stones wobble and, in one case, fall over.
• During a scene in an airplane cockpit, a flash of light from a flying saucer reveals the shadow of the boom mike. Also in this scene, the actress playing the flight attendant bumps into the curtain several times while waiting for her cue.
• The flying saucers (visibly wobbling on strings) cast shadows over the "space" backdrop.
• When Tor Johnson drops the girl in the cemetery, a pillow is clearly visible beneath her.
• Most notably in the first scenes, string is clearly visible from the top of the wobbly saucer to the top of the screen.

Documenting the film

The movie is the subject of a documentary entitled Flying Saucers Over Hollywood: The Plan 9 Companion, which is notable for being 30 minutes longer than the movie itself. The documentary is included on many DVD releases of the movie.

Rudolph Grey's book Nightmare of Ecstasy: The Life and Art of Edward D. Wood Jr. contains anecdotes regarding the making of this film. Grey notes that participants in the original events sometimes contradict one another, but he relates each person's information for posterity regardless.

In 1994, Tim Burton directed a fictionalized biopic, Ed Wood, which climaxes with the making and release of this film, starring Johnny Depp in the title role, Martin Landau as Bela Lugosi, and Bill Murray as Bunny Breckinridge (who played the alien "Ruler" in Plan 9). Ed Wood also featured frequent Wood cohorts Conrad Brooks and Gregory Walcott, both of whom appeared in Plan 9.

The colorized version

File:Plan 9 Alien Fresh.jpg

As an ode to Plan 9 being famously known as "the worst film of all time," prerelease copies of the colorized DVD release included this limited edition air freshener.

In 2005, Legend Films announced the release of a colorized DVD version of Plan 9 from Outer Space, and autographed pre-release pressings of the DVD were made available through the company's website, and on their eBay store. The DVD featured an audio commentary track by comedian Michael J. Nelson of Mystery Science Theater 3000 fame. (The producers of the series at one point actually screened the film for Mystery Science Theater 3000, but found it to have too much dialogue to fit the show's format. Instead, the series' cast mocked an earlier Wood film, Bride of the Monster, which also starred Bela Lugosi and Tor Johnson.) The DVD also featured a restored black and white version of Plan 9 as well as a home movie of Edward D. Wood in drag performing a striptease (Wood, in real life, was a cross-dresser) and the "lost" Plans 1-8. Fans of the film affectionately said of the colorized version that it made "Ed Wood's incredibly cheap sets look even worse." [1] The autographed edition also came with a limited edition air freshener. [2] The colorized version was also shown at the Castro Theatre on March 11, 2006. [3]

References in popular culture

• An unofficial theatrical version of Plan 9 was staged in the 2006 Toronto Fringe Festival. "Plan LIVE from Outer Space!" was written by James Gordon Taylor and featured well known Canadian comedians (most of them Second City alumni) such as Lisa Brooke, Aurora Browne, Brandon Firla, Chris Gibbs, Sandy Jobin-Bevans and Ron Sparks.
• A murder mystery play was written, Plan 10 From Outer Space, featuring Ed Wood directing his next blockbuster. [4]
• An adventure game of the same name was made in which you must recover the film from Bela Lugosi's double, who has stolen it.
• The Bell Labs successor to the Unix operating system was named Plan 9 from Bell Labs based on the name of this movie.
• Horror punk icons The Misfits named one of their record labels "PLAN 9", and released a song, "Vampira", named after the film's female lead.
• Chiller Theatre in New Jersey hosts an annual horror convention, featuring two of the three zombies from Plan 9 (Maila Nurmi and Tor Johnson).
• Those that preordered the video game Destroy All Humans!, available for the Xbox and PlayStation 2 video game consoles, received a bonus DVD of Plan 9 from Outer Space when the game was released. The game itself also features several references to the movie. But the movie is also unlockable in the game, along with Teenagers From Outer Space, but neither has any controls (play, pause, fast forward).
• Aside from referencing and including a scene from the film, Night of the Creeps also intentionally has a similar plot - an alien experiment is inadvertently sent to Earth that can reanimate the dead.
• A "neo-psychedelic" rock band from the 1980's named themselves Plan 9.
• There is a Seattle band called The Dudley Manlove Quartet (Manlove is the actor who played Eros). [5]
• Plan 9 Music is a chain of record stores in Virginia. [6]
• The film is referenced in two Seinfeld episodes: in "The Chinese Restaurant" where Jerry, George, and Elaine are going to the movie following their dinner, but plans fall through and Jerry refuses to see it alone. Jerry calls it "the worst movie ever made." Also referenced in "The Postponement," where Jerry and Kramer see an advertisement on a telephone pole for a second chance to see it. Also said in one of these episodes is "This is not plans 1 through 8, this is plan 9 - the one that actually worked."
• Episode number 66 of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987 cartoon series is named Plan 6 from Outer Space. This is a wordplay and the 6 here stands for the fictional TV-channel Channel 6 in this cartoon.
• In the Mission Hill episode Plan 9 from Mission Hill (or I Married a Gay Man from Outer Space), Kevin becomes a classic film fan with the help of Wally, and one day he discovers a long-lost movie, The Man from Pluto, and calls the media to promote its re-projection. The movie is clearly a spoof of Plan 9 from Outer Space (although the backstory behind the making of The Man from Pluto is based upon rumors circulated around the making of another cult film, Teenagers from Outer Space).
• Fox Mulder, a primary character in the TV series X-Files, claims to have seen the movie exactly 42 times, simultaneously a reference to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
• In The Simpsons episode Worst Episode Ever, a terrible comic book "Biclops" is made by Plan 9 Comics on behalf of LensCrafters.
• Rockabilly/surf band Department of Crooks (also known as Casino Crooks) released a CD entitled "Plan 9 From Las Vegas" in the late 90s. [7]
• In 1997, David G Smith wrote and composed the music for Plan 9 from Outer Space: The Musical. It received better reviews than the original film. [8]
• Karl Edward Wagner's story "Plan Ten from Inner Space" purports to be a film treatment for a Roger Corman ripoff of Plan 9 from Outer Space which, in the alternate world the story inhabits, is apparently a critically acclaimed big-budget epic.
• In popular webcomic 8-Bit Theater episode 473, Red Mage calls his plan to defeat Kary "Plan 9 From Outer Space." The name also references to the fact that the plan involves Ice-nine, of Kurt Vonnegut fame.
• Frankenstein Drag Queens From Planet 13 have a song called "Plan 9 From Outer Space." [9]
• Plan 10 From Outer Space is a movie which makes fun of Mormons and Mormon history.[10]

Images

• 
  The famous opening
• 
  A Flying Saucer wobbles unrealistically as it descends into a San Fernando cemetery
• 
  Tanna and Eros (Joanna Lee and Dudley Manlove) confer with "The Ruler" (John Breckinridge)
• 
  Pilot Jeff Trent (Gregory Walcott) does not take too kindly to Eros' suggestion that all mankind are idiots
• 
  Paula Trent (Mona McKinnon) escapes the clutches of the "Ghoul Man" (Tom Mason)
• 
  Tanna and Eros leave the Ruler's space station, casting an obvious shadow as they go
• 
  The recently deceased Inspector Dan Clay (Tor Johnson) in a classic pose
• 
  Lt. Harper (Duke Moore) explains to Patrolman Larry (Carl Anthony) some important facts about the case (and also manages to point his gun at him in the process)
• 
  "Vampire Girl" (Vampira) attacks Inspector Clay
• 
  Bela Lugosi "played" the "Ghoul Man" (see above) but died long before the shoot. Director Ed Wood replaced him with his wife's chiropractor (Tom Mason), keeping his face hidden behind a cape so viewers would not notice any facial differences.
• 
  Eros is nearly killed by an errant Inspector Clay. "That was too close!"
• 
  The face that inspired a successful Halloween mask

See also

• Films considered the worst ever

References

Sloan, Will. (April 2005). "Can Your Heart Stand the Shocking Facts About Kelton the Cop A/K/A Paul Marco?" Filmfax, p.88-89

External links

• Plan 9 from Outer Space at IMDb
• Goofs at the Internet Movie Database
• Plan 9 from Outer Space at Google Video
• Murder Mystery Dinner Theater for Ed Wood Fans (Plan 10 From Outer Space)
• Illustrated review of the film
• Detailed list of the film's mistakes
• Everything2 entries for the film
• Theatrical trailer for the film (Windows and Real Media formats)