CULT – Plan 9 from Outer Space

Published on: 20th August, 2009

CULT - Plan 9 from Outer Space  | read this item

Related News

• A Visual Alien Retrospective
• VIDEO NASTIES – Cannibal Terror
• NEWS – City of the Living Dead Makes Its Way to Blu-ray
• REVIEW – Four of the Apocalypse

There is nothing worse than mediocre. To be a really great filmmaker is a major achievement, but to be considered the worst of all time is also something to be proud of. Thus, Edward D. Wood Jr. and his legacy of camp and ridiculous ‘50’s b-movies have become as iconic as many of the more respected offerings of the decade. He was a director with little budget and even less talent, yet he certainly had the passion and determination to try again and again, proving that the title ‘worst filmmaker of all time’ is perhaps a little unfair. Plan 9 from Outer Space, his crowning achievement, is often ridiculed for its amateur acting and laughable special effects, yet it boasted many elements that had become commonplace within science fiction and horror during that era.

Edward Davis Wood, Jr. was born on October 10 1924 in Poughkeepsie, New York and developed a taste for theatrics from an early age. He would regularly visit cinemas to watch the latest releases and became fascinated with westerns and comic books. His mother, Lillian, had wanted a daughter and so Edward was often forced to dress up as a girl throughout his childhood, something that would have a profound effect on not only his later life but also his work as well, most specifically his 1953 drama Glen or Glenda. Although he had received his first camera at the age of twelve and had experimented with filmmaking, his first work in the industry was as an usher at a cinema. Edward enlisted in the marines when he was seventeen and would remain in service for four years, allegedly hiding women’s underwear underneath his uniform.

Upon returning to America, he spent time with a carnival and began to drink and experiment with drugs. With his first marriage to Norma McCarty in ruins, he soon tied with knot with Kathleen O’Hara Everett (who would work as an art director on his 1959 horror Night of the Ghouls). Wood’s first major work in Hollywood began in the ‘40’s, as well as a critically mauled play entitled Casual Company, which was loosely based upon his wartime experiences. It was during this time that he first made the acquaintance of his most famous collaborator, ageing film star Béla Lugosi, who had once been a screen icon from his roles in Universal’s adaptation of Dracula, as well as the undead prototype, White Zombie. Struggling with morphine addiction, Lugosi would eventually pass away on August 16 1956, soon after shooting various footage, albeit without sound, for Wood’s next planned project, Tomb of the Vampire, which would never come to fruition.

Instead, Edward would embark on his most ambitious feature to date, a science fiction horror that would combine elements of the undead with a story about an alien invasion. The screenplay, Grave Robbers from Outer Space, would be written with the footage that had been shot in mind, thus allowing Edward the chance to market it as Lugosi’s final performance. Killing off the character within the first few minutes, he decided to cast a body double to play Lugosi’s prowling zombie, whose face would be obscured by his Dracula-like cape, and eventually hired Tom Mason, his wife’s chiropractor (who would also have a minor role in Night of the Ghouls). The story would focus on a race of humanoid aliens who have travelled to Earth and have begun to re-animate the dead, starting with the old man and his recently deceased wife.

Despite his lack of talent, Edward’s enthusiasm was infectious and his passion for his work would help secure the talents of a variety of minor celebrities. Gregory Walcott had already co-starred alongside such renowned name as Henry Fonda, James Cagney and Jack Lemmon in the 1955 war movie Mr. Roberts (which also featured future Mrs. Voorhees, Betsy Palmer) and Alan Ladd in The McConnell Story, whilst Tor Johnson was a famous wrestler (dubbed The Super Swedish Angel). Maila Nurmi had gained a cult following under the alias Vampira, regularly hosting horror movies on television with gothic Morticia-like appearance. Having previously flirted with modeling upon her initial arrival in Hollywood, Nurmi’s unique style attracted the attention of television producer Hunt Stromberg, Jr., who wanted to hire her for his network KABC-TV.

Reportedly funded by a Baptist church, the project that would eventually become Plan 9 from Outer Space began principal photography on August 11 1956 in Hollywood. The opening scene of the movie was to be of the story’s narrator, portrayed by The Amazing Criswell (born Jeron Criswell Konig), a cult figure around Los Angeles at that time due to his questionable psychic talents. This narrative device was to help justify Lugosi’s involvement, whose character would appear briefly at a funeral (later revealed to be his wife, played by Vampira) and then walking out of a house and off screen (it is suggested that he walked in front of a car, unable to deal with the grief of losing his wife). Another significant performer was Bunny Breckinridge who, whilst only making one film appearance throughout his career, was a close friend of the director and had been a fan of his gender identity drama Glen or Glenda, Breckinridge himself wishing to undergo a sex change operation.

The majority of the filming took place on a soundstage at Quality Studios on Santa Monica Blvd., with various scenes shot in San Fernando. As was common with many of his productions, the lack of budget meant that the director was forced to reply on the first take, regardless of how awful the acting was. The filmmakers also utilised stock footage of Los Angeles and other major cities for the sequences in which flying saucers are shown hovering overhead, with the spacecrafts superimposed over the action. The saucers themselves have become something of a laughing stock due to the technique that the director used – props on string in front of a black board with stars painted on. Even some of the more down-to-earth props were noticeably fake, such as the tombstones in the graveyard, one of which topples over when an actor accidentally falls against it.

Edward’s script was full of plot-holes, contradictions and irrelevant sequences that have played no small part in the negative reputation that the film has earned. For instance, it is revealed by a colonel during an exposition scene that the aliens had been sending the U.S. government messages in their native language for some time that they had been translating with the help of a newly designed machine, yet when the heroes finally come face-to-face with the aliens they speak fluent English. Lugosi’s scenes seem forced and inconsequential to the overall plot, as the two principal zombies (played by Vampira and Johnson) are the ones that carry out the aliens’ bidding, whilst Lugosi wanders through the woods with his cape over his face.

During the shoot the special effects artist, Harry Thomas (who had worked on Glen or Glenda), had a dispute with the director and demanded that his name be removed from the credits, resulting in his assistant, Tom Bartholemew, being billed as the creator of the effects. Vampira had provided her own makeup, having designed the look of her character for the earlier television show, and Lugosi had provided his own cape, having portrayed Dracula on stage before being cast in the movie. Edward had derived much of his anti-nuclear subtext from Robert Wise’s 1951 classic The Day the Earth Stood Still, in which an alien and his servant had arrived on Earth to warn humanity about the dangers that they faced from their new powers.

Reviews were unanimously negative, often citing not only the obvious low budget but also inept acting and script as major flaws. After being screened under its original title in Los Angeles on March 15 1957, Plan 9 from Outer Space was officially released two years later in July 1959 as a double bill in North America alongside Brit thriller Time Lock. The movie soon disappeared from public attention and, with his biggest star no longer available, the filmmaker’s career fell foul of money troubles, a brief stint as a porno director and depression. Plan 9 from Outer Space would eventually receive the recognition many felt it deserved in 1980 when it was awarded ‘The Worst Film Ever Made’ at the Worst Film Festival in New York, resulting in a new interest in the movie. Sadly, however, Edward D. Wood Jr. had succumbed to a heart attack two years earlier at the age of fifty-four.

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

Readers Comments