The Film Asylum - Plan 9 from Outer Space Film Review

PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE

Cast

Gregory Walcott	Jeff Trent
Mona McKinnon	Paula Trent
Duke Moore	Lt. John Harper
Tom Keene	Col. Tom Edwards
Carl Anthony	Patrolman Larry
Paul Marco	Patrolman Kelton
Tor Johnson	Insp. Dan Clay
Dudley Manlove	Eros
Joanna Lee	Tanna
John Breckinridge	The Ruler

Plot
After eight failed (and undisclosed) plans, pompous aliens come to America and resurrect the dead to take over our planet.

Analysis
In his affectionate biopic, "Ed Wood", Tim Burton showed us how much director Edward D. Wood Jr., respected and admired the great Orson Welles. If nothing else, just as "Citizen Kane" is a bible outlining all the right things to do in a film, Ed Wood's "Plan 9" is a textbook example of how to make a very BAD film. ***Warning: Severe Sarcasm to Follow. Proceed at Own Peril!*** I feel the film, which has a few similarities to "Citizen Kane" (no, I'm not on crack!), is true genius, just differently to how "Kane" is regarded as genius.

In the documentary "Hollywood Rated R", cult figure Johnny Legend mentions that if you gave people like Tarantino 20 million bucks to remake "Plan 9", they couldn't do it. Oh, a bad movie could easily be made ("The Quick and the Dead" and "Showgirls" come to mind as bad films made by big-name directors), but it wouldn't be "Plan 9". Even George Lucas has tried to pay homage to "Plan 9" in "Star Wars" by having a storm trooper hit his head on a door, just as "Plan 9" features hulking Tor Johnson knocking over cardboard tombstones...but it's the subtle nuances Johnson and Wood bring out that set it apart from all the other pretenders ( "Battlefield Earth" ). How Wood managed to get narrator (and campy TV psychic) Criswell to add an extra use of the word 'future' into his monologue is one for the ages as well.

Speaking of Criswell, he does indeed narrate the film in an attempt to lend realism to the proceedings just as Orson Welles (told you there'd be more!) did with the newsreel segments of "Citizen Kane". Criswell's psychic abilities are perfectly on display here as he was clearly there to help out the props department to select a shower curtain for the cockpit set in a brilliant homage to "Psycho"- which hadn't even been made yet! The Hitchcock allusions continue as the film features aliens talking about a new and powerful kind of bomb- which turns out to be a McGuffin! Not to mention the nuclear war commentary that Kubrick would later STEAL for the overrated "Dr. Strangelove". And, culturally conscious people might notice a scene where
someone remarks 'It's getting dark' (it already is) as the footage changes from day to night and back again, as the zombies come out to hunt. This is clearly a statement about the black (or dark) man seeking revenge on whitey from beyond the grave, a wonderful foreshadowing of the themes later used in many blaxploitation films. Not to mention the Brechtian style of it all, using such transitions as a distancing tool.

And finally, folks, just as Roger Ebert and Russ Meyer were clearly influenced by "Citizen Kane" (boy are you getting sick of hearing that name, I'll bet) when finding the right shot transition at one point in "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls", "Plan 9" is responsible for giving us many bad filmmakers and companies (not to mention Vampira's deadening performance being a source of inspiration for Jennifer Jason Leigh's entire career). For instance, if there were no "Plan 9" there would be no Sean S. Cunningham ("Deepstar Six"), Golan-Globus (whose Cannon films are home to many Chuck Norris and Michael Dudikoff movies), Albert Pyun ("Cyborg", "Mean Guns" and several other clunkers), and Fred Olen Ray ("Beverly Hills Vamp", "Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers"). These people have failed to achieve the grandeur of Wood, as did the filmmakers of "Battlefield Earth", which like "Plan 9", involved some religious folk, and was arguably a failed attempt to remake this classic bad movie.

Key Area	Rating (out of 5)	Comment
Action	None	Hopelessly staged struggles, a few guns and even a fake laser gun, but that's all.
Thrills/ Tension	None	I'm certain that the female alien ad-libbed that ray gun jamming in an attempt to add tension...shame that ray guns don't have anything TO jam!
Violence/ Gore	None	Probably would've gone over the 10c budget.
Bare Flesh	None	Vampira's otherworldly cleavage is oddly enticing.
Plot	None	Might get points for originality, but I'm sure as hell not going to be the brave soul to dare give the film that credit.

Verdict
Unable to be duplicated, intentional or not, Wood was a genius in his own right, warning us against making mistakes and creating truly terrible films. If only those who sought to imitate him realised that making a bad film is different to making an Ed Wood bad film. And Ed might just have been a more consistent filmmaker than Welles ever was! I may love the film, but I haven't lost my marbles, unlike many who say that a film this enjoyable can't be the worst ever made. It may be entertaining as hell, but it is still the most gob-smackingly awful thing to be committed to film.

Facts, figures and boobs

1.	In the mid 90s, terrible actress Karen Black starred in an unrelated film called "Plan 10 From Outer Space", about mormons.
2.	Wood's original title for the film was "Grave Robbers from Outer Space", but the Baptist ministers who financed the film objected to that title, so he changed it to "Plan 9" (never, of course, making any reference to what the previous eight plans were).
3.	Bela Lugosi died four days after shooting began Wood abandoned the project and rewrote the script to accommodate all the footage shot in a cemetery and outside Tor Johnson's house in the new production. Bela Lugosi's part was taken over by Tom Mason (II), Wood's wife's chiropractor, who was significantly taller than Lugosi, and played the part with a cape covering his face.
4.	The scar worn by actor Tor Johnson had to be moved every day, as it caused severe skin irritation.

Movie Pictures (Click picture to enlarge)

What other people thought of this film: -
Ed	It's a classic that will be remembered long after this summer's big budget blockbusters are forgotten. Pure and untainted by objectionable production values.

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