Plan 9 from Outer Space


Plan 9 from Outer Space is a 1957 American independent science fiction-horror film produced, written, directed, and edited by Ed Wood. The film was shot in black-and-white in November 1956 and had a preview screening on March 15, 1957, at the Carlton Theatre in Los Angeles under the title Grave Robbers from Outer Space. Retitled Plan 9 from Outer Space, it played in 1957 as a double feature with the British thriller Time Lock, and went into general release in July 1958 in Virginia, Texas, and several other Southern states, before being sold to television in 1961. In Texas, it played on a double bill with the re-released Devil Girl from Mars.
The film stars Gregory Walcott, Mona McKinnon, Tor Johnson, and "Vampira", and is narrated by Criswell. It also posthumously bills Bela Lugosi. Other guest stars are Hollywood veterans Lyle Talbot, who said he never refused an acting job, and former cowboy star Tom Keene.
The film's storyline concerns extraterrestrials who seek to stop humanity from creating a doomsday weapon that could destroy the universe. The aliens implement "Plan 9", a scheme to resurrect the Earth's dead. By causing chaos, the aliens hope the crisis will force humanity to listen to them; otherwise, the aliens will destroy mankind with armies of the undead.
Plan 9 from Outer Space played on television in relative obscurity from 1961 until 1980, when authors Harry Medved and Michael Medved dubbed it the "worst film ever made" in their book The Golden Turkey Awards. Wood and his film were posthumously given two Golden Turkey Awards for Worst Director Ever and Worst Film Ever. It has since been called "the epitome of so-bad-it's-good cinema" and gained a large cult following.

Plot

Mourners gather around an old man at his wife's grave site as an airliner overhead flies toward Burbank, California. Pilot Jeff Trent and his co-pilot Danny are startled by a bright light, accompanied by a loud noise. They see a flying saucer land in the cemetery near Jeff's house, where two gravediggers are killed by a ghoul.
Lost in grief, the old man is struck and killed by a car in front of his home. Mourners at his funeral discover the gravediggers' corpses. When Inspector Daniel Clay and his police officers arrive, Clay goes alone into the cemetery to investigate.
Jeff tells his wife, Paula, about his flying saucer encounter, saying that the Army has sworn him to secrecy. Another saucer lands, and a powerful swooshing noise knocks the Trents, and the police officers in the cemetery, to the ground. Inspector Clay is murdered by the ghoul and her husband's now-reanimated corpse. Lieutenant Harper says: "But one thing's sure. Inspector Clay is dead, murdered, and somebody's responsible!".
Newspaper headlines report flying saucer sightings over Hollywood Boulevard, and three of them fly across Los Angeles. In Washington, D.C., the military fires missiles at several saucers. Chief of saucer operations Thomas Edwards says the government has been covering up saucer attacks.
The aliens return to their Space Station 7, and Commander Eros tells the alien ruler that he has been unsuccessful in contacting Earth's governments. Eros recommends "Plan 9", the resurrection of recently deceased humans. Concerned about Paula's safety, Jeff urges her to stay with her mother while he's at work, but she refuses. That night, the undead old man breaks into their house and chases Paula outside, where the female ghoul and Inspector Clay join him. Paula escapes, collapsing in the woods while the three ghouls return to Eros in the saucer.
At the Pentagon, General Roberts tells Edwards that aliens have been telling the government that they are trying to prevent humanity from destroying the universe. Roberts sends Edwards to San Fernando, where most of the alien activity has occurred.
The zombified Inspector Clay goes berserk and attacks Eros, nearly killing him. The ruler approves Eros's Plan 9 to raise armies of the dead to march on Earth's capitals.
Edwards and the police interview the Trents, unaware that the flying saucer has returned to the cemetery. Officer Kelton encounters the old man, who chases him into the Trents' backyard. Eros's long-distance ray strikes the old man, reducing him to a skeleton. Edwards, the Trents, and the police drive to the cemetery.
Harper insists on leaving Paula in the car; Kelton stays with her. Eros and Tanna send Clay to kidnap Paula and lure the other three humans to the saucer. Seeing its glow, Jeff and the police approach it. Clay knocks Kelton unconscious and carries Paula into the woods.
Eros lets Jeff and the police enter the saucer with pistols drawn. He tells them that human weapons development will lead to the discovery of the "solaronite" bomb, a substance that explodes sunlight particles. Such an explosion would set off an uncontrollable chain reaction, destroying the universe. Eros believes that humans are immature and stupid; he intends to destroy humanity, threatening to kill Paula if Jeff and the police try to stop him. Kelton and Larry arrive and see Clay near the saucer carrying the unconscious Paula. They sneak up behind Clay and knock him out with a club. Eros says that Clay's controlling ray has been shut off, which released Paula. He and Jeff have a fistfight inside the ship, and the saucer's equipment is damaged and catches fire. The humans escape, and Tanna and Eros take off. The fire consumes the saucer, which explodes, and the two remaining zombies decompose into skeletons.

Cast

  • Gregory Walcott as Jeff Trent
  • Mona McKinnon as Paula Trent
  • Duke Moore as Lieutenant John Harper
  • Tom Keene as Colonel Tom Edwards
  • Carl Anthony as Patrolman Larry
  • Paul Marco as Patrolman Kelton
  • Tor Johnson as Inspector Daniel Clay
  • Dudley Manlove as Eros
  • Joanna Lee as Tanna
  • John Breckinridge as The Ruler
  • Lyle Talbot as General Roberts
  • David De Mering as Danny
  • Norma McCarty as Edie the stewardess
  • Bill Ash as Captain
  • Lynn Lemon as Minister at Clay's funeral
  • Ben Frommer and Gloria Dea as Mourners
  • Conrad Brooks as Patrolman Jamie
  • Maila Nurmi as Vampire Girl
  • Bela Lugosi as the Old Man/Ghoul Man
  • * Tom Mason as Old Man/Ghoul Man body double, Lugosi's fake Shemp
  • Criswell as himself/narrator
  • Karl Johnson as Farmer Calder
  • Ed Wood as Man Holding Newspaper
  • J. Edward Reynolds as Gravedigger
  • Hugh Thomas, Jr. as Gravedigger

    Production

Background and genre

The film combines elements of science fiction, Atompunk, and gothic horror. Science fiction remained popular throughout the 1950s, though the genre had experienced significant changes in the post-war period. The Atomic Age, heralded by the development of nuclear weapons and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, had inspired science fiction films to deal with the dangers of unrestricted science, while space flight and the existence of extraterrestrial life and civilizations, seemed to hold a new fascination for audiences at the beginning of the Space Race. On the other hand, the height of Gothic film's popularity was during the 1930s and 1940s but it was in decline by the 1950s and considered old-fashioned. By 1950s standards, the combination of dated and modern elements gives the film a rather anachronistic quality.
Plan 9s script seems to aim at being an epic film, a genre typically requiring a big budget from a major film studio. That Wood made it with minimal financial resources underscores one of the qualities of his work: his ideas tended to be too expensive to film, yet he tried to film them anyway. As Rob Craig argues, Wood's failed efforts give the film a peculiar charm. Craig finds that Plan 9 has much in common with both epic theatre and the Theatre of the Absurd.

The introduction and its origins

The film opens with an introduction by Wood's friend, psychic Criswell: "Greetings, my friends! We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives!" At the time of filming, Criswell was the star of the KLAC Channel 13 television series Criswell Predicts. The introduction could be an allusion to the opening lines of his show, but since no episodes of the television show are known to survive, a comparison is impossible. Craig suggests that Criswell's public persona was based on the style of a charismatic preacher, perhaps influenced by early televangelists. He addresses the viewers repeatedly as "my friends", as if attempting to establish a bond between the speaker and the audience. The line likely derives from his show, and would not be out of place in a segment where a televangelist addresses his congregation. Another phrase of the introduction, "Future events such as these will affect you in the future", was a signature line for Criswell. He used it repeatedly in his newspaper and magazine columns, and probably his show.
Another line asserts that the audience is interested in "the unknown, the mysterious, the unexplainable", implying that the film's audience will have a fascination with the paranormal. The narrator claims that "we" are bringing to light the full story and evidence of fateful events, based on the survivors' "secret testimony". The narration seems to emulate the style of sensational headlines in tabloid newspapers, and promises audiences access to "lurid secrets" as if following the example of True Confessions and similar scandal magazines. The notion that a film or show could be based on true incidents and testimony would be familiar to a 1950s audience, because it was used in contemporary police procedurals such as Dragnet.
Changing the tone, Criswell delivers the sermon-like lines: "Let us punish the guilty! Let us reward the innocent!". The introduction concludes with the question: "Can your heart stand the shocking facts about graverobbers from outer space?" The latter phrase was the original title of the film, but the rest of the line again seems to emulate the sensationalist press.
The film's postscript, also narrated by Criswell and delivered in the same tone as the introduction, provides the audience with a challenge, a warning, and concluding wish