A Quick Look: PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE (1959)

    PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE, as you are no doubt aware, has largely been accepted as the single worst motion picture ever produced. That, of course, is an incorrect statement, since the film is at the very least entertaining. Let us call it the most technically inept motion picture of all time, and that'd be much fairer (though still, shockingly, inaccurate). In a plot vaguely similar to INVISIBLE INVADERS, spacemen resurrect the bodies of the recent dead in order to attack humanity -albeit on a much smaller scale. Muddled script presents the invaders as benevolent, only wanting to get the attention of our government and scientific heads so as to prevent them from creating the ultimate, galaxy-destroying explosive. Yet, for all their desire to make contact with us, they go to extremes to keep themselves hidden. The main Martian even has the other ships under his command taken away because they've been seen -which is apparently the reason he was issued the craft in the first place! Eclectic cast includes familiar character actor Lyle Talbot, leading man Gregory Walcott, wrestler Tor Johnson, TV horror hostess Vampira, Wood stock players Paul Marco and Conrad Brooks, fake psychic Criswell, and of course, the already deceased Bela Lugosi! Technical ineptitudes run rampant, occasionally defused by a genuinely iconic image. Some of the scenes, or at least individual shots (such as Tor Johnson rising from his grave) are quite moody. Probably the most meandering Ed Wood script (aside from GLEN OR GLENDA), and certainly the most visible film of his limited output. As to director Ed Wood, he's a hard duck to pin down. His obvious enthusiasm for making movies seems to run counter to his apparent lack of even a token effort. His films are at once works of love and a complete lack of care. The effect is surreal, and I think that's what has kept Wood's name alive while so many of his peers are largely forgotten today. Only die-hard movie nuts remember the likes of Coleman Francis or Phil Tucker or H.G. Lewis, but Ed Wood is a household name. Eddie finally found the success he always craved, it's just that he'd been dead for several decades. Those interested in a great documentary should seek out ED WOOD: LOOK BACK IN ANGORA.