019 – ACTORS TALK PODCAST – PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE – BEHIND THE SCENES OF THE WORST MOVIE EVER MADE

Summary: PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE, originally titled GRAVE ROBBERS FROM OUTER SPACE was written and directed by fringe filmmaker Ed Wood Jr. Plan 9 was Wood's magnum opus, his pride and joy. Wood's filmography includes GLEN OR GLENDA (1953), JAIL BAIT (1954), BRIDE OF THE MONSTER (1955) and PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE (1959). Gregory Walcott as Jeff Trent in Plan 9 From Outer Space After the dismal failure of Plan 9, the career of Ed Wood Jr. veered off into an even lower rung on the Hollywood ladder as he wrote and directed porn movies and wrote and published transvestite themed paperbacks. Vampira and Tor Johnson from Plan 9 In addition to Gregory Walcott, Plan 9 starred Bela Lugosi, who had been dead for a couple of years when the film was shot; Tor Johnson - a 400 pound ex-wrestler, Vampira - the original 'mistress of the dark' on local L.A. television and Lyle Talbott - probably most memorable to us baby boomers from the Ozzie and Harriet show when we were kids. Here is an excerpt from Ed Wood's biography as published on IMDB and written by Jack Backstreet: Hacks are nothing new in Hollywood. Had Edward D. Wood been born a decade or so earlier it's easy to imagine him working out of some Poverty Row outfit in Gower Gulch, competing with the likes of Victor Adamson, Robert J. Horner and Dwain Esper for the title of all-time hack. He would've fit in nicely at Educational Pictures in the early '30s or PRC in the following decade. Wood, like everyone, is imprisoned in their own time, and in the 1950s Edward D. Wood Jr. simply had no competition. He was ignored throughout a spectacularly unsuccessful career and died a penniless alcoholic, only to be "rediscovered" when promoters in the early 1980s tagged him the worst director of all time (mostly thanks to the Medveds' hilarious book, "Golden Turkey Awards")- and was given the singular honor of a full-length biopic by Tim Burton. This post-mortem fame has made him infinitely more famous today than he ever was when alive. Ed Wood Jr. as he appeared in Glen or Glenda ... Wood attempted to break into the film industry, initially without success, but finally landed the chance to direct a film based on the real-life Christine Jorgensen sex-change story, then a hot topic. The result, Glen or Glenda (1953), gave a fascinating insight into Wood's own personality and shed light on his transvestism (an almost unthinkable subject for an early 1950s mainstream feature). Although devoutly heterosexual, Wood was an enthusiastic cross-dresser, with a particular fondness for angora. On the debit side, though, the film revealed an almost complete lack of talent that would mar all his subsequent films, his tendency to resort to stock footage of lightning during dramatic moments, laughable set design, and a near-incomprehensible performance by Bela Lugosi as a mad doctor whose presence is never adequately explained. The film deservedly flopped miserably but Wood, always upbeat, pressed ahead. ... All of his films exhibit illogical continuity, bizarre narratives and give the distinct impression that a director's job was simply to expose the least amount of film possible due to constant budget constraints. Visible wires connected to pie-pan UFOs, actors knocking over cardboard "headstones", cars changing models and years during chase sequences, scenes exhibiting a disturbing lack of handgun safety, and the ingenious use of shower curtains in rudder-less airplane cockpits are just a few of the trademarks of an Edward D. Wood Jr. production. When criticized for their innumerable flaws, he'd cheerfully explain his interpretation of the suspension of disbelief... Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959) ... reaches a plateau of gross ineptitude that leaves viewers stunned. Plan 9 became his singular enduring legacy... His final years were spent largely drunk in his apartment and occasionally being rolled stumbling out of a local liquor store.