Plan 9 from Outer Space (film)

Plan 9 from Outer Space
aka	Grave Robbers from Outer Space
Year	1957
Directed by	Edward D. Wood Jr.
Produced by	Edward D. Wood Jr. J. Edward Reynolds
Written by	Edward D. Wood Jr.
Music by	Gordon Zahler
Studio	Reynolds Pictures
Cast	Bela Lugosi Tor Johnson Vampira Gregory Walcott Duke Moore Paul Marco Conrad Brooks Carl Anthony Joanna Lee Lyle Talbot Criswell
Run time	79 minutes
Riffed in	Mike Nelson Commentaries RiffTrax The Mads Are Back

“	I? A fiend?	”
	- Eros

Plan 9 from Outer Space is a sci-fi/horror film written and directed by Edward D. Wood Jr. It is widely considered to be one of the worst movies ever made.

Plot

The titular Plan 9 refers to a plot by alien beings to conquer the Earth by re-animating the recently deceased, starting in the Los Angeles area. This plan is thwarted by a daring pilot, a military officer, and some local police.

Cast

• Bela Lugosi as The Old Man
• Tor Johnson as Inspector Clay
• Vampira as The Vampire Girl
• Gregory Walcott as Jeff Trent
• Duke Moore as Lt. Harper
• Paul Marco as Patrolman Kelton
• Conrad Brooks as Policeman
• Carl Anthony as Patrolman Larry
• Dudley Manlove as Eros
• John "Bunny" Breckenridge as The Ruler
• Joanna Lee as Tanna
• Mona McKinnon as Paula Trent
• Lyle Talbot as General Roberts
• Criswell as The Narrator
• Lynn Lemon as The Minister

Notes

• In November of 2023, Joel Hodgson announced that Plan 9 from Outer Space was one of the films planned to be used in Season 14. The crowd-funding campaign was not successful, so it remains to be seen if Plan 9 will be used in any future MST3K projects.
• Production of the film was dramatized in the 1994 movie Ed Wood. Some of the actors from Plan 9 appear in small roles in Ed Wood, including Gregory Walcott as a potential investor and Conrad Brooks as a bartender.
• The film's "Worst Movie" reputation came to prominence in The Golden Turkey Awards. At the end of their previous volume The Fifty Worst Films of All Time, the Medved Brothers asked readers to send in their votes for what they thought was the worst movie. Plan 9 took the #1 spot, with Exorcist II: The Heretic placing second. This was notable because Plan 9 was considerably older than most of the other movies that got votes (the rest of the Top Ten were all from the 1970s with the oldest being Airport 1975).
• Plan 9 from Outer Space was also referred to in the 1991 episode of Seinfeld entitled "The Chinese Restaurant", in which Jerry referred to it as "the worst movie ever made".
• Actor Johnny Duncan appears as the 2nd Stretcher Bearer. Duncan had previously played Robin the Boy Wonder in the 1949 serial Batman and Robin, which later became a RiffTrax presentation. After Plan 9, he had a small role in the 1960 film Spartacus, then retired from acting. He passed away in 2016.
• Gloria Dea appears in a small role as a mourner. She had previously been a successful stage magician and dancer in Las Vegas. She was the only surviving member of the film's cast when she passed away in March of 2023 at the age of 100.
• Like Santa Claus Conquers the Martians and The Atomic Brain, Plan 9 from Outer Space has been adapted into a stage musical.

Riffed versions

• Plan 9 from Outer Space was first riffed by Michael J. Nelson alone, as part of a series done for Legend Films to promote their colorizations of classic films. This version was released as an autographed DVD, a standard DVD and as a Blu-ray. With the launch of RiffTrax in 2006, the audio track was made the site's first release. A Video-on-Demand version (still utilizing the colorized Legend film) followed in 2007.
• A "three-riffer" version followed in 2008, with Bill Corbett and Kevin Murphy joining Mike. This version was released on DVD in the original black-and-white, but is in color for the Video-on-Demand.
• The colorized Plan 9 was again utilized as part of the first RiffTrax Live presentation, simulcast across the country by Fathom Events in 2009. This version was also later released on DVD, Blu-ray and as a Video-on-Demand.
• The Mads Are Back, starring Trace Beaulieu and Frank Conniff, riffed Plan 9 when they were touring as a live show. They have not riffed Plan 9 since switching to a livestream model and no recorded version has been made available to the general public. Trace Beaulieu has expressed a fondness for Plan 9 and for the work of Ed Wood in general.

Critical Response

• Leonard Maltin wrote: "BOMB [...] Hailed as the worst movie ever made; certainly one of the funniest. [...] So mesmerizingly awful it actually improves (so to speak) with each viewing."
• Michael Weldon stated in The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film, "The merits of this incredible film have not been exaggerated. It's not actually the worst film ever made, but it's the most entertaining bad one you'll find. [...] Audiences stare in disbelief at the studio floor under the moving grass in the cemetery, flying saucers made of paper plates, night constantly changing to day and back again, and a jet-cockpit set that elementary school kids could have designed for a play. [...] Worth watching nine times."

See also

• New Petitions Against Tax