Plan 9 From Outer Space

[whitehall]

I watched it for the first time the other day on "Turner/Classics" and it wasn't as bad as it was portrayed for the last 60+ years. If Hollywood didn't spill the beans about Legosi dying during the movie and his character portrayed by a unknown with a cape it would have gone down as another low budget 50's saucer exploitation movie not unlike the 60's low budget exploitation beach movies.

 

[lg325]

I would have liked to see Legosi perform in better quality movies. From what I have been told by some in the know, he was a better actor then the movies he was stuck in. I have seen him perform as Igor in one of the Frankenstein movies and it was a top class performance. I have seen Plan 9 5or 6 times over the years it is fun to watch .

 

[toobfreak]

I watched it for the first time the other day on "Turner/Classics" and it wasn't as bad as it was portrayed for the last 60+ years. If Hollywood didn't spill the beans about Legosi dying during the movie and his character portrayed by a unknown with a cape it would have gone down as another low budget 50's saucer exploitation movie not unlike the 60's low budget exploitation beach movies.

Bela is dead?????

 

[whitehall]

I watched it for the first time the other day on "Turner/Classics" and it wasn't as bad as it was portrayed for the last 60+ years. If Hollywood didn't spill the beans about Legosi dying during the movie and his character portrayed by a unknown with a cape it would have gone down as another low budget 50's saucer exploitation movie not unlike the 60's low budget exploitation beach movies.

Bela is dead????? View attachment 488176

Too much graphics for a simple post. Lighten up toobfreak and use your own intellect instead of inane graphics. Is that possible?

 

[tyroneweaver]

I watched it for the first time the other day on "Turner/Classics" and it wasn't as bad as it was portrayed for the last 60+ years. If Hollywood didn't spill the beans about Legosi dying during the movie and his character portrayed by a unknown with a cape it would have gone down as another low budget 50's saucer exploitation movie not unlike the 60's low budget exploitation beach movies.

I recognized the airplane pilot as the Sheriff in Joe Kidd
Probably Depp's best acting roll in ED

 

[toobfreak]

I watched it for the first time the other day on "Turner/Classics" and it wasn't as bad as it was portrayed for the last 60+ years. If Hollywood didn't spill the beans about Legosi dying during the movie and his character portrayed by a unknown with a cape it would have gone down as another low budget 50's saucer exploitation movie not unlike the 60's low budget exploitation beach movies.

Bela is dead????? View attachment 488176

Too much graphics for a simple post. Lighten up toobfreak and use your own intellect instead of inane graphics. Is that possible?

Who died and left you boss, asshole?

 

[marvin martian]

I watched it for the first time the other day on "Turner/Classics" and it wasn't as bad as it was portrayed for the last 60+ years. If Hollywood didn't spill the beans about Legosi dying during the movie and his character portrayed by a unknown with a cape it would have gone down as another low budget 50's saucer exploitation movie not unlike the 60's low budget exploitation beach movies.

It's a lot better than 90% of the shit woke Hollywood/China puts out now.

 

[Meathead]

I watched it for the first time the other day on "Turner/Classics" and it wasn't as bad as it was portrayed for the last 60+ years. If Hollywood didn't spill the beans about Legosi dying during the movie and his character portrayed by a unknown with a cape it would have gone down as another low budget 50's saucer exploitation movie not unlike the 60's low budget exploitation beach movies.

It was charmingly bad.

 

[toobfreak]

I watched it for the first time the other day on "Turner/Classics" and it wasn't as bad as it was portrayed for the last 60+ years. If Hollywood didn't spill the beans about Legosi dying during the movie and his character portrayed by a unknown with a cape it would have gone down as another low budget 50's saucer exploitation movie not unlike the 60's low budget exploitation beach movies.

It was charmingly bad.

Plan 9 is the quintessential bad B movie. Best to watch very stoned with a friend. Far better option is to simply pick one of the many better A listing color sci-fi movies of the 50s or 60s like The Day The Earth Stood Still (B&W but good), War of the Worlds, This Island Earth, The Monolith Monsters (B&W), or my favorite: Forbidden Planet.

 

[Flopper]

I watched it for the first time the other day on "Turner/Classics" and it wasn't as bad as it was portrayed for the last 60+ years. If Hollywood didn't spill the beans about Legosi dying during the movie and his character portrayed by a unknown with a cape it would have gone down as another low budget 50's saucer exploitation movie not unlike the 60's low budget exploitation beach movies.

There are a number of different cuts of the movie. It was shot in 1955 and had a private preview in 1957 after which it was re-edited and titled "Grave Robbers from Outer Space." It wasn't picked up by a distributor for another year in which it was re-edited and copywrited. However that distributor folded. It was not actually released till 1959 by Valiant Pictures. The film's name had concerned its backers, two local Baptist ministers, who objected to the "Grave Robbers" part of the title. They reportedly considered the direct reference to grave robbing to be sacrilegious, so Wood changed the title to "Plan 9". After it was released to the public, Woods felt the title was not descriptive so he changed it to "Plane 9 from Outer Space" and several scenes were edited out It was then released on a double feature bill with "Devil Girl from Mars". After it had made the circuit of the drive-ins, it was sold and cut to 60 mins for late night horror movie shows I wonder what version of the movie appeared on TCM. Wood's first cut was 1hr 40 mins but was released to theaters at 1 hr 20 mins.

Did you see the movie "Ed Woods" staring Johnny Depp? It was a comedy, biographical film about the director Ed Woods and Plan 9 from Out of Space. It was fairly entertaining but not really an accurate biography.

 

[progressive hunter]

 

[Flopper]

I would have liked to see Legosi perform in better quality movies. From what I have been told by some in the know, he was a better actor then the movies he was stuck in. I have seen him perform as Igor in one of the Frankenstein movies and it was a top class performance. I have seen Plan 9 5or 6 times over the years it is fun to watch .

I think you would have a hard time finding anything other than horror movies that Bela starred in. He played in over 75 movies but often only bit parts or in supporting roles. There's filmography below if you serious about finding his old movies.

Bela's career illustrates what type casting can do to an actor. After the Dracula movie and his early horror movies, he was type casted and no director would hire him for anything but horror. Probably his best acting was in Europe early in his career and silent movies. He died in the 50's sick, addicted to morphine, and broke. Several actors such as Boris Karloff and Frank Sinatra helped him financially. Boris looking down at Bela in his coffin is reported to have said, "Bela, you have to be kidding."

Bela Lugosi filmography - Wikipedia

 

[whitehall]

I watched it for the first time the other day on "Turner/Classics" and it wasn't as bad as it was portrayed for the last 60+ years. If Hollywood didn't spill the beans about Legosi dying during the movie and his character portrayed by a unknown with a cape it would have gone down as another low budget 50's saucer exploitation movie not unlike the 60's low budget exploitation beach movies.

There are a number of different cuts of the movie. It was shot in 1955 and had a private preview in 1957 after which it was re-edited and titled "Grave Robbers from Outer Space." It wasn't picked up by a distributor for another year in which it was re-edited and copywrited. However that distributor folded. It was not actually released till 1959 by Valiant Pictures. The film's name had concerned its backers, two local Baptist ministers, who objected to the "Grave Robbers" part of the title. They reportedly considered the direct reference to grave robbing to be sacrilegious, so Wood changed the title to "Plan 9". After it was released to the public, Woods felt the title was not descriptive so he changed it to "Plane 9 from Outer Space" and several scenes were edited out It was then released on a double feature bill with "Devil Girl from Mars". After it had made the circuit of the drive-ins, it was sold and cut to 60 mins for late night horror movie shows I wonder what version of the movie appeared on TCM. Wood's first cut was 1hr 40 mins but was released to theaters at 1 hr 20 mins.

Did you see the movie "Ed Woods" staring Johnny Depp? It was a comedy, biographical film about the director Ed Woods and Plan 9 from Out of Space. It was fairly entertaining but not really an accurate biography.

I don't know what poor old Ed Wood ever did to anger the H'wood establishment but I felt sorry for him for the shabby treatment they gave his legacy in that crappy psudo-docu. Landau won an Oscar for his portrayal of Legosi. I have seen better Legosi impersonations on Halloween.

 

[Flopper]

I watched it for the first time the other day on "Turner/Classics" and it wasn't as bad as it was portrayed for the last 60+ years. If Hollywood didn't spill the beans about Legosi dying during the movie and his character portrayed by a unknown with a cape it would have gone down as another low budget 50's saucer exploitation movie not unlike the 60's low budget exploitation beach movies.

There are a number of different cuts of the movie. It was shot in 1955 and had a private preview in 1957 after which it was re-edited and titled "Grave Robbers from Outer Space." It wasn't picked up by a distributor for another year in which it was re-edited and copywrited. However that distributor folded. It was not actually released till 1959 by Valiant Pictures. The film's name had concerned its backers, two local Baptist ministers, who objected to the "Grave Robbers" part of the title. They reportedly considered the direct reference to grave robbing to be sacrilegious, so Wood changed the title to "Plan 9". After it was released to the public, Woods felt the title was not descriptive so he changed it to "Plane 9 from Outer Space" and several scenes were edited out It was then released on a double feature bill with "Devil Girl from Mars". After it had made the circuit of the drive-ins, it was sold and cut to 60 mins for late night horror movie shows I wonder what version of the movie appeared on TCM. Wood's first cut was 1hr 40 mins but was released to theaters at 1 hr 20 mins.

Did you see the movie "Ed Woods" staring Johnny Depp? It was a comedy, biographical film about the director Ed Woods and Plan 9 from Out of Space. It was fairly entertaining but not really an accurate biography.

I don't know what poor old Ed Wood ever did to anger the H'wood establishment but I felt sorry for him for the shabby treatment they gave his legacy in that crappy psudo-docu. Landau won an Oscar for his portrayal of Legosi. I have seen better Legosi impersonations on Halloween.

His movies were bad to the point of being funny if you judge them by Hollywood standards. Today they are cult classics. Hollywood's treatment of a transvestite director/actor/producer/screenwriter in the 1950's is exactly what you might expect. The fact that his budget for his movies range from 20,000 to 60,000 dollars when the average Hollywood movie was running one to two million speaks for itself. The fact that he had virtually no chance of making a quality film never seem to bother him.

 

[whitehall]

Watch John Agar in "Hand of Death" sometime. A scientist yada yada bad experiment becomes a creature and is shot to death by Cops. That's freaking it. Most of the movie was played by a stunt man for Agar. My point is that Plan 9 had a better plot than "Hand of Death" but it's all about money and H'wood will eat it's own if that's what it takes in 1994 when they made Ed Wood.

 

[Tommy Tainant]

Im sure there is another thread on this film that was discussed a while back.,

 

[Flopper]

Watch John Agar in "Hand of Death" sometime. A scientist yada yada bad experiment becomes a creature and is shot to death by Cops. That's freaking it. Most of the movie was played by a stunt man for Agar. My point is that Plan 9 had a better plot than "Hand of Death" but it's all about money and H'wood will eat it's own if that's what it takes in 1994 when they made Ed Wood.

Hands of Death is a lack luster low-budget horror film easily forgotten.

Plan 9 had a $60,000 budget and grossed 1.5 million in it's opening weekend. It's revenue over the years is estimated at over 50 million, not bad for 60 thousand dollar movie.

The plot like so many horror movies of it's day is ridiculous. The movie is amateurish because practically everyone associated with the movie was either on the downside of their career or had little or no experience. The replacement for Bela looked nothing like him at all. The problem was not just the acting. Ed apparently wasn't concerned with his sets. Carboard graves stones appeared to be be cardboard gravestones and fell down when hit by an actor. Ed never bothered to reshot. The flying saucers which were actually a kid toy looked like a kid's toy. The scenery which is used over and over, looks like it was created for a high school play. Practically every scene had major errors. The most infamous is the scene where in one shot, it's daytime, but in the very next cut, it's suddenly nighttime. The actors did not follow the script often using the wrong names or places, omitting some dialog and creating it.

There were some good things about the movie. The film is endlessly entertainingly bad and perfect for people who love bad movies. Surprisingly the sound is very good.

 

[whitehall]

"Caddyshack" was admittedly an out of control movie with an amateur director and little substantial plot. It was Plan 9 for the 90's but H'wood promoted it and the idiot generation loved it.

 

[Flopper]

"Caddyshack" was admittedly an out of control movie with an amateur director and little substantial plot. It was Plan 9 for the 90's but H'wood promoted it and the idiot generation loved it.

It's a shame Bill Murray as he aged was not able to produce the same level of comedy. Caddyshack was pretty crazy but it was intended to be.

Plan 9 was bad primarily because the backers did not release most the measly $60,000 budget until the film was complete and sold to a distributor. Half the actors didn't get paid. Ed Wood produced, wrote, directed, and acted in movie. He also help build the sets and created the special effects in his garage. The reason he didn't reshoot many scenes is he ran out money for film. However, the badness of the film is what made it popular. If he had twice the budget, it would still have have been a B movie, but we wouldn't be writing about it because we wouldn't know it existed.