Flying Saucers Over Hollywood: The 'Plan 9' Companion

Plan Nine From Outer Space has been hailed by many as the worst picture ever made. Despite this critical disfavor, it has a huge cult following that led to a revival of interest in the work of Ed Wood, Bela Lugosi, Vampira, Criswell, etc... and perhaps even to the production of Tim Burton's Ed Wood...a homage to the film and its makers. This video chronicles the film's history by looking at the script, the lives of Wood and company in detail, the place the film was made, make-up, and other sundry aspects of its pre-production, production, and post-production. Many of the people in the film are interviewed, and we get first-hand accounts on what is was like to work for Edward D. Wood Jr. I found the video to be very thorough in its purpose, highly entertaining, and most informative. In many ways it is a tribute to Wood himself and his unflinching desire and drive to make movies despite his obvious lack of talent and other shortcomings. If you like movie history and lots of information of the behind-the scenes variety then I strongly recommend The Plan Nine Companion for you.

Watching this movie made me seriously rethink my obsession with Ed Wood. Sure, I think his movies are hilarious(except when he tried to be in the 70's,) but his end was too tragic for me too really enjoy the flicks at face value anymore. Many of the people in this movie have very unhealthy obsessions, so the freak factor practically matches GATES OF HEAVEN (Both in California) when it comes to Ed Wood (I still find it hard to believe that such a fanatically nerdy performance could come from the seemingly at least semi-competent Sam Raimi) To summarize, the movie makes me think "What if actual Trekkies had made TREKKIES?" Note: the movie looks like it was made for public access television.

This documentary is the perfect companion for PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE. The producers tracked down everyone they could find who had worked on the film, such as Harry Thomas, the makeup genius who tells the story of how he made up Tor Johnson; the lovely Maila Nurmi, still lovely, very well spoken and extremely intelligent; and Conrad Brooks, who played a cop in the original Wood film.

The documentary looks at the impact PLAN 9 has had on our culture, and the events that led to its "re-discovery" years after its rather uneventful debut at movie theaters and drive-ins. It even interviews Sam Raimi and shows him doing a superb Groucho Marx imitation recreating the day Tor Johnson showed up on his quiz show, YOU BET YOUR LIFE.

Ask a hundred people what the greatest film of all time is, and you may just get a hundred different answers (personally, my vote is with RoboCop). Ask a hundred people what the worst film of all time is, however, and there's a good chance that most of them will say the one title: Plan 9 From Outer Space. It's all too easy to bash the film and describe how patently awful it is, but Flying Saucers Over Hollywood does something that sets it apart from documentaries about "classic" films: it takes a truly awful subject and treats it with great respect.

When film critics, filmmakers, film school teachers, actors, and anyone else with insight to offer, in this documentary are interviewed, it is clear from the outset that while they appreciate just how many errors and flaws are in Plan 9, they respect Ed Wood for having got the damned thing made. As one interviewee says, the difference between Ed Wood and the people who seriously put him down is that in spite of his total lack of any resources one would consider conducive to filmmaking, he made these films. Not only do we get to see Ed Wood as a filmmaker and the struggles he endured in the process of his work, we also get some insights into the truly bizarre characters who made up his stock company. Getting to see who Vampira, Criswell, and Tor Johnson were outside of Ed's films makes this documentary worth the price of admission by itself.

By far the most amazing part of the documentary, however, is seeing how Plan 9 rose from being a discarded, forgotten piece of B-movie trash to the king of all cult films. Seeing a few samples of the dedicated cadre of followers it has, and hearing what they have to say, is garanteed to put a smile on the face of anyone who loves film. This is how a documentary should be done: with a love of the subject matter, and just a dash of self-deprecating humour. Hats off to the people who got it made.

The biggest problem with this doc is that it's supposed to be focused on Plan 9. But instead we get things about the lives of Ed Wood, Bela Lugosi, Vampira and Tor Johnson. There's a little too much focus on those people rather than Plan 9.

If actual documentaries were made about Wood, Johnson, Lugosi and Vampira on their own, that would be great. But we want to see the making of Plan 9 and we don't care about these overlong mini docs on the said people.

Because this is a doc made in 92 and shot on video, it feels kind of cheap and out of date. It feels like a doc made from a BETA video camera with bad sound. If the people who made this doc shot it on film, it would be as good as "The Making Of The Wizard Of Oz" doc made back in 1990.

Did we really need to see an overlong opening title sequence where a man in the background is playing with the ships on strings. The music we hear is a bad remix of the theme tune.

I thought Sam Raimi and Scott Speigel's appearance on this doc was pointless. All they did was a reenactment of Groucho Marx and Tor Johnson's banter on Groucho's radio show. I don't care!

And I couldn't make out a word Joe Dante was saying. Also the guy at the wrestling ring, who's idea was to have him interviewed in front of a wrestling ring with the noise of the wrestlers' activity. We can't hear what he is saying. All we hear is: "Well, I loved Plan 9 (BANG! BOOM! SMACK! BANG!).... I loved the movie because (BANG! CRASH! BANG!)"

And I hated the song in the credits.

But I did like hearing about the production values, people talking about Ed Wood, and the screenwriter reading off his list of things wrong with this movie.

Weather another doc will be made about this movie is pretty unlikely, but this one is worth watching if you like Plan 9. Just don't expect anything insightful or memorable from this doc.