WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema: Plan 9 from Outer Space 0:00:02.960 --> 0:00:05.400 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind production of I 0:00:05.480 --> 0:00:15.120 Heart Radio. Hey you welcome to Weird House Cinema. This 0:00:15.200 --> 0:00:18.680 is Rob Lamb and this is Joe McCormick, and it's 0:00:18.800 --> 0:00:23.280 finally time for our very first Edwood movie on Weird 0:00:23.320 --> 0:00:27.920 House Cinema. Today's selection is perhaps the reigning world champion 0:00:27.960 --> 0:00:31.360 of the schlock to gone. It is the nineteen seven 0:00:31.440 --> 0:00:36.720 undead saucer invasion film Plan nine from Outer Space, a 0:00:36.840 --> 0:00:40.720 movie in which fussy aliens attempt to conquer planet Earth 0:00:41.040 --> 0:00:44.960 by creating approximately three zombies at a local cemetery in 0:00:45.000 --> 0:00:48.000 Los Angeles. I've been wondering how long it would take 0:00:48.040 --> 0:00:50.320 us to do an Edward movie, and we debated whether 0:00:50.360 --> 0:00:53.560 we should uh do do this? Do this one or 0:00:53.640 --> 0:00:58.240 Bride of the Monster. They're both fantastic, but I think 0:00:58.280 --> 0:01:00.440 this might be a sort of emotional episode for me 0:01:00.520 --> 0:01:03.280 because Plan nine is not only one of the best 0:01:03.360 --> 0:01:07.119 and most famously bad movies of all time, it also 0:01:07.120 --> 0:01:10.320 played a very special role in my life. So, Rob, 0:01:10.319 --> 0:01:12.000 I don't know if I ever told you this before, 0:01:12.080 --> 0:01:14.840 but when my wife Rachel and I were very first 0:01:14.920 --> 0:01:17.319 hanging out when we were in high school. This was 0:01:17.360 --> 0:01:19.920 before we were technically dating. I don't know what the 0:01:20.040 --> 0:01:22.440 term in your high school time and place was. It 0:01:22.480 --> 0:01:25.080 was going out for us. Before we were going out. 0:01:25.520 --> 0:01:28.399 One of the first times we ever got together was 0:01:28.480 --> 0:01:31.080 to watch Plan nine from Outer Space in the basement 0:01:31.120 --> 0:01:34.880 of my parents house. Oh yeah, so we all we 0:01:34.920 --> 0:01:37.119 already knew each other, we had some friends in common, 0:01:37.160 --> 0:01:39.400 but for some reason we decided we needed to see 0:01:39.440 --> 0:01:42.759 this movie. And I still remember vividly. Uh a bunch 0:01:42.800 --> 0:01:46.560 of failed attempts to acquire a copy. Like we we 0:01:46.560 --> 0:01:50.160 went to Blockbuster Video thinking oh, yeah, okay, it's Blockbuster, 0:01:50.280 --> 0:01:53.080 surely they will have Plan nine from Outer Space and 0:01:53.160 --> 0:01:55.320 what a shock they did not. This would have been 0:01:55.360 --> 0:01:58.200 I think around two thousand two, so they could have 0:01:58.240 --> 0:02:00.960 hooked us up with the thirty seven copies of Mr 0:02:01.080 --> 0:02:03.480 Deed's if we wanted, but they did not have any 0:02:03.600 --> 0:02:06.840 Edward movies in stock. And eventually we figured out that 0:02:07.000 --> 0:02:10.160 one of Rachel's friends had a bootleg VHS tape of it. 0:02:10.600 --> 0:02:12.959 We we finally got our hands on it, and wow, 0:02:13.040 --> 0:02:17.559 it was so perfect, like the aliens wearing the costumes 0:02:17.560 --> 0:02:20.440 with the medieval sigils like you know, Bunny breck and 0:02:20.520 --> 0:02:24.440 Ridge with the ax and uh, the constant switching between 0:02:24.520 --> 0:02:29.440 night and day, the floppy tombstones, the line delivery, but 0:02:29.560 --> 0:02:33.080 I'll be in there. Uh, and it was. It was 0:02:33.160 --> 0:02:36.400 just a magical experience. Uh. I. And now in our house, 0:02:36.520 --> 0:02:38.960 right next to one of our wedding photos, we have 0:02:39.040 --> 0:02:43.880 a framed portrait of Tore Johnson and Vampira from Plan nine. Uh. 0:02:44.200 --> 0:02:46.760 That's sweet. And I have to say this is probably 0:02:46.760 --> 0:02:49.960 the perfect movie to watch on a bootleg VHS in 0:02:50.000 --> 0:02:53.040 a basement somewhere. It's this is a great date movie 0:02:53.040 --> 0:02:56.600 in general. I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah, I've watched this 0:02:56.639 --> 0:02:59.520 with my wife before, and it's it's just it is. 0:02:59.680 --> 0:03:04.040 It is NonStop, it is relentlessly what it is, and 0:03:04.120 --> 0:03:06.400 it's I was having trouble coming up with the perfect 0:03:06.400 --> 0:03:09.519 adjective for what this film is, because you can say 0:03:09.520 --> 0:03:12.320 it's cheesy, or it's bad, or it's amateur, or it's 0:03:12.320 --> 0:03:15.560 outsider art. Uh, you know, and it's and it is 0:03:15.560 --> 0:03:19.200 all those things, and yet it it kind of expands 0:03:19.240 --> 0:03:23.040 beyond easy definition. Oh yeah. And I also just want 0:03:23.080 --> 0:03:26.600 to point out that this is another nineteen fifty seven 0:03:26.639 --> 0:03:30.280 sci fi horror movie, which you know, I was trying 0:03:30.320 --> 0:03:32.360 to think of. I have a feeling about this. It's 0:03:32.440 --> 0:03:34.399 kind of ineffable. I was trying to find the best 0:03:34.400 --> 0:03:37.400 way to put it into words, but I think it's 0:03:37.440 --> 0:03:40.400 that I have a sense that like nineteen fifty seven 0:03:40.440 --> 0:03:44.000 to fifty eight was a two year period that was 0:03:44.080 --> 0:03:48.600 a renaissance for sci fi monster trash, like just to 0:03:48.680 --> 0:03:51.240 stick to movies that we've talked about on Weird House, 0:03:51.600 --> 0:03:53.960 fifty seven was the same year as Attack of the 0:03:53.960 --> 0:03:57.200 Crab Monsters and Not of This Earth. Fifty eight was 0:03:57.280 --> 0:04:00.360 the Brain Eaters and Fiend without a Face. I feel 0:04:00.400 --> 0:04:03.600 like something happened during this two year period there was 0:04:03.640 --> 0:04:07.760 a shift in the veltgeist and it gave rise to 0:04:07.960 --> 0:04:11.760 all these emanations, emanations in the gnostic sense, from a 0:04:11.840 --> 0:04:15.440 kind of primeval spirit of B movie weirdness, and the 0:04:15.480 --> 0:04:17.919 world has never been the same. We live in the 0:04:17.960 --> 0:04:21.919 culture that was built by the clumsy, brow furrowing dimmi 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:25.760 urge that descended from those emanations. It's fifty seven to 0:04:25.839 --> 0:04:28.920 fifty eight, and and it's been monsters ever since. This 0:04:29.000 --> 0:04:31.359 is the air we breathe. Yeah, I think that's a 0:04:31.400 --> 0:04:35.320 great point. And uh yeah, thinking about my own history 0:04:35.400 --> 0:04:39.360 with with Edwood and Plan nine Matter of Space, I'm 0:04:39.360 --> 0:04:42.120 reminded that I I think I saw my first clips 0:04:42.160 --> 0:04:45.280 from a number of these movies in two It came 0:04:45.320 --> 0:04:48.680 from Hollywood, which somebody in my family had taped off 0:04:48.720 --> 0:04:52.400 of HBO onto VHS, and and for some reason I 0:04:52.400 --> 0:04:55.560 was allowed to watch this over and over again. Um, 0:04:55.560 --> 0:04:57.359 even though you know, it's mostly like a lot of 0:04:57.400 --> 0:05:00.160 fun monster clips, but also some risk a human are 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:04.800 and also some disturbing content from from Hollywood of Yesteryear. 0:05:05.440 --> 0:05:08.240 But still there's a whole section on there that's that 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:12.200 is celebrating Edwood and talking about like how great and 0:05:12.240 --> 0:05:14.640 how fun. You know. So much of this content was 0:05:14.760 --> 0:05:17.680 so many of these films, and I guess I kind 0:05:17.680 --> 0:05:20.000 of took all that for granted. And it wasn't until 0:05:20.000 --> 0:05:22.159 I was digging into researching a little bit for this 0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:26.320 picture that I realized that like before, like before the 0:05:26.320 --> 0:05:28.280 the early eighties, when this came out and some other 0:05:28.320 --> 0:05:31.680 things were going on with film festivals, uh, like Edwood 0:05:31.720 --> 0:05:35.400 had already drifted into obscurity. Uh. And it was it 0:05:35.440 --> 0:05:38.520 was the memory of these films for that ended up 0:05:39.960 --> 0:05:43.800 resurrecting his spirit. Oh yeah, the weirdness of Plan nine. 0:05:43.800 --> 0:05:46.320 I get the impression that this was not recognized at 0:05:46.320 --> 0:05:49.599 the time as anything great or worthwhile, and it was 0:05:49.680 --> 0:05:54.320 not celebrated, h even in an ironic sense, for a 0:05:54.400 --> 0:05:56.880 long time until like decades after it was made. I 0:05:56.960 --> 0:05:59.960 think the initial reaction was, well, that was weird. Okay, 0:06:00.000 --> 0:06:02.280 I never see that again. But but but to come 0:06:02.320 --> 0:06:04.560 back to what you said, like the classic era, you know, 0:06:04.600 --> 0:06:06.480 I mean they're different. Classic eras in cinema that we 0:06:06.520 --> 0:06:09.920 had that late nineteen fifties era seemed to have produced 0:06:10.320 --> 0:06:14.320 a number of these these ideas, uh, these tropes that 0:06:14.480 --> 0:06:19.200 would continue to resonate throughout our film culture as different 0:06:19.240 --> 0:06:22.080 creators then grew up with those images in their heads 0:06:22.360 --> 0:06:25.000 and then created their own things. I sort of feel 0:06:25.040 --> 0:06:27.800 like this is the era where like the Corman machine 0:06:27.960 --> 0:06:31.640 is finally humming at full output, like it it has 0:06:31.680 --> 0:06:36.240 it's going and uh, and other parallel production machines for 0:06:36.400 --> 0:06:39.280 drive in monster movies are sort of at the at 0:06:39.320 --> 0:06:42.440 their peak output. Yeah. But but but before we get 0:06:42.480 --> 0:06:45.839 too wrapped up in how Plan nine from Outer Space is, 0:06:46.480 --> 0:06:48.880 you know, cranking the gears of history and of our 0:06:48.920 --> 0:06:52.360 personal lives, before we get caught in the wheels of progress, 0:06:52.880 --> 0:06:55.720 we should also describe what this movie is in a 0:06:55.760 --> 0:06:58.560 literal sense. So I have a few categories I think 0:06:58.560 --> 0:07:01.640 it should fit into. One is that it's a fifties 0:07:01.680 --> 0:07:06.000 flying saucer movie. The plot concerns Aliens who fly around 0:07:06.000 --> 0:07:08.960 in saucers that are described both as saucers and as 0:07:09.040 --> 0:07:12.840 quote cigar shaped. Uh that's mutually exclusive, dude. I don't 0:07:12.880 --> 0:07:14.960 know why you say that in the movie, but that's 0:07:14.960 --> 0:07:18.080 what they say. Um, but their saucers. They come to 0:07:18.160 --> 0:07:22.680 Earth to do something something vaguely hostile. It seems their 0:07:22.720 --> 0:07:28.680 main objectives are to make sure that humans acknowledge their 0:07:28.720 --> 0:07:32.080 existence and to keep humans from finding out about them. 0:07:32.320 --> 0:07:36.000 And we find out more about their missions. But yeah, 0:07:36.080 --> 0:07:39.120 so what is their mission? Well, this entails the second thing. 0:07:39.160 --> 0:07:43.400 It's also a zombie movie. The aliens plan involves resurrecting 0:07:43.440 --> 0:07:47.680 the dead from a cemetery and making these revenants wander 0:07:47.720 --> 0:07:52.680 around and scare people. It is also an ed Would movie. Now, 0:07:53.280 --> 0:07:56.840 more about that when we discuss Edward directly. But this 0:07:56.920 --> 0:08:01.600 means a film made with an absolutely irresistible blend of 0:08:01.840 --> 0:08:07.240 overwhelming ineptitude and all inspiring self confidence. And it's it's 0:08:07.240 --> 0:08:11.400 a combination I can't really think of in any other filmmaker. 0:08:11.480 --> 0:08:15.240 It's a movie that is so bad it's unbelievable, and 0:08:15.280 --> 0:08:18.640 it yet it doesn't feel like just check cashing hack work. 0:08:19.120 --> 0:08:21.360 It feels like it was made by someone who thought 0:08:21.440 --> 0:08:24.760 this was a brilliant masterpiece and it might even change 0:08:24.800 --> 0:08:30.000 the world. Yeah, there's an audacity to to Edward movies 0:08:30.200 --> 0:08:32.280 for sure. Yeah, so so we'll get to win into 0:08:32.360 --> 0:08:34.120 that into bed but but yeah, there's nothing quite like 0:08:34.160 --> 0:08:37.199 an Edward film. Also, tying into the cast, which we 0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:39.280 will discuss more in a minute, I think it's important 0:08:39.280 --> 0:08:43.600 to say this is sort of a a bizarro ensemble movie. Like, 0:08:44.360 --> 0:08:47.080 despite the fact that this is a very low budget movie, 0:08:47.360 --> 0:08:51.000 the cast includes a surprising bill of strange but familiar 0:08:51.040 --> 0:08:53.960 faces or what would have been strange but familiar faces 0:08:54.000 --> 0:08:57.640 at the time. You've got Bella Legosi, the legend himself, 0:08:57.679 --> 0:09:03.000 but also Tore Johnson van Hira, the amazing Criswell. It's 0:09:03.120 --> 0:09:05.520 really kind of unusual when you when you stop to 0:09:05.559 --> 0:09:09.520 appreciate how many sort of names ended up in this thing, 0:09:09.920 --> 0:09:14.440 at least names that would have resonated on television in 0:09:14.600 --> 0:09:17.480 l A at the time. Yeah, and and and beyond 0:09:17.520 --> 0:09:20.440 that to some extent, and and who might not necessarily 0:09:20.480 --> 0:09:24.680 be known for acting but who make a very striking 0:09:24.720 --> 0:09:29.480 screen presence. I mean our Vampira and Tore Johnson actors, 0:09:29.640 --> 0:09:32.000 not really, but I mean when they're on screen, it 0:09:32.000 --> 0:09:37.120 looks great. They They're both individuals who had totally nailed 0:09:37.160 --> 0:09:40.920 what they were doing outside of film and in this 0:09:41.000 --> 0:09:45.640 movie though, those skill sets are able to to work 0:09:45.679 --> 0:09:49.199 well on film in kind of an acting space, but 0:09:49.240 --> 0:09:52.760 I would not say they are acting right. Um. What 0:09:52.840 --> 0:09:55.080 one last thing I want to say is that it's 0:09:55.080 --> 0:09:59.000 in a category of a category that doesn't exist as 0:09:59.080 --> 0:10:01.640 much as it used to, uh, and that is the 0:10:02.000 --> 0:10:08.080 thoroughly technically incompetent film. Maybe we don't appreciate this distinction enough, 0:10:08.120 --> 0:10:10.240 but here's my take. I'd be interested to hear from 0:10:10.280 --> 0:10:12.920 people who actually work in the film industry to maybe 0:10:12.920 --> 0:10:15.960 agree or disagree with this. But my feeling is that 0:10:16.520 --> 0:10:21.160 in decades past, bad movies were packed with way, way 0:10:21.200 --> 0:10:25.960 more technical mistakes than bad movies of today. So you 0:10:26.000 --> 0:10:30.240 have everything from you know, continuity failures between shots, obviously 0:10:30.320 --> 0:10:33.200 phony sets. You might see a crew member who wasn't 0:10:33.200 --> 0:10:35.599 supposed to be in the shot standing in the background. 0:10:35.640 --> 0:10:39.120 You know, you see the boom mic decinct audio stuff 0:10:39.160 --> 0:10:43.200 like that. But now the film industry has become much 0:10:43.240 --> 0:10:46.920 more professionalized, and I think there are so many people 0:10:46.920 --> 0:10:49.680 working in the film industry now who know how to 0:10:49.800 --> 0:10:52.719 execute the technical aspects of a film properly. They're good 0:10:52.720 --> 0:10:55.280 at their jobs. There are enough of those people that 0:10:55.360 --> 0:10:59.640 even bad movies today are rarely full of actual technical 0:10:59.720 --> 0:11:03.280 and competence. Even the bad movies of the twenty one 0:11:03.360 --> 0:11:07.920 century are made with a pretty high baseline of technical professionalism. 0:11:08.080 --> 0:11:10.200 And instead now I would say when a movie is 0:11:10.280 --> 0:11:15.160 bad today, I would argue it's almost always bad because 0:11:15.280 --> 0:11:19.120 of the creative elements rather than the technical ones. So, 0:11:19.200 --> 0:11:22.040 for example, in my personal opinion, hands down the most 0:11:22.160 --> 0:11:25.360 common problem for bad movies made this year is going 0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:29.800 to be a bad script, followed by other creative failures, 0:11:29.840 --> 0:11:32.720 you know, failure of like a cinematographer to establish an 0:11:32.760 --> 0:11:36.720 interesting or pleasing visual style. But this will rarely extend 0:11:36.720 --> 0:11:41.439 to like mismatching day night, continuity between shots right right 0:11:41.559 --> 0:11:44.320 or or or one that is also frequently used by 0:11:44.440 --> 0:11:50.080 Edwood jarring use of stock footage. It's like not even 0:11:50.200 --> 0:11:53.520 of apparently the same film grain or whatever right right, 0:11:53.600 --> 0:11:57.600 different film grain, different era, sometimes different continent. It looks 0:11:57.679 --> 0:11:59.680 like there's a really good one. In the other movie 0:11:59.720 --> 0:12:03.280 were thing about doing um Bride and the Monster where 0:12:03.280 --> 0:12:06.120 a character like looks at a tree and then we 0:12:06.160 --> 0:12:08.920 cut two grainy stock footage of a snake and then 0:12:08.960 --> 0:12:12.920 she screams and faints. It's really it's wonderful. So, I mean, 0:12:12.920 --> 0:12:14.840 for the most part that's the pitch, but for just 0:12:14.920 --> 0:12:18.000 to throw out an elevator pitch, I'll use one from 0:12:18.080 --> 0:12:19.960 that is from the trailer that we're about to listen to, 0:12:20.040 --> 0:12:24.640 and that is a terrifying revelation of things to come. Uh. 0:12:24.679 --> 0:12:27.400 We cannot overlook the fact that this is this is 0:12:27.440 --> 0:12:31.040 a movie that is not just about something that could happen. 0:12:31.080 --> 0:12:34.400 This is not a speculative work. This is about things 0:12:34.480 --> 0:12:39.319 that that have happened, are happening, or definitely will happen 0:12:39.400 --> 0:12:42.840 in near future. Yeah, all right, well, let's go ahead 0:12:42.840 --> 0:12:45.720 and listen to this trailer in full because on its own, 0:12:45.720 --> 0:12:47.800 like if this were a lost film and all we 0:12:47.880 --> 0:12:51.559 had was the trailer, we would still have a masterpiece 0:12:51.600 --> 0:12:55.600 on our hands. It is safe to state that the 0:12:55.640 --> 0:12:58.560 grandchildren of some of the people in this dinner will 0:12:58.679 --> 0:13:24.280 not be on Earth. They come from the bowels of Hell, 0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:29.240 a transformed race of Walking Dead zombies guided by a 0:13:29.320 --> 0:13:34.560 master plan for complete domination of the Earth. Plan nine 0:13:35.080 --> 0:13:44.320 from Outer Space m H starring the most brightmarished past 0:13:44.360 --> 0:13:50.719 ever Fella Legosi, the seductive Vampira, and poor Johnson as 0:13:50.800 --> 0:13:58.960 the Walking Dead. Turn off your electro gun, stop it dead, 0:13:58.720 --> 0:14:04.720 you get it? Cheery Bullets bounce off their bodies, Rockets, missiles, 0:14:05.040 --> 0:14:09.600 Jets cannot stop their death ships. What earthly power can 0:14:09.720 --> 0:14:12.960 stop this terror? What a glimpse of things to come? 0:14:13.520 --> 0:14:17.760 See this blast of screen suspense, or it could be 0:14:17.880 --> 0:14:27.480 happening right now? Alright, I absolutely love that it is 0:14:27.520 --> 0:14:29.880 safe to state that the grandchildren of some of the 0:14:29.920 --> 0:14:33.000 people in this theater will not be born on Earth. 0:14:33.640 --> 0:14:36.040 Can you prove the trailer wrong? I don't think you can. 0:14:36.960 --> 0:14:41.760 You don't even know who was in that theater. All right, well, 0:14:41.840 --> 0:14:44.360 let's let's get into the people a bit more. Um. 0:14:44.640 --> 0:14:46.360 Of course, we're gonna start at the top. We're gonna 0:14:46.400 --> 0:14:50.880 start with Edwood or as as he is credited on 0:14:50.920 --> 0:14:54.120 the film, Edward D. Wood Jr. He is the director, 0:14:54.200 --> 0:14:56.160 He is the writer, he is the producer, he is 0:14:56.200 --> 0:14:58.480 the film editor, and he also has a cameo in 0:14:58.520 --> 0:15:00.840 the picture. You know, I realized that a lot of 0:15:00.880 --> 0:15:04.560 my thoughts about the life of Edward actually are not 0:15:04.800 --> 0:15:07.840 like researched for accuracy, but a lot of them come 0:15:07.960 --> 0:15:11.120 from the nineties Tim Burton movie ed Wood, which I 0:15:11.120 --> 0:15:15.479 think is it's probably my favorite biography movie. It's it's fantastic. 0:15:15.640 --> 0:15:18.000 I don't know how true it is to the reality 0:15:18.040 --> 0:15:21.440 of the events it depicts, but uh, it's it's incredibly 0:15:21.480 --> 0:15:24.440 fun and it has a standout performance by Martin Landau 0:15:24.480 --> 0:15:30.120 as Bill Leegosi. Yeah. Yeah, ed Wood. Uh also pretty 0:15:30.200 --> 0:15:33.240 pretty crazy because you know, we've talked about how already 0:15:33.280 --> 0:15:37.080 about how Adwood Edward was a Hollywood outsider, and yet 0:15:37.880 --> 0:15:42.720 through Tim Burton's picture, uh, it becomes an Academy Award 0:15:42.800 --> 0:15:47.160 winning property, like Martin Landau's Bella Leghostie role wins an 0:15:47.200 --> 0:15:51.400 Academy Award. Also, Rick Baker's Makeup wins an Academy Award 0:15:51.480 --> 0:15:53.800 for that picture, and so it's kind of like the 0:15:53.880 --> 0:15:59.080 Hollywood establishment finally has to enshrine woods legacy, which is 0:15:59.120 --> 0:16:02.960 kind of interesting. But okay, putting the movie that movie aside, 0:16:03.360 --> 0:16:07.280 I don't know, how do you describe what Edwood was? Yeah? Again, 0:16:07.320 --> 0:16:10.920 it's difficult to sum up. Um you know, it's just 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:17.440 a low budget legend, counterculture icon overconfident, amateur outsider artists. 0:16:17.480 --> 0:16:19.560 Sometimes I think about that. I compare him to someone 0:16:19.560 --> 0:16:22.240 like a Howard Finster in my mind, you know, someone 0:16:22.280 --> 0:16:25.520 who who doesn't have the training that that other individuals 0:16:25.560 --> 0:16:27.880 working in the field have, but they have that that 0:16:27.960 --> 0:16:30.760 there's something going on. This is spark that still manages 0:16:30.800 --> 0:16:35.640 to force its way into the medium inspiration in the 0:16:35.800 --> 0:16:42.320 classic sense, like as in literally meaning divine guidance. I 0:16:42.600 --> 0:16:46.360 when I was looking around for some additional biographical information 0:16:46.520 --> 0:16:48.840 on him, one of the mistakes I made was thinking, well, 0:16:48.880 --> 0:16:50.320 I'll look up to see what the oh bits of 0:16:50.360 --> 0:16:53.440 the day said. And that's one of the things about 0:16:53.480 --> 0:16:55.640 his life is that there weren't really any major oh 0:16:55.720 --> 0:16:58.600 bits about him when he died because he had drifted 0:16:58.600 --> 0:17:02.840 into such obscurity. But I was looking at a review 0:17:02.880 --> 0:17:06.600 that Roger Ebert, the late Rogeriebert wrote for Tim Burton's 0:17:06.720 --> 0:17:09.119 ed Wood movie, and he included, like I thought, what 0:17:09.240 --> 0:17:13.159 was a nice summary of who and what Edwood was? Quote, 0:17:13.280 --> 0:17:16.520 Edward D. Wood Jr. Must have been the Will Rogers 0:17:16.520 --> 0:17:19.919 of filmmaking. He never directed a shot he didn't like it. 0:17:20.000 --> 0:17:22.640 Takes a special weird genius to be voted the worst 0:17:22.680 --> 0:17:25.679 director of all time, a title that would has earned 0:17:26.000 --> 0:17:29.800 by acclamation. He was so in love with every frame, 0:17:29.840 --> 0:17:32.280 of every scene of every film he shot that he 0:17:32.320 --> 0:17:36.760 was blind to hilarious blenders, stumbling in aptitude, and acting 0:17:36.880 --> 0:17:40.040 so bad that it achieved a kind of grandeur. But 0:17:40.280 --> 0:17:42.639 badness alone would not have been enough to make him 0:17:42.680 --> 0:17:45.520 a legend. It was his love of film sneaking through 0:17:45.800 --> 0:17:48.160 that pushes him over the top. You know, I think 0:17:48.240 --> 0:17:51.000 this is a phrase I recall from Roger eberta I 0:17:51.000 --> 0:17:53.879 don't remember the origin of it, but it was Roger 0:17:53.920 --> 0:17:56.919 Ebert talking about some bad movie that he said was 0:17:56.960 --> 0:18:01.000 not just bad, but was awesomely bad. And I think 0:18:01.040 --> 0:18:04.719 that is a good descriptor to apply to the Edwood 0:18:04.760 --> 0:18:09.280 movies I've seen. There. They transcended normal badness. They even 0:18:09.359 --> 0:18:12.600 transcend the normal way that you you appreciate bad movies 0:18:12.640 --> 0:18:16.879 at an ironic level. They become in some genuine sense 0:18:16.920 --> 0:18:21.479 and all inspiring spectacle. It's like, it's, uh, you are 0:18:21.560 --> 0:18:26.960 observing a work of sheer will. It's oh, I guess, uh, 0:18:27.000 --> 0:18:29.200 you know, to to quote the title of another podcast, 0:18:29.240 --> 0:18:32.840 you wonder how did this get made? Like, how was 0:18:32.960 --> 0:18:36.160 this pushed through to completion? Yeah, and it's a it's 0:18:36.480 --> 0:18:39.040 it's a rare enough thing just historically, but it's certainly 0:18:39.119 --> 0:18:41.600 rare now. You don't you don't really find examples of 0:18:41.680 --> 0:18:44.080 this as much as one might like, and I feel 0:18:44.119 --> 0:18:46.399 like we're kind of starved for it at times. There 0:18:46.440 --> 0:18:48.840 have been films that have come out in recent years 0:18:49.000 --> 0:18:55.040 where I think people were expecting awesome badness, and unfortunately 0:18:55.040 --> 0:18:57.080 the cases you end up with something that's just bad 0:18:57.240 --> 0:19:00.760 in the n the lackluster, luke warm since of the 0:19:00.800 --> 0:19:05.879 word Plan nine has such a kind of relentless, ludicrous 0:19:06.320 --> 0:19:10.800 unbelievability while you're watching it. That rob before we started recording, 0:19:10.800 --> 0:19:14.520 we were talking off Mike uh about how when you're 0:19:14.520 --> 0:19:18.360 explaining this movie, you want to like quote the weird dialogue, 0:19:18.480 --> 0:19:21.439 but then you can't really end up doing that because 0:19:21.520 --> 0:19:24.320 you end up wanting to quote the entire script. Like 0:19:24.440 --> 0:19:29.000 every scene is just filled with exchanges that that that 0:19:29.280 --> 0:19:33.639 clang and and sound wrong in the most awesomely weird way, 0:19:34.160 --> 0:19:36.560 and and then it never stops. You think like, oh, 0:19:36.600 --> 0:19:38.160 I gotta make a note of that one, But then 0:19:38.200 --> 0:19:41.480 the next one is exactly like it. Yeah, it is relentless. 0:19:41.520 --> 0:19:47.000 It is stupefying. Uh so. So briefly on the bio 0:19:47.119 --> 0:19:52.000 of of Edwood. Here he lived, he was a film 0:19:52.080 --> 0:19:56.200 enthusiast as a child, he had a Kodak centis special. 0:19:56.760 --> 0:19:58.720 He was an usher at a cinema at one point, 0:19:58.800 --> 0:20:02.159 he served in the Marines. He moved to Hollywood to 0:20:02.160 --> 0:20:06.080 pursue his cinematic dreams. He would become a legend, true enough, 0:20:06.119 --> 0:20:09.240 but like we we said, his his star would rise 0:20:09.440 --> 0:20:12.439 after his death in seventy eight. Um, the end of 0:20:12.440 --> 0:20:15.239 his life was one of obscurity. But then you had 0:20:15.240 --> 0:20:17.840 stuff like eight twos that came from Hollywood come out, 0:20:17.880 --> 0:20:20.800 which again featured in edwood tribute section. You had a 0:20:20.880 --> 0:20:25.320 growing cult following of for films of this nature, including 0:20:25.359 --> 0:20:29.399 for instance, Michael Weldon's Psychatronic Film Guide, which started up 0:20:29.440 --> 0:20:32.720 as a magazine in nineteen seventy nine. You know, the 0:20:32.800 --> 0:20:37.520 year after after his death, documentaries would follow film festivals, 0:20:37.720 --> 0:20:40.399 and then by the time you get ninety four's ed 0:20:40.480 --> 0:20:44.360 Wood the Picture by Tim Burton, like the legacy is assured, 0:20:44.440 --> 0:20:48.720 like it's cemented. And again the Hollywood establishment itself kind 0:20:48.760 --> 0:20:51.800 of has to enshrine Wood's legacy. Towards the end of 0:20:51.840 --> 0:20:56.240 his life, Wood's output descended sharply into erotic and adult territory. 0:20:56.359 --> 0:20:58.880 This would be in the seventies, but he's working the fifties. 0:20:58.920 --> 0:21:01.800 Gave us a string of just numerably weird films, including 0:21:01.840 --> 0:21:05.480 the semi autographical fifty three film Glenn or Glinda and 0:21:05.520 --> 0:21:09.320 which would himself plays the titular lead character Uh. He 0:21:09.480 --> 0:21:12.639 also gave us Bride of the Monster in fifty five, 0:21:13.040 --> 0:21:15.600 The Violent Years and fifty six, The Bride and the 0:21:15.640 --> 0:21:18.560 Beast in fifty eight, Nine of the Ghouls and fifty nine, 0:21:18.840 --> 0:21:22.360 and The Sinister Urge in nineteen six. I would say 0:21:22.400 --> 0:21:25.680 he's most remembered I think for for Glenn or Glinda 0:21:25.720 --> 0:21:28.960 and the two big Bella leego see Monster movies, which 0:21:28.960 --> 0:21:31.240 were Bride of the Monster and and Plan nine for 0:21:31.359 --> 0:21:33.359 Outer Space Bride of the Monster. We may have to 0:21:33.359 --> 0:21:35.959 come back and also do on the show UH in 0:21:36.000 --> 0:21:39.400 the future, because it has more Bella leegosie than Plan 0:21:39.560 --> 0:21:42.760 nine does. In fact, Plan nine has almost no bell 0:21:42.840 --> 0:21:45.280 allegotee at all, and that's one of the real core 0:21:45.400 --> 0:21:48.439 paradoxes of Plan nine. I would say that this movie 0:21:48.480 --> 0:21:51.480 seems in a way to be kind of built around 0:21:51.640 --> 0:21:54.520 Bella Llegosie. It might be in modern to use a 0:21:54.560 --> 0:21:59.040 modern expression called a Legosie vehicle. And yet Bella Leegosi 0:21:59.200 --> 0:22:01.760 is almost entire really missing from the movie. He actually 0:22:01.760 --> 0:22:05.639 appears in literally just a couple of shots. Legosi I 0:22:05.640 --> 0:22:09.800 think died before most of the movie was filmed, so 0:22:10.040 --> 0:22:14.000 in most scenes that feature his character, he's played by 0:22:14.000 --> 0:22:17.120 a body double holding a cape over his face. Um, 0:22:17.359 --> 0:22:20.200 And even including the shots with the body double, Legosi's 0:22:20.280 --> 0:22:22.960 character is not really central. He's just one of a 0:22:23.040 --> 0:22:25.840 number of zombies. Yeah. And it's just such a wood 0:22:25.920 --> 0:22:28.880 move right to not let this stand in the way 0:22:29.160 --> 0:22:31.240 of not I not I not only completing the film, 0:22:31.440 --> 0:22:34.119 but also like not reshooting anything they already had. Like 0:22:34.119 --> 0:22:37.439 we already have Bella in in one scene, two scenes, 0:22:37.800 --> 0:22:40.359 Why why reshoot any of that. Let's just keep going 0:22:40.440 --> 0:22:42.320 and we'll just have the cape over the face. It 0:22:43.200 --> 0:22:46.679 looks perfect, no reason, no notes, no reason to change anything. 0:22:46.800 --> 0:22:48.760 It does not look perfect at all. The guy that 0:22:48.800 --> 0:22:51.760 got to replace Bella Leghostie kind of looks like Jared Leto. 0:22:52.000 --> 0:22:55.280 He's just like creeping around with slicked back hair and 0:22:55.320 --> 0:22:57.520 the cape over his like he's you know, his faces 0:22:57.560 --> 0:22:59.440 in the crook of his arm with the cape. There 0:23:00.200 --> 0:23:03.600 no explanation of why he's walking like that. Uh. There 0:23:03.640 --> 0:23:06.879 are some scenes where I'm not even sure it looks 0:23:06.920 --> 0:23:09.359 like it was shot for the movie. There there's like 0:23:09.440 --> 0:23:12.480 one of just Bella kind of standing around. It's hard 0:23:12.520 --> 0:23:16.600 to tell because again there's such such a jarring difference 0:23:16.640 --> 0:23:20.440 between one scene in the next, and and yeah, at 0:23:20.440 --> 0:23:24.240 times it looks like like he's just standing there. So yeah, 0:23:24.280 --> 0:23:26.719 I agree, it's it's a weird paradox of plan nine 0:23:26.760 --> 0:23:28.800 and almost That's one of the reasons I'm not even 0:23:28.800 --> 0:23:32.560 gonna go into Bella Llegosi uh too much here because 0:23:33.200 --> 0:23:36.800 this is it's not really a Bella Llegosie film because 0:23:36.800 --> 0:23:39.320 he's in it so briefly. It's still an important part 0:23:39.359 --> 0:23:42.399 of his legacy. It's his final film, but um, but 0:23:42.480 --> 0:23:45.080 still here here the basics Bella Legosi in this place, 0:23:45.160 --> 0:23:48.160 the old Man slashed, the dead man slash the ghoul Man. 0:23:48.600 --> 0:23:51.320