Does anyone like the movies of Ed Wood?

Thanks to Ron's post I tracked down some more information on "Plan 9 From Outer Space" from IMDB:

Trivia for
Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959)

Page 13 of 30

Funded by a Baptist church, the entire cast let themselves be baptized.


The aliens obligingly fly by the ABC, CBS, and NBC buildings in Los Angeles.


The police cars and uniforms are authentic: one of the actor's sons was a policeman and supplied the equipment.


Bela Lugosi died four days after shooting began Wood abandoned the project and rewrote the script to accommodate all the footage shot in a cemetery and outside Tor Johnson's house in the new production. Bela Lugosi's part was taken over by Tom Mason (II), Wood's wife's chiropractor, who was significantly taller than Lugosi, and played the part with a cape covering his face.


Wood's original title for the film was "Grave Robbers from Outer Space", but the Baptist ministers who financed the film objected to that title, so he changed it to "Plan 9" (never, of course, making any reference to what the previous eight plans were).


Internationally recognized as the worst movie ever made.


A video release, making note of the actor's death before production began, lists on the cassette box, "Almost Starring Bela Legosi".


The scar worn by actor Tor Johnson had to be moved every day, as it caused severe skin irritation.


When Gregory Walcott read the script, he told 'Ed Wood' that it was the worst he had ever read. He reluctantly signed on.


Wood was able to get police cars and uniforms through Tor Johnson's son, Karl, who was with the San Fernando police department.


Bela Lugosi's role in the film is listed in the credits as "The Ghoul Man". In Wood's screenplay it is called "the Dracula character".


Bela Lugosi supplied his own costume. He wore one of the capes he used when portraying Dracula on stage.


Winner of the Golden Turkey Award for worst film of all time.


One of the major legends about the production of this film was that Wood had used everything from automobile hubcaps, pizza pans, pie tins and even paper plates as flying saucers. The truth is that he bought a number of children's plastic model kits of flying saucers for use as props.

 

That your post comes from "page 13 of 30" may say more about PLAN NINE FROM OUTER SPACE than any of our tidbits. Any attempt to catalog this film's stangeness means recalling the film entire and everything about its production.

Just when you think you've exhausted PLAN NINE's capacity to plumb the depths of human folly, you find out something like: Ed's first wife, Dolores Fuller wrote some of Elvis Presley's more lamentable soundtrack recordings, including "Rock-A-Hula Baby", "Do The Clam" and "Spinout." I mean, it just doesn't stop.

 

I was there with Jamie watching Orgy of the Dead. Imagine green Star Trek looking women dancing around a campfire topless while people watch and cheer. That is the whole movie...I mean the entire movie. I guess that's where Paul Verhoven got the idea for "Showgirls".

Ray Gun

 

Unlike most of the actors Wood employed, Gregory Walcott managed to eke out a living as a bit actor in Hollywood, turning up in movies and TV. I know I saw him a few times in PERRY MASON, and I'm sure he turned up on other shows, too.

And while Dolores Fuller may not have been much of a songwriter, it was still a coup to get Elvis to record your songs, however half-heartedly.

ED

 

"Bride Of The Monster" (show #423 w/ the short "Hired" Pt.1, Pt.2 aired on the next show- the infamous "Manos: The Hands Of Fate" #424) was riffed by MST. I'm a HUGE fan of the show, but I'm glad they never did "Plan 9" because the movie stands on it's own. IIRC one of the reasons they, Best Brains, gave for passing on "Plan 9" was that it was too "dialog intense" and there wasn't enough quiet time for riffing.

They did however do another film that Ed Wood wrote, show #610 "The Violent Years" and another that he directed, #613 "The Sinister Urge".

Turner Classic Movies aired "Ed Wood" in April I think. They showed it at 1AM because of the dialog. I watched Tim Burton's "Biography" and he had to fight the studio so that the film would be done in B&W explaining that it would capture the times Ed was working in. The studio figured "Nobody watches B&W" so he had to really persuade them.

I remember Johnny Depp being very sympathetic to Ed in interviews for the film saying things like "No one sets out to make bad films". It's really a GREAT film & could serve those just discovering Ed as good starting point.