This week on CineTV.blog, we are asked about a favorite Zombie film. I guess this is because we’re closing in on Halloween, at least I wouldn’t be surprised if that is the case. I, for one, am not a big fan of zombie films. Sure, I’ve seen a few, but that long running series of Walking Dead kind of put me off on the genre. That being said, I am going to feature a rather campy zombie film that is so BAD, that it has become a bit of a Cult Classic - Plan 9 From Outer Space (1957). You can probably guess, correctly, that this film doesn’t even scale high enough to be a B movie. That doesn’t change the fact that it is as funny as it is bad. There are, however some good reasons to watch it. Originally shot in black and white, my Bonnie Bride and I chose to watch a colorized version; Tubi has both versions of the film in their line-up. I think we should have watched in black and white. And yes, I have seen Plan 9 once before.
plan 9 From Outer Space poster - IMDB
Bela Lugosi in Plan 9 - IMDB
First off, this is the last film in which we see Bela Lugosi. As fate would have it, Ed Wood, the everything guy behind Plan 9, had shot a decent amount of silent film footage of Lugosi shortly before his passing. Wood decided to use the footage in Plan 9, and manged to make it fit in. He also had some guy he dug up (pun intended, as this is about a zombie film) to play Lugosi’s role in additional scenes to make the original footage work, thus there is this guy walking around, wearing a cape, which he held up over his face with one arm so we wouldn’t be able to tell it wasn’t actually Lugosi. Sadly, he was readily recognizably NOT Lugosi in the additional footage. But, hey, that isn’t the point.
Vampira, Zombified, in Plan 9 - IMDB
Another interesting point is that the first character to become a reanimated corpse is the classic Vampira, who was actually Maila Nurmi, but still credited as the character she created a few years earlier when she was the very first television Horror Film Host. So there’s a bit of film history for ya – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maila_Nurmi.
Paul Marco, Plan 9, oblivous of the approaching zombie - IMDB
One more point of interest is Paul Marco, who plays Kelton the cop, used to attend Science Fiction conventions back in the ‘90s. I had the pleasure of meeting with him at William Campbell’s Fantasticon back in ‘96. He was a heck of a nice guy, and loved talking to fans. He even still had is patrolman’s costume that he wore in Plan 9.
Back to the film. The general premise of Plan 9 From Outer Space is that flying saucer shows up, and begins operations to attempt mankind from creating a weapon capable of destroying not just the Earth but the entire Universe. I kind of think that maybe that’s how our Universe was created – by the folly of some group of beings creating just such a weapon, and testing out resulted in The Big Bang!
Tor Johnson rising from the grave - this is a darn good shot - IMDB
Any rate, their plan to stop humanity from pursing this ultimate weapon, code named Plan 9, was to reanimate recently dead people to march on the world capitals and make the leaders listen to Alien reason or be destroyed. Vampira is the first to be reanimated, followed by Lugosi, who is refered to by the narrator as “The Old Man”, who is grieving over the loss of his not exactly vampiric wife. A police inspector, played by Tor Johnson, is added to the collection of zombies that the aliens control through the use of a device that is, well, shall we say, unbelievable.
The story concept had the potential to be a better movie than what Ed Wood was able to produce. Wood is known for making extremely low budget movies, the kind of movies that make B pictures look great (and some B movies were darn good).
Airliner cockpit scene - probably the shoddiest set in the film - IMDB
The film is sadly plagued by some shoddy sets, such as the cockpit of the airliner, and a few other scenes that looked like they were meant to be green-screened onto a more suitable backdrop that never materialized, as well as stock footage from a variety of sources. The acting is a mixture of bad to very bad, with a few glimmers of good acting thrown in. Which is to say, Wood did have a few people in the film (including Paul Marco) who could act. However, being so low a budget film, it isn’t surprising that a fair amount of the acting is sub-par. There are also some shots that are well done.
However Plan 9 From Outer Space is not entirely bad. It could have been a darn good movie if A) the script had been better and B) it had a real budget and a good studio backing it. But then we wouldn’t have this classic film to watch and make fun of. And enjoy seeing Bela Lugosi in one final film performance. This film is best watched with friends with plenty of popcorn and sodas. And yes, I’ll probably watch it again in the future.
For more information on CineTV and their current contest, check out their post at - @cinetv/cine-tv-contest-83-favorite-zombie
PS - no one said it had to be a great film for the contest.
Thanks for stopping by.
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