Flying Saucers Over Hollywood: The 'Plan 9' Companion (1992) (V)

Director:

Mark Patrick Carducci

Writers:

Mark Patrick Carducci (writer)
Lee Harris (writer)

Genre:

Documentary

Plot:

A documentary detailing the making of the infamous "Plan 9 From Outer Space," and interviews with cast members and prominent filmmakers about the film and its creator, Edward D. Wood Jr. |

Plot Keywords:

Interview | Film Making | Directorial Debut | UFO | Independent Film

Cast

Forrest J Ackerman	...	Himself
Carl Anthony	...	Himself
Stephen C. Apostolof	...	Himself
Bobbie Bresee	...	Herself
Conrad Brooks	...	Himself
Eric Caidin	...	Himself
Joe Dante	...	Himself
Drew Friedman	...	Himself
Gary Gerani	...	Himself
Rudolph Grey	...	Himself
Valda Hansen	...	Herself
Lee Harris	...	Host / Narrator
Verne Langdon	...	Himself
Stephanie Locke	...	Herself
Paul Marco	...	Himself
Harry Medved	...	Himself
Sam Raimi	...	Himself
Tony Randel	...	Himself
Crawford John Thomas	...	Himself
Harry Thomas	...	Himself
Vampira	...	Herself
Gregory Walcott	...	Himself
Bill Warren	...	Himself
Edward D. Wood Jr.	...	Himself (archive footage)

Also Known As:

The Ed Wood Story: The Plan 9 Companion (reissue title)

Runtime:

111 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Atomic Pictures

Movie Connections:

Edited from Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959)

A wonderful, revealing, and amusing documentary...

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.