film classics
Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957, Edward D. Wood Jr., United States) To many, Ed Wood’s science-fiction crapsterpiece is the pinnacle of non-classic cinema— which, of course, makes it an exemplar of a sort. Extraterrestrials invade beautiful downtown Burbank with the apparent purpose of stopping humanity from destroying itself and the universe. But somehow there’s a wrestler zombie (Tor Johnson) and a buxom maybe-bloodsucker (Vampira) involved, as well as an old man played by Bela Lugosi, or at least his head-and-ahalf taller stand-in given that the former Dracula died before the majority of the film was shot (the replacement actor ineffectually disguises himself by covering the bottom half of his face with a flowing cape). Hilarity doesn’t ensue so much as infuse every frame. Ineptness was never quite as artistic as this, which lends some paradoxical heft to one alien character’s 20
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