Plan 9 From Outer Space (1957/1959) (aka Grave Robbers From Outer Space)

In eccentric, no-talent director Edward Wood Jr.'s sci-fi zombie horror film - the campy, hilarious classic cult film told about invading aliens in California who animated the dead. Extra-terrestrials (grave-robbers) implemented the title's Plan 9 - to resurrect the Earth's deceased "ghouls" in order to force compliance from humanity. They threatened to use their enslaved "armies of the undead" to overtake the planet. The film's setting was a Southern California (San Fernando Valley) graveyard.

The cheaply-made low-budget film, inspired by The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), had a budget of $60,000 dollars, and was largely funded by a Southern Baptist church. Filming took about 4-5 days, with little-to-no rehearsals or second takes. The 88 minute film's taglines included these:

• "Unspeakable Horrors From Outer Space Paralyze The Living And Resurrect The Dead!"
• "Aliens Resurrecting The Dead! Flying Saucers Over Hollywood!"

Some of the B-film was referenced in Tim Burton's biopic Ed Wood (1994), with the misguided, independent maverick film-maker Ed Wood played by Johnny Depp. Director Wood also had a cameo in his 1959 film, portraying a man holding a Hollywood Chronicle newspaper, with the headlines screaming "SAUCERS SEEN OVER HOLLYWOOD." Conflicting dates given for the film were the result of the film, that made in late 1956, having difficulty for three years in finding a distributor. Plan 9 was first previewed as Grave Robbers from Outer Space at the Carlton Theater in Los Angeles on March 15, 1957, and finally was released theatrically in the US with its revised title Plan 9 from Outer Space in July of 1959. It gained infamous popularity with late-night TV showings in 1961. A colorized version later appeared in 2006. It was remade as Plan 9 (2015), a zombie invasion film.

The B/W film has universally been acknowledged as one of the absolute 'worst' or dumbest films ever made (although highly beloved as well), due to its incoherent plot, static camera positions, cheap production design and props (e.g., cardboard gravestones and the rumored legend that he used Cadillac hubcaps or paper plates as flying alien space saucers, when in fact Wood had purchased children's plastic model kits of flying saucers), nighttime scenes obviously shot during the daytime (in addition to a complete lack of continuity between day and night sequences), inexcusable and laughable special effects and cheap sets (i.e., the shoddy cockpit of the airliner), and horrible acting. It also exhibited howlingly bad dialogue and acting, especially by Eros (Dudley Manlove): ("Because all you of Earth are idiots!", and "Your stupid minds, stupid! Stupid!!").

The Film's Laughable Special Effects - Depiction of Space Station 7, the Mother Ship

"The Ghoul Man" Character Covering His Face (Tom Mason) With a Cape (To Cover Up the Fact that Bela Lugosi Had Died)

A documentary on the film, titled Flying Saucers Over Hollywood: The Plan 9 Companion (1992), was 111 minutes in length, over a half hour longer than the original film! It remains important in cinematic history.

It marked the final role for horror icon Bela Lugosi as the "Ghoul Man" in a post-death appearance (it was advertised as "Almost Starring Bela Lugosi"). In the film, there were pathetic attempts to exhibit the 'Ghoul Man' character (to be portrayed by Bela Lugosi who passed away at the age of 73 on August 16, 1956). Wood's wife's chiropractor Tom Mason was called upon to substitute for the deceased actor by covering the lower part of his face with a cape throughout the film. Cult groups who regularly worshipped the film with midnight showings created various 'audience participation' routines: (i.e., yelling "DAY" at the screen for daylight scenes, and "NIGHT" for nighttime scenes, "NOT BELA" when Bela's substitute appeared behind a cape, and "BANG" during gun-play).

• in the infamous film's opening (subtitled "CRISWELL PREDICTS"), psychic narrator Criswell (LA TV personality in his feature film debut) spoke directly to the audience with a bizarre, rambling, dead-pan introduction about the film's suppressed news story of a real event - the arrival of alien invaders (actually grave robbers) from outer space; apparently, the US government had suppressed and covered up the existence of extra-terrestrials and their communications and presence on Earth:
  • "Greetings, my friend! We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future. You are interested in the unknown, the mysterious, the unexplainable; that is why you are here. And now for the first time we are bringing to you the full story of what happened on that fateful day. We are giving you all the evidence, based only on the secret testimonies of the miserable souls who survived this terrifying ordeal. The incidents, the places, my friend, we cannot keep this a secret any longer; let us punish the guilty, let us reward the innocent. My friend, can your heart stand the shocking facts about grave robbers from outer space?"
• the title-credits played atop a gravestone marker in a cemetery, and a night-time view of a graveyard; a funeral was held at sundown next to a recent burial site, as Criswell continued to intone in voice-over: "All of us on this earth know that there is a time to live, and that there is a time to die, yet death is always a shock to those left behind..."; the deceased was the black-haired wife of a grief-stricken elderly man (Bela Lugosi); after the brief funeral led by a Bible-reading preacher (Clay Stone) concluded, two gravediggers (J. Edward Reynolds and Hugh Thomas Jr.) approached with shovels
• meanwhile, onboard a commercial American airliner, the two pilots, co-pilot Danny (David De Mering) and head pilot Jeff Trent (Gregory Walcott) were in the cockpit, composed of a shower curtain, a circular slide rule, and cardboard steering wheels; the pilots and the flight stewardess Edith (Norma McCarty) spotted a shiny flying saucer high above San Fernando Valley that jolted the plane; the flight officers reported it to the Burbank Tower flight control officer; Danny reacted: "That's nothing from this world"

Two Airliner Pilots (l to r) in the Cockpit: Danny (David De Mering) and Jeff Trent (Gregory Walcott)	Alien Space Saucer Seen From an Airliner Above Los Angeles
The Spacecraft Landing in the Cemetery	Zombified 'Vampire Girl' Rising From the Grave

• the UFO saucer landed in the cemetery graveyard where the burial ceremony had just ended for the grieving old man whose wife had died; gravediggers were spooked by the landing, and as they were leaving, they were frightened by the sight of the old man's wife - now a black-garbed, resurrected 'Vampire Girl' (Maila Nurmi); both of them reacted with screams (off-screen)
• the next morning, the agonized, confused and saddened Old Man mourned his deceased wife's loss by plucking a flower; experiencing painful memories of being with her in their vacant home (now a "tomb"); he decided to leave for good, and as he walked off-screen, he was hit by a car and tragically killed (off-screen in a squealing car-crash); that evening, he was buried in the graveyard's above-ground crypt (not in the ground next to his wife); the two mourners - a Man (Ben Frommer) and Girl (Gloria Dea) - were unaware that the old man's dead wife was observing them; as the man commented: "Well, it's gettin' dark" (when it was already pitch-black), the two walked off from the cemetery, the female mourner pointed and screamed at the discovery of the dead bodies of the two gravediggers
• officers were alerted at a police station, and a black 1954 Ford Mainline sedan (with siren) was dispatched from the local department to the cemetery to investigate; [Note: The car changed two times, to a '57 Ford Custom and then to a 1955 B/W Ford, during its brief ride to the cemetery.] the police group, led by overweight Inspector Daniel Clay (wrestler Tor Johnson) arrived at the scene; he spoke to Patrolman Larry (Carl Anthony) and trench-coated Lieutenant Harper (Duke Moore) about the case; Clay assured Lt. Harper that he would be safe walking through the fog-shrouded cemetery with a flashlight: ("I'm a big boy now, Johnny"); a morgue wagon pulled up to take out the gravediggers' bodies
• nearby at the home of pilot Jeff and his wife Paula Trent (Mona McKinnon), they heard the sirens again from their outdoor patio; Jeff explained how he was disturbed by what he saw from the airplane - the saucer produced both a blinding light and a forceful wind: ("I saw a flying saucer...It was shaped like a huge cigar....When it passed over, the whole compartment lighted up with a blinding glare. Then there was a tremendous wind that practically knocked us off our course"); after landing, he described how they were coerced into keeping quiet and secret about it by "the Army Brass"; he was perturbed by the conspiracy to deny the existence of aliens: "These things have been seen for years. They're here, it's a fact. And the public oughta know about it...But I can't say a word. I'm muzzled by Army Brass! I can't even admit I saw the thing!"; they were suddenly knocked to their feet by the same blinding light and the whooshing sound of a space saucer close to the ground
• back at the cemetery, the two officers Larry and Patrolman Kelton (Paul Marco), Lt. Harper, and two morgue attendants were also struck to the ground by the alien spacecraft buzzing above them; the "Ghoul Man" (Tom Mason) emerged - reanimated from his crypt - and hiding his face under a black cape; he pursued and assaulted Inspector Clay as he was joined by his resurrected "Vampire Girl" wife; although Clay fired shots at them, they attacked and left him dead; Patrolman Larry surmised about the murder: "S'pose that saucer or whatever it was had something to do with this?"
• shortly later at another of the cemetery's newest grave sites, a funeral service was led by Reverend (Lynn Lemon) for the murdered Inspector Clay; the Vampire Girl observed from afar
• three UFOs (flying saucers) were reported in the skies over Hollywood Boulevard; [Note: Director Ed Wood's cameo included a brief view of him reading the headlines of the Hollywood Chronicle: "SAUCERS SEEN OVER HOLLYWOOD."] the saucers were seen above the offices of CBS, NBC and ABC; a woman (Pauline Reynolds) in a phone booth telephoned the police to report the incident; Criswell narrated about the continued invasion of alien saucers also above the nation's capital of Washington, DC; Colonel Tom Edwards (Tom Keene) used a pair of binoculars to view and command the military battling the aliens with missiles and rocket-launchers (obviously WWII or Korean War stock artillery footage, with firecrackers), but they were impervious to the blasts due to an invisible and durable force-shield; the three saucers suddenly disappeared from radar and evaded the pursuit of jet fighters, and the incident was downplayed as a training exercise
• the Colonel informed a clueless Army Captain (Bill Ash), who felt the aliens shouldn't be welcomed with an attack, that the visiting aliens had already destroyed a town and killed people, yet the fact of their existence was still being concealed: "It was covered up by the higher echelon. Take any fire, any earthquake, any major disaster, then wonder. Flying saucers, Captain, are still a rumor. Officially"; however, the Colonel asked himself: "What do they want, where are they from, where are they going?...I wonder what their next move will be"
• the space soldier Commander Eros (Dudley Manlove), with his mate Tanna (Joanna Lee), was introduced as leading the saucers' futile attempt to be acknowledged above the nation's capital; they flew back to the command mother ship, or Space Station 7; onboard, they were uniformed in silk pajamas with an insignia of a horizontal lightning bolt on their left chests; the two reported to their seated Ruler (drag artist and Shakespearean actor John Breckinridge), wearing a black tabard with a halberd-and-shield symbol (an axe-and-sheild - two weapons used in medieval warfare); they saluted their Ruler by criss-crossing both arms over their chests and touching opposite shoulders with their hands; Eros reported that his previous 8 missions on smaller saucers to implement plans had failed to contact Earth creatures after US government officials refused to acknowledge the aliens' existence
• it was revealed that the extra-terrestrial aliens were now ordered to implement a strategic plan known as "Plan 9" (after eight failed plans), to create a military force of marching undead zombies or ghouls: "Plan 9 deals with the resurrection of the dead. Long-distance electrodes shot into the pinion pituitary glands of recent dead"; the aliens' plan was to use their electrode guns to revive, animate and resurrect the Earth's dead from a graveyard, to serve in a zombie army of the Dead to march and conquer Earth and its humans before mankind destroyed itself in a devastating apocalypse; so far, they had been successful in raising up two zombies as ghouls (the "Ghoul Man" and "Vampire Girl")
• during his next airplane flight, pilot Jeff Trent was pre-occupied in his thoughts and worried about the safety of his wife in the house near the cemetery; Danny attempted to ease his concerns: "I haven't figured out those crazy skybirds yet but I give you fifty to one odds the police have figured out that cemetery thing by now"; after stewardess Edith suggested to Jeff that he radio his concerns and have Paula checked, Danny attempted to proposition Edith during their next overnight stay: "How about you and me balling it up in Albuquerque?", and she replied enigmatically: "I can't resist your charm, Danny Boy"
• a bolt of lightning at the cemetery in the evening led to another appearance of the zombified "Ghoul Man", unfurling his black cape; concealing his face behind his cape, he entered the nearby Trent house to terrorize Paula, who had just been on the phone on a call asking about her safety; she fled from her bedroom [Note: The framed paintings over the bed changed - in the colorized version]; Paula ended up fleeing into the cemetery (where she ran through the same area multiple times) as she was pursued by both "Ghoul Man" and "Vampire Girl", as Inspector Clay was reanimated, rose up and emerged from his burial plot to join in the chase; the time switched inexplicably to daytime as Paula, lying by the side of the road was aided to escape by a passing Farmer Calder (Karl Johnson) in his car who recognized her; off-screen, she alerted the authorities
• a number of LA police officers led by Lt. Harper converged on the cemetery to investigate; meanwhile, the zombified "Vampire Girl" and Inspector Clay were admitted into the aliens' landed spacecraft in the cemetery by Eros and Tanna, where their electrodes were deactivated to render them harmless; the "Ghoul Man" also entered before the space saucer took off; Patrolman Kelton entered the disturbed, caved-in gravesite of Inspector Clay and discovered an empty casket
• in Washington DC's Pentagon, General Roberts (Lyle Talbot) was made aware of the recent field operations of Colonel Tom Edwards involving the cemetery incidents and sight of flying saucers, although the General reminded the Colonel that a "government directive" had officially ordered no acknowledgement of alien existence; at the risk of a court-martial, Col. Edwards reluctantly admitted that saucers were definitely out "there" and he had established contact with them and tried to shoot them down; the General concurred and confessed that he had also been in contact with the aliens for years: ("There are flying saucers. There's no doubt they are in our skies. They've been there for some time"); the General went further by reporting that contact had been made with the aliens via radio, and the language of their messages had been translated by a "language computer"

General Roberts (Lyle Talbot)

Colonel Tom Edwards (Tom Keene)

• the General played a taped alien radio broadcast recording of space soldier Eros, from a planet in the same galaxy; it was the most recent of a dozen messages received a month earlier; the recording claimed that the highly-developed aliens' original missions were peaceful and friendly - but over time, the very-advanced aliens were forced to resort to defensive measures after being attacked:
  • "...We do not want to conquer your planet. Only save it. We could have destroyed it long ago, if that had been our aim. Our principal purpose is friendly... If you persist in denying us our landings, then we must only accept that you do not want us on friendly terms. We then have no alternative but to destroy you before you destroy us. With your ancient, juvenile minds, you have developed explosives too fast for your minds to conceive what you were doing. You are on the verge of destroying the entire universe. We are part of that universe. This is our last..."
• General Roberts reported how the peace-loving aliens had been unsuccessful in the past of convincing earthlings of their actual existence and technological superiority, but now there was indisputable evidence of their presence; the aliens' objective was to have humans acknowledge their existence, and to stop humanity from "destroying the entire universe"; the messages sent from the aliens were often untransmitted due to "atmospheric conditions in outer space"
• Col. Edwards was ordered to investigate alien activity and saucer landings in the area of San Fernando in Southern California: "You ever been to Hollywood?...Find them, Colonel. See what in hell it is they want!"
• meanwhile, on board the mother ship, Eros reported back to the Ruler that his recent transmissions to Earthlings had failed; he also admitted other failures - they had been detected: "I thought time was of the essence. Suspicion has fallen upon our movements. Our ships have been viewed near the point of operations"; he revealed his only recent success - the rising up of three "dead ones" ("Ghoul Man," "Vampire Girl," and Inspector Clay) who had recently been buried in a graveyard
• the Ruler reprimanded Eros and disciplined him by taking away two of his ships: "Even though you have risen three of the Earth dead, the plan is far from successful, and you, Eros, must prove it an operational success before more time, energy, and ships and your countrymen, may be spent on it"; Eros was ordered to return to Earth and gather more people: "You do not have the live Earth people!"
• however, the Ruler was pleased with the giant and powerful zombie Clay, a "fine specimen" who briefly assaulted Eros before he was brought under control, but he was very displeased with the other two captives; Eros was told to return to Earth and re-land, and to sacrifice the old "Ghoul Man" by zapping him with the ship's decomposure ray, to distract others during the kidnapping (and resurrection) of more dead souls in the cemetery: "Astound them enough to delay their attention until you have gained your other recruits from the cemetery"; the Ruler then unveiled his new chilling strategy to conquer Earth and demonstrate the aliens' power:
  • "As soon as you have enough of the dead recruits, march them on the capitals of the Earth, let nothing stand in your way. Their own dead will be used to make them accept our existence, and believe in that fact"
• in San Fernando, CA, Col. Edwards was introduced by Lt. Harper to the Trents on their back patio; Paula was questioned about her "strange experience" in the graveyard; the couple were also asked about the blinding light and blast of wind that knocked them to the ground; Paula explained how the "glowing ball" sailed away in the direction of the cemetery; as Patrolman Kelton stood by the police car waiting for the group to finish, he was attacked by the slow-moving "Ghoul Man" zombie - the plan of the Ruler was beginning to be executed
• as Patrolman Kelton backed up onto the patio, he fired bullets at the figure, and so did Lt. Harper, but they were ineffective; however, a destructive decomposing ray from the direction of the cemetery caused the "Ghoul Man" to collapse onto the ground; under his cape, the group discovered that he had been reduced to a skeleton; Lt. Harper joked: "I don't know what it was or what happened, but unless that bag of bones over there can reassemble itself, it's out of the running now"
• the group drove over to the cemetery where "Vampire Girl" was roaming around; Jeff, Col. Edwards, and Lt. Harper left Kelton to guard Paula in the police car as they wandered over to look into Inspector Clay's strangely-open gravesite; Eros and Tanna (inside the space saucer) were awaiting their arrival, and planning to entrap and then eliminate them: ("They must be halted before they can inform others about us"); Eros instructed Tanna: "Send the big one [Clay] for the girl and the policeman. I'll turn on the dictor-obitary so we may converse with them"
• as the threesome of males (pilot Jeff, the lieutenant, and the Army colonel) approached toward a glowing object (the saucer) behind some trees, zombified Lt. Clay was deployed to attack and subdue both Kelton and Paula at the police vehicle; at the space saucer, the group of three males marveled at the shiny, hard metallic surface of the celestial orb before entering a sliding outer hatch-doorway; as they prepared to enter the interior of the saucer with their guns drawn, Eros (in an inner chamber) explained to Tanna why the intruders had to be killed - under orders from the Ruler: "Well, wouldn't it be better to kill a few now than, with their meddling, permit them to destroy the entire universe?"
• with their guns drawn on the two aliens, Jeff worried that his wife and the patrolman had been harmed back at the car; Eros switched on a tele-visor that viewed Clay carrying his hostage Paula away from the car after she had fainted; Jeff reacted by calling Eros a "fiend"; Eros proceeded to criticize the whole human race as "idiots":
  • "I? A fiend? I am a soldier of our planet! I? A fiend? We did not come here as enemies. We came only with friendly intentions. To talk. To ask your aid....Yes. Your aid for the whole universe. But your governments of Earth refused even to accept our existence... Because all you of Earth are idiots!..."
• Eros also explained how the aliens' had tried to communicate with Earthlings, but were met with rejection; then, their objective was to stop humanity and save it (and the entire universe) from its own destructive impulses by ignorantly creating doomsday atomic nuclear weapons (the hydrogen bomb and the A-bomb), and would soon have the capacity to accidentally create more weapons of mass destruction such as "solaronite bombs" - light-detonating weapons that could destroy the sun (and its particles of sunlight) and thus obliterate the entire universe:
  • "Now brings the destruction of the entire universe served by our sun. The only explosion left is the solaronite....we've known it for centuries. Your scientists will stumble upon it as they have all the others. But the juvenile minds which you possess will not comprehend its strength until it's too late...The solaronite is a way to explode the actual particles of sunlight....Even now, your scientists are working on a way to harness the sun's rays. The rays of sunlight are minute particles"
• after Jeff counter-argued with Eros that a 'solaronite bomb' would make the US a stronger nation, Eros belittled the entire human race - in a memorable line of dialogue:
  • "Stronger. You see? You see? Your stupid minds, stupid! Stupid!!...It's because of men like you that all must be destroyed. Headstrong, violent! No use of the mind God gave you"
• Jeff struck Eros across the face for his insult, and Lt. Harper called Eros "mad" for his pseudo-scientific theories, prompting Tanna to become emotional and defend her mate: "Is it mad that you destroy other people to save yourselves? You have done this. Is it mad that one country must destroy another to save themselves? You have also done this. How then is it mad that one planet must destroy another that threatens the very existence..."; Eros roughly interrupted and silenced Tanna for speaking so forcefully and upstaging him beyond her normal female role
• meanwhile, Patrolman Larry pulled up and found a delirious Kelton in the police car vowing that the deceased Inspector Clay had attacked, knocked him unconscious, and had almost broken his shoulder before carrying the fainted Paula off in his arms; Larry thought Kelton was 'off his rocker'; back in the saucer, Eros finished his argument by predicting a doomsday scenario: "Then one day it could all be gone, in one big puff of smoke and ball of fire. All that out there, the stars, the planets, all just an empty void"

Clay Carrying Fainted Paula Trent

Paula Rescued and Revived

• looking out the window of the space saucer, Inspector Clay appeared, holding Paula across his arms; from another vantage point as the two patrolmen approached the saucer, Larry and Kelton also saw Clay with Paula; Kelton reacted with a feeling of powerlessness: "How are we gonna kill somebody that's already dead? Dead! And yet there he stands! That other one earlier, I emptied a full clip into him"; the two devised a successful plan to knock Clay out from behind, in order to successfully rescue and revive Paula; inside the saucer, Jeff physically struggled against Eros as Col. Edwards attempted to open and exit the hatch doorway, while Tanna tried to launch the saucer into orbit
• in the film's climactic conclusion, the spacecraft caught fire from exploding technical equipment as the Colonel, Jeff, and Lt. Harper made it out just in time; the flaming saucer filled with smoke lifted off from the cemetery and exploded in mid-air over Hollywood; the reanimated ghouls (Clay and 'Vampire Girl') quickly decomposed and were transformed into skeletons; Plan 9 had obviously failed; however, Col. Edwards gave some credit to the aliens: "We got to hand it to them though, they're far ahead from us"

The Flaming Space Saucer Launched from the Cemetery

The Group Observing the Saucer's Departure

Inspector Clay's Zombie Corpse Transformed into a Skeleton

• in the film's short epilogue, Criswell returned to ominously warn the audience before he signed off - he hinted that it was possible that the aliens would retaliate by launching an Earth-destroying assault:
  • "My friend, you have seen this incident based on sworn testimony. Can you prove that it didn't happen? Perhaps on your way home, someone will pass you in the dark, and you will never know it, for they will be from outer space. Many scientists believe that another world is watching us at this moment. We once laughed at the horseless carriage, the aeroplane, the telephone, the electric light, vitamins, radio, and even television. And now some of us laugh at outer space. (Criswell rose from his chair) God help us in the future."