Flying Saucers Over Hollywood: The 'Plan 9' Companion

This documentary is the perfect companion for PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE. The producers tracked down everyone they could find who had worked on the film, such as Harry Thomas, the makeup genius who tells the story of how he made up Tor Johnson; the lovely Maila Nurmi, still lovely, very well spoken and extremely intelligent; and Conrad Brooks, who played a cop in the original Wood film.

The documentary looks at the impact PLAN 9 has had on our culture, and the events that led to its "re-discovery" years after its rather uneventful debut at movie theaters and drive-ins. It even interviews Sam Raimi and shows him doing a superb Groucho Marx imitation recreating the day Tor Johnson showed up on his quiz show, YOU BET YOUR LIFE.

This is an interesting and thorough documentary. My only real complaint is it's almost total disregard for quality in it's production. It's like watching a student video. However, this is true to the aesthetic of Plan 9 itself, so I suppose they truly are companions.

This 1992 documentary is included on one of Image Entertainments releases of Plan 9. Covering not only the making of the film it also deals with the life and times of Ed Wood. Containing a good number of interviews with the surviving cast we get a good idea what it was like to know and work with Ed. There are also interviews with critics and directors (Sam Raimi and Joe Dante) who talk about Ed and his film in the usual contexts of their lives and influence of others. Running close to two hours this film is 35 to 40 minutes longer than the movie it documents. While for the most part this is a breezy and informative documentary its simply too long a film for the subject it covers (hell its ten minutes shorter than Tim Burton's Ed Wood and that covered more material). Almost an hour in an I found my attention started to drift. While I did make to the end I found I ended up using it more as radio on the TV rather than as a documentary to watch. To be fair I'm not sure if the disinterest was do to the film itself or simply knowing a good deal about Ed Wood and the movie already. Worth a look if you run across it (actually one of the Starz movie channels does run it from time to time), but not worth searching out unless you've never seen anything on the film or Ed Wood.

I own all of the Ed Wood Documentaries.

1-Look Back In Angora 2-On The Trail Of Ed Wood 3-The Haunted World Of Ed Wood 4-Flying Saucers Over Hollywood/Plan 9 Companion

This is by far the best Ed Wood documentary of them all. No other documentary takes you on a tour of places like Quality studios (Where plan 9 was filmed) Or Yucca flats (The apartments where Ed spent his last days) It even visits Tor Johnson's old house where Bela Lugosi filmed his last scenes for Plan 9. Seeing the places that Ed Wood lived and worked was fascinating for me. I've been reading about these places and hearing about them in stories for many years now, it's very cool to actually see what they look like.

Unlike the other films that take a short peek at each of Ed's movies, this one spends less time on Glen or Glenda, Bride of the monster etc...And focus's on Ed Woods opus "Plan 9 from outer space" It takes a close look at the film with behind the scenes stories from the stars of Plan 9. Plus plays clips of the movie, pointing out the mistakes as they happen on screen. Of course they couldn't show all of them...They would need another 2 hours to do that.

I have been a fan of Ed Wood, ever since I first saw Tim Burtons film "Ed Wood" with Johnny Depp and Martin Landau (Oscar winner for his portrayal of Bela Lugosi) Although Tim Burtons vision of Ed Wood was a bit candy coated, I've learned that after further study of Ed from Reading about his life, and watching his movies. The cool thing about "The Ed Wood Story/Plan 9 Companion" is it seems to tie everything I've read or watched about Ed, together. I don't mind the poor production quality, MY GOD, I'm an Ed Wood fan, it's sort of sacrilegious to pay attention to silly details like that. It's a great tribute to Ed Wood and his horrible Masterpiece "Plan 9 From Outer Space" Oh and the soundtrack...The two original songs for the documentary are truly awful, and totally hilarious!!! I highly recommend this movie to everyone. If you love Ed Wood you'll love him more...If you've never heard of Ed Wood, You'll want to learn more.

I also would like to recommend "Nightmare Of Ecstacy, The Life And Art Of Edward D. Wood Jr." A Book By Rudolph Grey. The Tim Burton "Ed Wood" movie was based on this book. It's a must for every Ed Wood aficionado.

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.