Plan 9 From Outer Space

Okay kids, settle down, yes we are going to the drive-in! Everyone put your comfy clothes on and get your pillows. Can someone grab the blankets?

I am making the popcorn now, I think a trash bag full should be enough. Thanks for making the sweet tea, it’s perfect, put it in the cooler next to the beer, we’ll get a bag of ice at the gas station. Everyone pile in so we can get this show on the road!

We’re here! 

Glad they only charge per car and not per person. Didn’t realize we could fit that many Wonkers into a 1974 Chevy station wagon.

Look at that, there’s three extra shorts with our movie. The Three Stooges and The Addams Family, oh now I remember, they are doing a whole retro thing tonight, “Cops” is a Buster Keaton silent short film.

It’s almost movie time. Everyone settle in, this is going to be fun and no you can’t have money for the concession stand, we brought our own snacks!

First it’s The Three Stooges with Moe, Larry and Curly starring in Spook Louder from 1942. It was episode 69 (snicker) in the trio’s series of short films distributed by Columbia Pictures from 1934 to 1959. The comedians are traveling salesmen who are not very good at their jobs. They land in a mansion that could be haunted; when the cream pies star flying be sure to duck!

Next we go all the way back to 1922. A silent short film with Buster Keaton. Buster runs into trouble with the title characters, it seems that even as far back as 1922 you wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of the LAPD.

And now it’s time for Plan 9 From Outer Space!

When looking for an example of a so-bad-they’re-good flick this is at the top of the list. Written, produced and directed by Ed Wood. A B-movie cult classic with edited-in footage of Bela Lugosi previously shot for an incomplete movie before Lugosi’s death on August 16, 1956. The movie was mostly funded by devout Baptist J. Edward Reynolds and the Baptist Church of Beverly Hills. Originally titled Grave Robbers From Outer Space, Wood changed it after the congregation was offended by that title.

The movie opens with The Amazing Criswell “bringing the full story of what happened on that fateful day!” As an elderly man mourns his wife at her graveside the aliens above plot their attack. Alien Commander Eros (acted by the wonderfully named Dudley Manlove) and his assistant Tanna put Plan 9 into action in their attempt to stop Earth from destroying the universe. In flying saucers dangling from strings they will resurrect the dead and the unliving will destroy the living. But to paraphrase Robert Burns, “The best laid plans o’ aliens an’ men – Gang aft agley.”

Starring Bela Lugosi, Ed Wood, Maila Nurmi, Tor Johnson and Dudley Manlove.

It is also available for free with ads on Pluto TV, Tubi, Plex, The Roku Channel and Prime. A first for Movie Night, you can watch the movie right here, just like Wonk TV!

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