olivie strenuous: Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959) | Movielady "Reviews"

??One of my earliest assignments began with a call from an old family friend, The Amazing Criswell, I felt my excitement level quickly mounting.? He invited me to the World Premier of his latest film, ?Plan 9 From Outer Space?.? Needless to say, I, along with everyone else, was eagerly awaiting the latest epic from avant gard director, Ed Wood Jr.? I had developed a school girl crush on Mr. Wood?s singular cinematic touch when I discovered his first film, ?Glen or Glenda?, a poignantly existential exploration of the true nature of identity, on the lower third of a drive-in triple feature in Plano, Texas.? The crush deepened into adoration with the viewing of his haunting love poem, ?Bride of the Monster?.?

Now, the whole city was abuzz with anticipation of, what many consider to be his definitive homage to film-noir producer Val Lewton.

Lewton, of course, is known for his creative use of shadow and lighting to build and sustain moods of suspense and terror. Wood had proven himself adept at building upon the techniques perfected by Lewton, and indeed, taking them in directions not even conceived of by the famous producer.

Another signature technique pioneered by Wood was the use of, as director Orson Welles called it, ?incongruous symbolism?.? In ?Bride of the Monster?, Wood playfully teases his audience with the seemingly inappropriate use of everyday objects.? In the director?s skilled hands, familiar objects magically transfigure into devices of diabolical manipulation.? This ground-breaking technique is most evident in the infamous ?laboratory scene? where the mad scientist, Dr. Eric Varnoff, ably played by Bela Lugosi, (who appears to be at the top of his form), threatens the heroine with what would logically be viewed as a simple photo enlarging device.? In Wood?s carefully constructed universe, the enlarger becomes the means to imbue the strength of a giant into the poor hapless victim, all to further Lugosi?s goal of building a race of supermen, a thinly disguised debasement of Hitler?s ?master plan?.? The only difference is that Hitler attempted to carry out his nefarious plan through carefully orchestrated genetic manipulation and the horrendous use of genocide, while Lugosi?s much more literal plan involved the use of the photo enlarger to ?enlarge? his victims.

"Relax, my dear, your head shots will be ready in about an hour."

The use of this technique is also evident in the final moments of the film.? Varnoff receives his ultimate moral retribution at the hands of a rubber octopus.? The obviously lifeless prop is loosely wrapped around Lugosi.? As he thrashes around, pulling the tentacles of the creature around him in a vain attempt to simulate a life or death struggle, the image on the screen takes on an almost otherworldly tint.? The audience, through Wood?s deft manipulation, is viewing a morality play of a much more universal nature.? Lugosi?s struggle in the limp arms of the octopus symbolizes humanity?s ongoing struggle against the imaginary demons of our own creation.? Birthed and carefully nurtured in our subconscious, we then proceed to wage a war of control over them, losing sight of the ultimate truth that the monsters have no life of their own outside the confines of the theater of the mind.?

The final scene in the movie shows the detonation of an atomic bomb.? As the audience watches the gently rising plume of radioactive smoke, Wood is saying that ultimately, there is no victory in this battle.? The struggle must inevitably end in self-destruction.?? A dark message indeed.

The night of the premier arrived.? After an introduction of the cast by Wood himself, a hush fell over the audience as the lights dimmed and the first flickering images of the opus were cast on the screen.

Ninety minutes later, a collective gasp signaled the end of the film and the beginning of a legend.? We all knew that we were in the presence of greatness.? The shared experience of viewing this masterpiece had indelibly united us with the symbiosis of art and genius we had just witnessed.

Wood had truly outdone himself.?

From the opening scenes poignantly telling the story of a bereaved old man, who ironically is reunited with his dead wife in an unholy union brought about by the ninth plan implemented by an invading alien force, to the final breathtaking doomed escape by the aliens, Wood?s deft touch is everywhere.

The surreal multi-use of props in variously changing roles creates the unreal world inhabited by Wood?s ?poor wretched creatures?.? The wall that forms the backdrop of the airplane cockpit also serves as the side of the alien ship.? The patio chairs do double duty as bedroom furniture.? The tiny scale of the cemetery set continually fosters the sense of d?j? vu that the director works so hard to achieve.? By constantly testing the boundaries between art and artifice, the real and the fake, the director keeps his audience off balance, vainly looking for some semblance of historically perceived reality to anchor their emotions.? Wisely, Wood refuses to succumb to this convention and paints a masterpiece of bizarre events coupled with incomprehensible emotional reactions.

Make sure you don't cross the strings!

But, as lush and exciting as this all sounds, it merely serves as a backdrop for the heart of the film, Wood?s?prescient rant on the horror of the military-industrial complex.? The sublime expository scene inside the spacecraft during the third act deftly outlines not only the plot points but the passion of the writer/director also.? In a moving speech, it is revealed that the aliens? purpose in taking over Earth does not lie in desire for domination, but in a last minute attempt to avert a universe-wide catastrophe.?

Eros, the leader, confronts a group of skeptical earthlings with the true nature of his plan.? The scientific minds of Earth are on a treacherous course of weapons discovery that will eventually lead to a bomb that could explode the whole universe, the ?Solaranite Bomb?.

Colonel Edwards:? Why is it so important that you want to contact the governments of our earth?
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Eros: Because of death. Because all you of Earth are idiots!
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Jeff Trent: Now you just hold on, Buster.
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Eros: No, you hold on! First was your firecracker, a harmless explosive. Then your hand grenade: you began to kill your own people, a few at a time. Then the bomb. Then a larger bomb: many people are killed at one time. Then your scientists stumbled upon the atom bomb, split the atom. Then the hydrogen bomb, where you actually explode the air itself. Now you can arrange the total destruction of the entire universe served by our sun: The only explosion left is the Solaranite.
?

Colonel Edwards:? Why, there?s no such thing! Why, a particle of sunlight can?t even be seen or measured.

Eros: Can you see or measure an atom? Yet you can explode one! A ray of sunlight is made up of many atoms.
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Jeff Trent: So what if we do develop this Solaranite bomb? We?d be even a stronger nation than now.
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Eros:??Stronger.? You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!

The impassioned plea continues with an appeal to intelligence and metaphor.

Colonel Edwards:? You speak of Solaranite. But just what is it?
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Eros:? Take a can of your gasoline. Say this can of gasoline is the sun. Now, you spread a thin line of it to a ball, representing the earth. Now, the gasoline represents the sunlight, the sun particles. Here we saturate the ball with the gasoline, the sunlight. Then we put a flame to the ball. The flame will speedily travel around the earth, back along the line of gasoline to the can, or the sun itself. It will explode this source and spread to every place that gasoline, our sunlight, touches. Explode the sunlight here, gentlemen, you explode the universe. Explode the sunlight here and a chain reaction will occur direct to the sun itself and to all the planets that sunlight touches, to every planet in the universe. This is why you must be stopped. This is why any means must be used to stop you. In a friendly manner or as (it seems) you want it.

A fist fight immediately breaks out between the Earthlings and the aliens, resulting in a riveting and dramatic denoument that I refuse to spoil for you, my dear readers.

"Are you SURE this is how Karloff started?"

This movie will stand as the testament of Ed Wood?s life and beliefs.?? His humanity, his kindness and his eerily precognitive ability to predict the future are all on display in this, his magnum opus.? I truly believe that all future cautionary fables will forever pale in comparison to this masterpiece.? I see this movie being the focal point of special screenings where its growing legion of fans can gather together in mutual appreciation of Ed Wood?s legacy.? My fervent prayer is that technology someday advances to the point were every American can own this picture so that it can be viewed over and over again with like-minded friends and relatives, basking in the respect it so richly deserves.

? No rating:? Genius cannot be quantified

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