Ed Wood's Plan 9 from Outer Space: The Worst Movie Ever?
Ed Wood's Plan 9 from Outer Space: The Worst Movie Ever?  
Podcast: Every Single Sci-Fi Film Ever*
Published On: Sun Mar 02 2025
Description: You can find the podcast on Threads, Instagram and Bluesky.  The Worst Film of All Time by The Worst Director of All Time. So claimed the 1980 book The Golden Turkey Awards by Michael and Harry Medved regarding the film Plan 9 from Outer Space and director Edward Wood Jr AKA Ed Wood.  But this very title is one of the reasons behind the revival of the film and of Ed Wood. The film has issues with continuity, set design, dialogue and a coherent 'Plan 9' but something about the film appeals to a subset of film lovers. Perhaps it's the flashes of style, the joy in its failings or perhaps it's a recognition of something beyond the traditional and often formulaic nature of mainstream narrative filmmaking. Today I speak with two wonderful film academics and fans of the film.  The Experts  Mark Bould is a professor of Film and Literature at the University of West England, Bristol. He has written/edited extensively about science fiction cinema.  Rodney F Hill is a Professor of Film at the Lawrence Herbert School of Communication at Hofstra University and has written extensively about film.  If you are interested in finding out how you can help the Prince Charles Cinema you can visit this page here. Chapters  00:00 Introduction  01:28 Ed Wood: Hollywood, Kubrick and Corman  05:04 Glen or Glenda, the production code and censorship  12:39 Plan 9 and the Baptist Church  14:33 Bela Lugosi and the rest of Ed Wood's crew  20:35 The Amazing Criswell  23:23 Plan 9: An unconventional classic  25:50 Why my guests love the film  34:04 Bad science  35:46 The more traditional aspects Plan 9  37:22 The Worst Film of All Time and The Worst Director of All Time  39:57 Ed Wood the outsider and the Church of Ed Wood  43:14 Comparison to mainstream films  45:21 The Legacy  48:08 Recommendations  50:37 Save the Prince Charles Cinema  NEXT EPISODE!  The next episode we will be discussing The Blob (1958) which is available to rent and buy online in many places. You can also watch the film on the Just Watch website which was quite unexpected! (And remember folks, Steve McQueen is supposed to be 17 years old in this film!) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.