Plan 9 From Outer Space
I re-watched Plan 9 the other day, and I forgot to pay close attention to one little issue I have, which is what their plan is supposed to accomplish. The reanimation of the dead. Maybe it's to make the earth people pay more attention to them, a demonstration of their power, or just cheap labor for carrying around fainted ladies.
The aliens are in the space ship, and the ruler asks which plan they'll be using. All the plans appear to have the goal of getting the earth people to wake up and recognize that aliens are not only here but they have a message for us.
Ultimately, it's a message that we must be stopped, so that we don't explode the particles of sunlight, thereby exploding the sun, thereby exploding everything in the universe that the sun's light touches. And that's pretty good logic from their point of view, and ours too, if only we weren't so "stupid, stupid, stupid" and could grasp it.
I like this movie, and I've seen it enough that it's an old comfortable shoe by now. I see there's a colorized version for sale, which would be fun to see. The supposed "bad" things about it, are of course now seen as good, or at least fun. All the day for night. And the weird continuity with Bela Lugosi and the stand-in to fill out his part. The footage of Bela in the country, holding up his cape, and all that, is pretty good footage. But it's very clear he's not exactly in character for the scene at hand. I like it quite a lot.
The rest: There's many great scenes. Inspector Clay, before he gets killed. Inspector Clay, after he's risen from the dead. Vampira with her big fingers and death stare. She certainly had a thin midsection. The cops trying to figure it all out.
The big climactic confrontation between Eros/Tanna and the pilot/colonel/cop drags a little. Eros probably needed a way of disarming them or neutralizing their guns. To just let them in and assume everything would work out for the best didn't seem so smart, for someone so many centuries ahead of us in intelligence. But I like the whole thing how Eros is describing the solarbonite, with interesting hand gestures. And of course saying, "Stupid, stupid, stupid." The pilot can't take much more of this! He needs to stick up for the intelligence of earth people everywhere by shooting randomly!
A couple other things to mention. I think the whole scene between the officers -- the general and the colonel -- is very good. How the general feels the colonel out, whether he believes in flying saucers, then tells him he might be court-martialed. But the colonel has a great comeback, basically, 'How could I hope to keep my command if I didn't believe in the things I was shooting at?' Real good point! One very funny thing about this scene is how, when they're playing the tape from the aliens, they're making all these facial reactions, like they're really insulted, like the pilot later on, that the aliens think so little of us. Don't take it so personally...
Fun movie to watch.
