The Silver Screen Oasis

Favorites are easy. Real film buffs take great pride in their ability to sniff out the stinkers, and possibly even find reasons to like them, despite or perhaps because of, their faults. Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959) is a common pick. And, as has been said, if this was Plan 9, how bad were the first 8?

So, surprise me. Pick your choice for worst sci-fi film of the fertile fifties. The criteria is your own, and you've only yourself to blame!

Isn' t Criswell that great mystic the narrator of Plan Nine. ?How could such a picture not be at least 3 1/2 Stars ?

Sorry to disappoint you, but you'll get no argument from me about this movie (and that's being generous calling it a movie!) I think I've finally found the cure for my insomnia! We're just over 35 minutes into it and I'm ready to pull the plug! I never used to pay a lot of attention to who directed a film when I was younger so I'm not sure whether I've seen any of Ed Wood's other films, although being born in '53 I'm sure I must have. I'll have to make it a point to stay away from his others whenever I get the chance. From the look of the movie, he may have been the one who brought us The Beast with Two Heads. By comparison, The Brain That Wouldn't Die deserved Oscar consideration! Sweet dreams everybody, I'm outta here!

Yawningly,

Hollis

Absolutely the worst? Most boring? Most pretentious? Easy. FORBIDDEN PLANET. Makes the entire Ed Wood oeuvre look spectacular by comparison. From the director (Fred Wilcox) who gave us LASSIE COME HOME (which is far more entertaining and exciting than FORBIDDEN PLANET). I have NEVER understood FP's popularity (I suppose it had a lot to do with that dopey robot) and I guess I never will. If your memory of this film was forged as a child, then I suggest you watch it again (or try to) before defending it. Anyway, I'm sure there will be many who disagree with this pick but, nevertheless, that's what it is.

I know I sound like a shrew but I think most of the stuff they play on TCM Underground fits into this category. Plan 9 and Pussycat and all that stuff is the worst. You know I think most horror is garbage and TCM seems to find the worst to televise.

Now sci-fi is an entirely different genre. Horror is killing and mutilation, whereas sci-fi is theory. Movies like Logan's Run, Strange Encounters of the Third Kind, etc. are good movies. Them and War of the Worlds kind of cross over, but the originals kept the gore to a minimum. TV series like Star Trek with all of its spin offs, and Stargate - SG1, are strictly entertaining possibilities, but not to be sworn to. The main thing about Star Trek was the possibility of a peaceful, worry free society in which all men were truly equal, and that is a scenario I would love to live to see.

Anne

mrsl wrote:I know I sound like a shrew but I think most of the stuff they play on TCM Underground fits into this category. Plan 9 and Pussycat and all that stuff is the worst. You know I think most horror is garbage and TCM seems to find the worst to televise.


Anne

What Horror have you seen? I can understand your feelings about Plan 9 and Faster Pussycat, but I think it helps to view those films in a different light than you would a conventional movie.

Ed Wood was trying to make a serious SiFi flick and that's what's so funny about it. Meyer on the other hand, knew that he was playing for satire and humor and demanded straight performances from his cast. He discovered as Buster Keaton did years before that it's the way the part is played that provides the humor, not the other way 'round.

Dewey1960 wrote:I have NEVER understood FP's popularity (I suppose it had a lot to do with that dopey robot) and I guess I never will.

For me it's Anne Francis in the miniskirt. Oh my. Oh my. I'm gonna go watch it again right now.

Unfortunately, The Beast of Yucca Flats came out in 1961, so that doesn't count. Still, it's probably the all time worst. In fact, the 60s were really the golden age of bad sci fi -- in addition of BoYF there were the all but unwatchable The Creeping Terror, and The Crawling Hand and the execrable 2001.

For 50s proper, which was actually a really good decade for sci-fi overall, I gotta go with The Crawling Eye. Simply atrocious.

Mr. Arkadin:

Speaking strictly of the 50's, the horror movies I've seen are among others, The Thing, The Blob, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Mr. Sardonicus, and most of the Vincent Price gothic movies. I may be wrong, but to me these are horror movies. When a scene cuts away from somebody screaming in horror at some oncoming non-human threat, that indicates horror to me. Giant worms, or locusts or any oither insect or animal created from atomic testing is pure science fiction. AS I said some cross over, but on the whole, my idea of horror is to see the result of an attack, or in a sick idea like Last House on the Left, or Night of the Living Dead. Please note, I used different movies I have seen.

There are very few sci-fi movies made today - the Star Trek, and Star Trek, TNG sequels are pure sci-fi. But things like The Time Machine, War of the Worlds, and Journey to the Center of the Earth were turned into horror in just a few minutes after the onset of the movie.

As I said previously, I know I sound like a shrew, but movies like Pussycat, are just sick and stupid, and movies like Plan 9 are just dumb. I know they have their fans, which is why I normally don't comment on them, I really don't want to make anyone angry, I just feel TCM is dragging the bottom of the barrel on Friday nights.

Anne

Anne,

You aren't upsetting me in the slightest. When someone doesn't like something, I just always like to hear what they did not enjoy or don't like. Most of the films you listed I personally do not care for as well (although I view "Invasion" as SiFi and I do personally like Night of the Living Dead).

When I think of good Horror films ones that come to mind are:

The Cabinet of Dr. Calgari (1919)
Nosferatu (1922)
The Penalty (1920)
Waxworks (1924)
The Fall of the House of Usher (1928)
The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
Frankenstien (1931)
Vampyr (1932)
The Mummy (1932)
Freaks (1932)
The Invisible Man (1933)
The Black Cat (1934)
The Bride of Frankenstien (1935)
Mad Love (1935)
The Walking Dead (1936)
Cat People (1942)
The Seventh Victim (1943)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945)
The Body Snatcher (1945)
Isle of the Dead (1945)
The Beast with Five Fingers (1946)
Night of the Hunter (1955)
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane (1962)
Psycho (1960)
Peeping Tom (1960)
Repulsion (1965)
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Dont Look Now (1973)

If you look at most of these films you will see that they are more of a study of the human condition than a bunch of blood and gut slashers. Even Psycho and NOTLD do not show as much violence as they do individuals ways of coping and rationalization of life in general.

You noticed I listed only one 50's film. I personally don't care for "The Blob" or impersonal films. Same thing with the "faceless killer" bloody Halloween style crap that has passed for horror from the late 70's on.

I like films that explore humanity in general and there are many Horror films that do this quite well. Lon Chaney and Karloff were great actors in my opinion because they could show good and evil intertwined in the lives of their characters. Many films during the classic Hollywood era would never explore this. The good man was always good and the bad man was unredeemable.

Hope this explains my views some. I enjoy your opinions so please don't feel like you have to pull any punches with me. If I didn't really want to know what you think I wouldn't ask!

Mr.A

PS. Looks like the Blackhawks might have a really good team in the next season since they hold the top pick!

Mr. Arkdin,
The Blackhawks will NEVER have a good team as long the the Wirtz family is in charge.

I believe you there. I think you do have at least 4 picks in the first round as well as the top pick though so that could help you a bit. You also have a good goalie too.

Mr. Arkadin:

This is why I don't comment on horror as a rule. I don't mean to offend anyone, and thankfully I didn't offend you. The few horror films I have seen have turned me off so completely, that I see very little of them, so I'm no fair judge.

Thank you for your reassurance.

Anne

Nosferatu from 1922 still scares the padoodle out of me!