"Plan 9 From Outer Space": Why the "worst movie ever made" continues to fascinate and entertain us, all these decades later

"Locationland," a fun new YouTube video series

We're excited to tell blog readers about a new YouTube series, "Locationland," which takes a fun look at filming locations around Southern California. You can find the series on the PBS SoCal YouTube page by clicking here.

 

Harry Medved visits a key "Plan 9" filming location, San Fernando's Pioneer Cemetery

The series is hosted by Harry Medved, a longtime SoCal filming location researcher and friend of the Iverson Movie Ranch Blog who has been a valued collaborator of ours for years.

 

"Plan 9 From Outer Space": So bad it's good?

"Locationland's" latest subject is low-budget producer-director Ed Wood's "Plan 9 From Outer Space," an endlessly fascinating science-fiction and horror mashup considered by many to be the worst movie ever made.

 

Two books co-written by Harry Medved, both "honoring" "Plan 9 From Outer Space"

While "Locationland" pokes at some of the history and backstory behind "Plan 9," it's no coincidence that the show's host has already earned his own place in the film's history. Medved was a co-author on two books that helped cement "Plan 9's" place among the biggest turkeys of all time.

 

Vampira does what comes unnaturally in "Plan 9"

First released in 1957, "Plan 9" has pretty much owned the "so bad it's good" category for the past 60-plus years. Thanks in large part to its "worst ever" credentials — not to mention all the quirky casting, bad acting, cheesy special effects and godawful script — the film continues to inspire and engage its sizable cult following.

 

Poster for a "Spook Show" festival in Georgia

"Plan 9" has long been a staple of the "midnight movie" circuit, and is frequently at the center of film festivals celebrating kitschy horror and sci-fi "classics."

 

The "Plan 9 From Outer Space" computer game — check it out here

It has been the focus of countless parodies, remakes, stage revivals, table reads, at least one novelization, and as far back as 1992, a questionable attempt at a computer game. Click here if you can bear to see what a bad 1990s computer game based on a bad 1950s Ed Wood movie might look like.

 

An alien spaceship prepares to land in the Pioneer Cemetery in "Plan 9"

Fans of "Plan 9" have been tracking down its filming locations for decades, making pilgrimages to places like the Pioneer Cemetery in San Fernando, which served as a landing spot for alien craft in the movie.

 

The Pioneer Cemetery as it appears today

The cemetery is still around, although it has lost land to condos and other development over the years, while also suffering the effects of vandalism, minimal upkeep and the theft of headstones.

 

A typical San Fernando Valley home — forever linked to "Plan 9 From Outer Space"

One of the biggest draws for the "Plan 9" faithful is this unassuming house in suburban Sylmar, Calif., which was the home of "Plan 9" star Tor Johnson at the time the movie was being made.

 

Tor Johnson goes around scaring the heck out of people in "Plan 9"

A loyal member of Ed Wood's troupe of actors, Tor wasn't exactly the typical Hollywood leading man — and he's a prime example of that "quirky casting" we mentioned previously.

 

Tor considers what to do with Mona McKinnon in "Plan 9"

Known as a gentle giant, Tor was a professional wrestler whose larger-than-life "acting" was on display in a series of low-budget productions from the '30s into the '60s.

 

Tor finds the most obvious solution to the Mona problem

One of the many charms of "Plan 9" is its persistent reliance on shortcuts, including amusingly finding the most obvious way out of any situation. When the heat is on, Tor just dumps Mona on the ground.

 

"The Beast of Yucca Flats" (1961)

A few years after "Plan 9," Tor had a memorable turn as "The Beast of Yucca Flats," another "classic" that probably deserves its own location feature — and its own place on the "worst movies ever made" list.

 

Bela Lugosi looking uncomfortable outside Tor Johnson's house in "Plan 9"

Tor let Ed Wood talk him into using Tor's San Fernando Valley home as a filming location, setting the stage for a historic shoot featuring some of the last filmed footage of horror icon Bela Lugosi.

 

Bela Lugosi in Ed Wood's "Bride of the Monster" (1955)

After becoming addicted to alcohol and opiates, Lugosi was slumming it toward the end of his career and wound up in a series of low-budget productions, including another Ed Wood movie, "Bride of the Monster."

 

In test footage shot in 1956, Lugosi wanders around outside Tor's house in Sylmar

Ed Wood filmed test footage of Bela at Tor's house in 1956, before production began on "Plan 9." It turned out to be some of the last footage ever shot of the "Dracula" star, who died in August 1956.

 

More 1956 test footage of Bela Lugosi, later resurrected for "Plan 9"

Even though Lugosi was dead by the time Ed Wood got started on "Plan 9," Wood made Lugosi one of the stars of the movie, using the footage shot outside Tor's house and additional footage taken nearby.

 

Chiropractor Tom Mason pretends he's Bela Lugosi in "Plan 9"

To fill in some of the plot holes — and there would be plenty of them — Ed Wood hired his wife's chiropractor, Tom Mason, to double for Lugosi. Mason is seen throughout the movie hiding his face behind a cape.

 

The former Tor Johnson house as it appears today, in "Locationland"

Tor's old house is still standing, and today is a Mecca for fans of the movie. Much of "Plan 9" was filmed not far from the house, in the northeastern San Fernando Valley communities of Sylmar and San Fernando.

 

Harry Medved and Dana Gould meet with the current resident of Tor's house

In the "Locationland" episode — which you can click here to watch — Medved and comedian Dana Gould, a huge "Plan 9" fan, pay a memorable visit to the house.

 

"Plan 9 From Outer Space": South Brand Boulevard in San Fernando

Even though a number of "Plan 9'" shooting locations have been well-known among its fan base for years, the "Locationland" team set out in search of sites that were not generally known — and the Iverson Movie Ranch Blog was honored to take part in the search effort.

 

The San Fernando city limit sign in "Plan 9"

Our search was not in vain. One location we identified — with the help of the old San Fernando city limit sign — was this group of buildings in the 800 block of South Brand Boulevard in San Fernando.

 

The same location in modern times — with a new sign

The city limit sign has been updated since the "Plan 9" crew filmed in the area, and today a newer sign stands in exactly the same spot. The palm trees are still there too.

 

The buildings in "Plan 9" still stand, along Brand Boulevard

Several of the same buildings seen in "Plan 9" can still be readily identified along Brand Boulevard.

 

Officers pour out of the police station in "Plan 9," headed for their squad car

Another find was the building where this police station scene was shot for the movie. I believe this was the actual San Fernando Police Station back when "Plan 9" filmed here.

 

The police station in a recent photo — these days it's a VFW post

Today the building is headquarters for the San Fernando Post of Veterans of Foreign Wars, and people take dance lessons here on certain nights of the week.

 

"Plan 9": A distinctive background hill, but an elusive dirt road

One location we put a lot of effort into trying to find is seen in this sequence in which a police car kicks up dust as it speeds along a dirt road. This location proved challenging.

 

Another angle on the filming location

Another shot from "Plan 9" shows the same location from a different angle, with a different hill in the background.

 

Composite shot from "Plan 9" showing a wider view of the hills

By combining elements of both of the above screen shots, we were able to create a composite shot that provides a wider view of the background hills.

 

The same background hills in the 21st century

Then we were able to find those same hills in the real world, looking east from San Fernando. Unfortunately, the roads and other foreground features have changed so much since the '50s that it may be impossible to identify the exact filming location now.

 

The type of model kit used in "Plan 9 From Outer Space"

The "Locationland" episode adds plenty of amusing commentary on "Plan 9," along with fun facts about the movie, such as the model kit used by Ed Wood to create his alien spacecraft.

 

An ambulance speeds down Maclay Avenue through San Fernando in "Plan 9"

"Locationland" also zeros in on a number of other "Plan 9" locations, and fleshes out details on some of the locations discussed above. Click here to watch the episode.

 

Have you seen this gravesite? It's a toughie!

Many other "Plan 9" filming locations still remain to be found, which may be good news for fans of the movie who are ready to put boots on the ground and track down their own locations. Let us know what you find!

D.W. Griffith's secret filming site in the San Fernando Valley — and the true location of "Elderbush Gulch"

Fritz Burns ranch near San Fernando, 1957: formerly the D.W. Griffith Ranch

I've been fascinated with the so-called "Griffith Ranch" since I first heard about it several years ago. Hollywood pioneer D.W. Griffith reportedly bought the place in 1912 and used it as a filming location for early silent movies.

Plaque commemorating the Griffith Ranch

The ranch itself is long gone, but back in 1959 the former Griffith Ranch became "California Registered Historical Landmark No. 716," and today a plaque and stone monument stand in its memory.

Location of the Griffith Ranch monument in Sylmar

The monument stands at Foothill Boulevard and Vaughn Street in what is now Sylmar, Calif. That part of the Valley is best described today as "industrial," and the Griffith plaque is situated in front of Expo Propane.

The monument is easy to miss, as it blends in with the fence and gets lost among power lines, traffic signals and other "noise." I used to live in Sylmar and drove past the plaque all the time without knowing it was there.

I don't know whether it was the owner of Expo Propane who commissioned a custom fence to complement the shape of the monument, but it's kind of fun knowing that somebody would go to all that trouble.

One thing I always did notice in that area was a gathering of big rigs at the top of the hill in the background. The hilltop is home to a heavily used 18-wheeler parking area, accessed off Lopez Canyon Road.

Big rig parking adjacent to the former D.W. Griffith Ranch

The truck facility is an awesome spectacle in its own right, if you're into that sort of thing. This is what the top of the hill looks like in a Google 3D aerial view — more big rigs in one place than you're likely to see in a week.

Looking north from the big rig parking off Lopez Canyon (Google 3D)

One reason I wanted to point out the big rigs is because they help pinpoint the location of what was once D.W. Griffith's ranch. This is the view looking north from the ridge where many of the trucks are parked.

Notice the background hills to the north identified here as "A" through "D," along with two smaller nearby peaks, "E" and "F." I've also noted the ridge where the trucks are parked, along the bottom of the frame.

The same hills in 1957

These same hills can also be found in the 1957 photo of the Fritz Burns ranch — the former D.W. Griffith ranch. This is the same photo seen at the top of this post, with hills "A" through "F" marked.

By examining the 1957 photo along with old aerials of the region, we can determine that the area below the yellow line is roughly where the ranch property — or at least the "ranch" part of the ranch — was located.

When we trace the outline of the former ranch against the modern landscape, we can see that the land has been almost completely built out.

The single largest chunk of the former ranch is occupied today by the sprawling UPS Sylmar facility.

Valley News, Nov. 24, 1961

Fritz Burns, who bought the Griffith property in 1948, is a well-known historical figure too. He founded Panorama City that same year, and soon began bringing Santa and his reindeer to town each year at Christmas.

The real Santa Claus, with Rudolph in Panorama City

Every family has its own Santa lore, but in my family it was explained that the various Santas in all the department stores were "Santa's helpers," but the real Santa was the one who showed up in Panorama City with his reindeer.

It turns out the reindeer came from the former D.W. Griffith ranch, where Burns started a reindeer herd with about 30 animals he reportedly bought from Randolph Hearst.

 Hearst Castle — original home of the Fritz Burns reindeer herd

So Santa's original "Panorama City nine" — Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen and, of course, Rudolph — previously lived at the magnificent Hearst Castle in San Simeon, Calif.

Various animals continue to graze the grounds of Hearst Castle today as part of the castle's private herd.

Fritz Burns' reindeer get ready for their closeup

The Fritz Burns herd eventually grew to as many as 170 reindeer, with the original pack of nine star performers later joined by Violet, Rudolph's little sister, whose ears were died lavender for the annual event.

Santa's headquarters in Panorama City (ca. 1960s)

Burns continued to help out with Santa's annual visit to Panorama City for almost 30 years, with the tradition finally running out of steam after Burns died in 1979.

Documentation about a World War II P.O.W. camp in San Fernando

A surprising and little-known chapter in the history of the Griffith Ranch took place near the end of World War II. Details are hard to come by, but it appears that a German P.O.W. camp was set up on the ranch.

B.S. detector: Keep plenty of fresh batteries on hand if you do movie location research

I activated my B.S. detector when I started looking into rumors about the P.O.W. camp, and to my surprise, the story held up. The most reliable sources indicate the facility housed more than 300 German prisoners.

The P.O.W. camp remained open for several months in late 1945, and it's been reported that the prisoners were put to work in the citrus fields. I don't know whether D.W. Griffith still owned the property at the time.

The Griffith Ranch plaque: Can we trust it?

The truth is there are good reasons to doubt much of the "information" that surfaces in connection with the D.W. Griffith Ranch — and we can start by taking a hard look at that historical marker.

The highlighted passage says the Griffith Ranch "provided the locale for many Western thrillers, including 'Custer's Last Stand.'" Really? That "Custer's Last Stand" reference appears to me to be pure fiction.

Three strikes — You're out!

No such movie exists — at least not by that title, not associated with D.W. Griffith, and not produced during the brief period when the ranch was used for filming, which appears to be mainly in the early to mid-1910s.

"Custer's Last Stand" (1936): NOT filmed on the Griffith Ranch and not associated with D.W. Griffith

But misinformation breeds misinformation, especially when it's on an official plaque. So now there are researchers around who believe, incorrectly, that the 1936 serial "Custer's Last Stand" was filmed on the Griffith Ranch.

"Custer's Last Stand" happens to be a terrific Iverson Ranch movie, but it has nothing to do with D.W. Griffith, who directed his last movie in 1931, or the Griffith Ranch, which ceased to be used for filming years earlier.

But that's not even the most ridiculous piece of misinformation on the plaque. The highlighted passage claims the ranch "was the inspiration for the immortal production 'Birth of a Nation.'" I'll say it again: Really?

So Griffith's 1915 epic about slavery, the Civil War, the Reconstruction-era South, the Lincoln assassination and the Ku Klux Klan was somehow "inspired" by his ranch in Sylmar? Sorry, but my B.S. alarm just went off again.

Griffith Ranch plaque dedication, Dec. 13, 1959: Mae Marsh and Blanche Sweet lend a hand

To someone's credit, they rounded up two of Griffith's stars from the silent era for the plaque dedication in 1959. Blanche Sweet played Judith in Griffith's "Judith of Bethulia" and Mae Marsh was in "The Birth of a Nation."

Mae Marsh in "The Birth of a Nation" (1915)

I'm imagining Mae Marsh being consulted when they were writing copy for the plaque, and she tries to point them in the right direction. In my fantasy scenario, someone asks her, "So, they did film 'Birth of a Nation' at the ranch, right?" And she answers, "Well, no, not really. I suppose you could say the movie was 'inspired' by the ranch."

Continuing the fantasy, I'm assuming Mae never thought they would take her quite so literally. I don't know which actress is Mae Marsh, but the one on the left appears horrified upon getting her first look at the text.

A couple of the lesser mistakes on the plaque

I wasn't going to bother with the kind of issues a career copy editor might gripe about, but I couldn't resist at least pointing out a couple. Suffice to say they did a crummy job with that plaque.

David Wark Griffith Middle School in East L.A.

Other monuments to D.W. Griffith can also be found around L.A., including an East L.A. middle school named after him. Activists involved with the heavily Latino school have been trying for years to get its name changed.

Parade group from D.W. Griffith Middle School

Students at the school continue to carry the Griffith name with pride, but a vocal contingent in the community has a hard time looking past the apparent racism running through "The Birth of a Nation."

D.W. Griffith's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

Naturally, the legendary filmmaker also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Although Griffith has his share of critics, to my knowledge his star has yet to be jackhammered the way other controversial stars have been.

Griffith's landmark Western "The Battle at Elderbush Gulch" (1913): Filmed on the Griffith Ranch?

As with almost any historic filming location, a key to researching the Griffith Ranch has been trying to figure out which movies filmed there — and if we're lucky, finding some specific shooting locations.

"The Battle at Elderbush Gulch": An old dirt road

I'm happy to report that I've had some success, both in confirming specific silent movies filmed on the ranch and in nailing down a few of the shooting sites. As far as I know, this is the first time this research has been done.

The wagon stops along the road in "The Battle at Elderbush Gulch"

This old dirt road is featured quite a bit in "The Battle at Elderbush Gulch," one of Griffith's most important early films. When a wagon stops on the road, the low angle provides a look at the hills in the background.

Notice the peak identified by the blue arrow.

Google Earth view of the same peak and same background hills in 2019

The peak in the movie matches the hills above the old Griffith Ranch, as seen in this shot from Google Earth. The shot is taken looking east, and it's worth noting that the two shots are taken more than 100 years apart.

Once again we can see a portion of the big rig parking area on a hilltop south of the former Griffith Ranch. We also see another section of the ranch where trucks have taken over, around the big UPS facility.

If we pull back for a wider shot on Google Earth and view the area from a higher angle, we can see more of the lighter-colored ridge to the east. This ridge bordered a back section of the Griffith Ranch.

For the moment we can identify the two main ridges as "A" and "B."

Hidden behind Ridge "A," and tucked in between the two ridges, was a back section of the ranch where a significant portion of the filming took place.

Bird's-eye view of Griffith's hidden filming location (Google Earth)

This overview of the filming area hidden at the back of Griffith's ranch is taken looking northeast. It appears that the bulk of the filming on the ranch took place from 1912 until about 1914.

From this angle we see not only Ridges "A" and "B," but also a third ridge, which we can call Ridge "C." The hidden filming area was surrounded by these three ridges.

Dorothy Bernard, Mary Pickford and Claire McDowell in "The Female of the Species" (1912)

One movie I was able to confirm that filmed in this back section of the ranch is "The Female of the Species," a 1912 adventure about three women trying to survive a trip across the desert.

The exact filming location is inaccessible today, but we can come fairly close to matching the background features using Google Earth. Notice the sections of the hills marked "W," "X," "Y" and "Z."

Here I've identified those same hills in a current Google Earth photo. In addition to points "W" through "Z," Ridges "A," "B" and "C" can all be found in the shot. (Point "W" is positioned along Ridge "A.")

Screen shot from "The Massacre" (1912) — filmed on the Griffith Ranch

Another example of filming in this back section of the Griffith Ranch can be found in the director's unheralded 1912 Western "The Massacre."

A section of Ridge "C" in modern times, looking similar to how it appears in "The Massacre"

Here again, the exact angle is difficult to replicate today. But using Google Earth we can at least match up a section of Ridge "C" in the background.

"The Battle at Elderbush Gulch": The town of Elderbush Gulch

One of the main goals I had with the Griffith Ranch research was to see whether I could pinpoint the location where D.W. Griffith built the set for the town of Elderbush Gulch in "The Battle at Elderbush Gulch."

D.W. Griffith's Elderbush Gulch in 1913

I suspected that Elderbush Gulch stood on the Griffith Ranch, but it has been reported (in error) to have been built in other parts of the San Fernando Valley — including Chatsworth. As it turns out, I was able to find the location.

"The Massacre" (1912)

It was one of the more challenging locations to pinpoint, requiring first matching up shots from "The Battle at Elderbush Gulch" and the earlier D.W. Griffith movie "The Massacre."

Take a look at the features noted in this shot from "The Massacre" — the round slope and flat ridge, along with the group of three rocks.

The town of Elderbush Gulch in "The Battle at Elderbush Gulch"

All of these features can be seen again behind the town set in "The Battle at Elderbush Gulch," proving that the two movies are filmed in approximately the same location.

"The Massacre": Wider shot reveals hills in the distance

Now look at this wider shot from "The Massacre," which again shows the rounded slope and flat ridge, but also reveals some hills in the distance, well behind those features.

Newton Street in Sylmar, looking northeast (Google Earth)

Here's a contemporary shot taken at the end of Newton Street in Sylmar, near what was once the northern end of the Griffith Ranch. You may already notice similarities between this photo and the shot from "The Massacre."

Here I've labeled some of the background features in the recent shot, "G" through "N."

And here are those same features, "G" through "N," noted in "The Massacre." The matching features pinpoint not only the shooting site for "The Massacre," but also the former location of the town of Elderbush Gulch.

The Elderbush Gulch town site in October 2019

By putting boots on the ground I was able to get a better sense of what Elderbush Gulch looks like today. My photo above, taken this month, provides a reasonable match for the "Massacre" screen shot.

"The Massacre": The same flat ridge and round slope seen behind the town of Elderbush Gulch

The most important background feature for matching up the town site is the flat ridge identified here, which I noted above in screen shots of the town of Elderbush Gulch. At the left end of the flat ridge is its rounded slope.

Here's the same flat ridge, with its rounded slope, in the photo I took on my latest visit to the former Griffith Ranch.

The town of Elderbush Gulch ("The Battle at Elderbush Gulch," 1913)

As noted previously, the same flat ridge and rounded slope can be found in the background behind the town of Elderbush Gulch in Griffith's 1913 Western "The Battle at Elderbush Gulch."

Site of the former Griffith Ranch (Bing aerial view)

Putting the pieces together in this overview of what was once D.W. Griffith's corner of today's Sylmar, we can approximate the location of Elderbush Gulch along with Griffith's secret filming location out back.

"Fighting Blood" (D.W. Griffith, 1911): A familiar dirt road?

More work remains to be done. For example, I ran across a mystery in the movie "Fighting Blood," where a dirt road appears that looks a lot like the one we talked about above from "The Battle at Elderbush Gulch."

"The Battle at Elderbush Gulch": The same road?

The road in "Elderbush Gulch" is known to be on the Griffith Ranch. If it's the same road seen in "Fighting Blood," then Griffith was associated with the ranch at least by 1911 — a year earlier than is generally accepted.

Any questions?

But it wouldn't be movie location research if we didn't end up with unanswered questions. That's one of the main reasons it's as much fun as it is — it's never done.