Well, "10(excellent)" needs the constant reminder - this film is so really bad (textbook stature bad) that it is great. If the cinema created masters like Ford, Huston, Renoir, Hitchcock, Bunuel, Welles, Truffaut, Bergman, Kurasawa....it also created the legend of Ed Wood, a man who was determined to bring his ideas to the screen, and lacked absolutely every degree of ability to make a decent mediocre film. But the result is one of the oddest in film history (and as I write this, I am fully aware it sounds a bit like Wood's horrible dialog for Criswell talking about "the future"). Wood would have been long forgotten (like the creator of the hideously bad ROBOT MONSTER) if he had not one glaringly good point - he was willing to take chances to discuss material that was slightly out of step. Transvestitism in GLEN,OR GLENDA for example (because Wood was a transvestite).

In Plan NINE FROM OUTERSPACE he actually tries to make a case that mankind is playing with nuclear fire that may not only destroy the Earth but the Universe. In the late 1950s, even though Joe McCarthy was dead, this view was not a popular one. Look at the other science fiction stories, and you see that there is a suggestion that more care is required to use nuclear power. Once you destroy the atomic ants in THEM, Edmund Gwenn does not suggest dropping the use of atomic energy. But Wood does question it. Unfortunately he questions it badly.

For one thing, Wood was aware of what he had to do with his audience - he had to try to keep their attention by a sense of dread regarding the science fiction threat to mankind by his space invaders. But compare his horrendously bad cast here (aside from Lugosi, who actually died before the film was barely begun, the only other performer of real note was Lyle Talbot as a Pentagon General in one scene). THEM had Gwenn, James Whitmore, and James Arness in the cast. THEM also had various special affects, such as films of ants in their natural background, and even having full scale battles with each other. The result is that one believes what one sees in THEM. One can't believe the cheesy effects of Woods production, nor his cheesy actors and cheesy dialog.

Also there is an inherent contradiction in the film. The space invaders are destroying man with an army of the resurrected dead. Its purpose is due to the Earth not heeding warnings about the dangers of their nuclear weapon programs. But from what we see its more a matter of impatience by these same invaders in dealing with us (barely one or two messages get through, and they do not say much about what is the reason for the anger of the space invaders). Furthermore Woods keeps showing how inept the invaders are - their weapons fail and one is almost strangled by a zombie. Later the Earthlings manage to damage the "controls" (I hate using that sophisticated term for Woods cardboard sets) of the flying saucer, so that while the commander lies unconscious the saucer blows up. Some really effective futuristic foe!!

Still Woods views (when one finds them) do strike one as interesting. The space commander points out that Earthlings are not only ones who believe in God. A curious point that was rarely suggested in the 1950s (in fact the next time it pops up was in one of the original STAR TREK episodes with William Shatner, written by Gene Roddenberry - and it was done with far more cleverness dealing with the punning of the term "Sun/Son" God). On the other hand the space invaders are not fully ready for total female equality. While the commander has a female assistant, he makes comments suggesting that women are supposed to be home most of the time - hardly a futuristic viewpoint.

By now perhaps you can see the problem. Production standards are poor. Acting atrocious for the most part. Screenplay is dismal in language content. But those small little fragments of a brain that tried to speak to us remain fascinating. The result is not another ROBOT MONSTER, but a film that will never really die with movie lovers...and a further proof that if you do have some originality you may remain a legend, even with dismal side effects.