UFO MYSTERY SOLVED

Jim, a friend of mine, is a Plan 9 From Outer Space fan. He has the DVD which has not only the movie itself but the two hour documentary, Flying Saucers Over Hollywood which is about -- if you have not already guessed it -- the making of Ed Wood's magnum opus.

What is interesting about my Plan 9 fan friend is the fact he is only 23 years old. So much for the classic film being for us old fogies; although it was made years before even I was born. We dig this movie on equal terms. There is so much to talk about, including the fact that Plan 9 From Outer Space is hardly "the worst movie ever made". I told Jim about Larry Buchanan's magnum opus, Zontar The Thing From Venus. Not only did I assure him that Zontar is much worse than Plan 9, but just to reassure myself I watched it again the other night.

It is much, much worse. I told Jim this yesterday, but he still wants to see it (or perhaps wants to see it even more now).

Jim has been warned.

One of the big mysteries or big myths, rather, of Plan 9 is that the flying saucers were automobile hubcaps. This is false. Let me set that one straight. They are in fact a commercially available model kit first released by the Lindberg Company in 1952. The kit was called "Flying Saucer". Three of these kits were assembled (with some minor changes) for the movie and painted silver.

I am familiar with the kit as it was re-released by Lindberg Line in or about 1978.