Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Preposition Position

Gregory Walcott died a couple days ago.  He appeared in a ton of movies and TV, often Westerns, but would be virtually unknown were it not for the fact he starred in Plan 9 From Outer Space. This led to an odd paragraph in the Hollywood Reporter obit:

Walcott starred as pilot Jeff Trent in 1959’s “Plan 9 From Outer Space,” which is widely considered one of the worst films of all time. Despite its reputation, it gained a large cult following, which Walcott was reluctantly at the center of.

Despite?  Plan 9 was completely forgotten until a couple decades later, thanks to critic Michael Medved, it started appearing on the worst films of all time lists.  From that point on people couldn't wait to see what was the worst film ever. (Not that it deserves it. It's awful, but fairly entertaining.  Just about every week films that are no fun at all come out--that sounds worse to me.) So for almost two generations, the film has been famous solely because it's, allegedly, so bad.

How did Walcott feel about Plan 9?  Let's give him the last word. "I didn't want to be remembered for that. But it's better to be remembered for something than for nothing, don't you think?"

5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Knowing Michael Medved's behind it kind of ruins the fun

6:01 AM, March 24, 2015  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think it's been replaced by Manos: The Hands Of Fate.

9:08 AM, March 24, 2015  
Anonymous Denver Guy said...

Rocky Horror Picture Show gained traction in part because it was considered a terrible musical. Though actually I always thought the music was pretty good (for rock opera stuff). It's the premise that's ludicrous.

My worst film of all time is Monkey Bone.

12:59 PM, March 24, 2015  
Blogger LAGuy said...

I don't think Rocky Horror is a bad movie, and I don't believe its cult fans treat it as such. It was a smart little show in England that was made into a low-budget movie that captured a lot of the original's spirit.

In any case, it was born as camp, so treating as if it's not self-aware is wrong. Of course the plot is ridiculous, that's the point. A true bad movie should be made by people doing their best to make a good movie, not people who are already winking at the audience.

1:05 PM, March 24, 2015  
Blogger New England Guy said...

The Room is utterly terrible and yet my teenage son loves to watch and laugh at it with his friends. I think it must be performance art but they claim it isn't and have watched the main star's even worse (internet?) TV show

2:30 PM, March 24, 2015  

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