-Hi, it's Harry Medved, and welcome to Locationland, the show that puts movies in their places.

Back in 1956, a popular LA TV psychic named Criswell introduced an incredible tale of the town of San Fernando with the following immortal lines.

-Greetings, my friend.

We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives.

You are interested in the unknown, the mysterious, the unexplainable.

That is why you are here.

-Here we are at the San Fernando Pioneer Memorial Cemetery, as seen in Plan 9 From Outer Space.

Also known as-- -Grave Robbers from Outer Space.

-I grew up in Southern California exploring all these little nooks and crannies.

I'm really into something I call movie archaeology, and that's why we're doing this show, Locationland because we like to look at Los Angeles through the lens of Hollywood.

We're going back into time.

We're trying to find out where these locations existed.

Now, Plan 9 From Outer Space was voted the worst movie ever made by readers of a book called The 50 Worst Films of All Time.

I wrote that book when I was 15 years old.

When I was 17, I wrote a book called The Golden Turkey Awards with my brother Michael Medved, and that helped make Plan 9 From Outer Space almost a household name.

We discovered the story of a guy named Ed Wood, who we called the worst director of all time.

-Glen did wear the dress to the Halloween party.

He even took first prize.

-We're here with one of the huge super fans of Plan 9 From Outer Space, Dana Gould.

Tell me a little bit of how you first discovered Plan 9, and why are you such a fan?

-I knew about it from a very young age because of Famous Monsters Magazine, like everybody else.

I didn't see it until the mid-'80s, I think.

It was just this life-changing moment.

I loved horror movies, I loved old black and white movies, and I loved comedy.

It was obviously hilariously funny.

The sincerity oozes out of that film.

I just loved every frame.

-You don't believe that Plan 9 From Outer Space is the worst movie ever made?

-I don't.

-Tell me why not.

-Have you seen Transformers?

Which I haven't.

If Michael Bay's watching, I'm sure it's fun.

The cardinal sin of any movie is to be boring.

Plan 9 is never boring.

Not for a second.

It never runs out of tricks.

Just when you think it can't go anywhere, there's the Dudley Man Loves Solaronite monologue, which is the St. Crispin's Day speech of that science fiction movie.

-The only explosion left is the solaronite.

-Why, there's no such thing.

-Perhaps to you, but we've known it for centuries.

Your scientists will stumble upon it as they have all the others but the juvenile minds which you possess will not comprehend its strength until it's too late.

-What if we do develop this solaronite bomb?

We'd be even a stronger nation than now.

-Stronger.

You see, you see?

You're stupid minds.

Stupid.

Stupid.

-Let's just look at these trees over here because you shot two scenes here.

One of Bella and his Dracula cape walking around, which they use ad nauseum in the film, and then one of a grave-sized funeral.

Some of these trees sure look alike.

-It 100% feels like that cemetery, and especially when you look away down there, it's the same topography.

-Ed Wood, as quoted in Ralph Gray's book, said they shot at an abandoned cemetery.

The story goes that-- -Near Tor's house.

-Near Tor's house and Tor's son, as we know, Karl Johnson, worked for the San Fernando Police Department.

He had heard that they were going to tear this cemetery up, so no permit needed.

What they did eventually is they paved the cemetery over, almost poltergeist-like.

-You moved the cemetery, but you left the bodies, didn't you?

-They built condos behind us.

It used to be much larger here.

It was over 10 acres.

-As a detective would say, well, if not here, where?

-There's a lot of things we don't know about where Plan 9 was shot, but we do know this was the house where the old man, Bela Lugosi, lived.

In actuality, it was the house of Tor Johnson.

Somebody lives here now.

Hello, how are you doing?

-Hi.

We just wanted to let why we were staring at your house.

-You guys walk the property, [?].

-We can?

Oh, thank you so much.

Look at this.

It's the same damn lamp.

Oh my God, I can't get over this.

I mean, look at this.

-Oh, wow.

-We get these all the time.

-What?

Oh, people send you stuff?

-Yes.

Oh, my God.

-Yes, this is the guy who lived here.

I'm just curious, is there a door on this side?

Because in the movie, the guy who plays the old man-- -No, only the door in the back and in the front right here.

-Can I show you the door that I'm looking for?

There's a guy who's-- It's Bela Lugosi.

He was a movie star at the time, but he goes walking through the back of the house.

Wow.

-Do they use this house?

-I don't know.

Oh, maybe.

Look at this.

-Are there steps?

There is a step.

-Yes.

Oh, look, it's a match.

Look at the window.

Dana come here.

The door is different, but look at the two windows.

-Oh, yes.

-This is where Lugosi went and he went up on these steps.

-There's a famous video of him being interviewed.

He was like, "Good.

I feel strong, I feel great.

I'm going to get back to work soon."

-Playing the star part in The Ghoul Goes West.

Yes.

Eddie Woods would be the producer.

-From what we understand, the scene of the old man of Bela Lugosi coming out of his house was shortly after that.

-Yes.

-This is where Lugosi came out to smell the roses.

-Yes, and then he wandered off this way and got hit by an ambulance over there.

-Do you think this could be the same rosebush?

-I don't know.

Do roses last that long?

-I have no idea.

-Do you remember the scene?

It's so brief.

-I do because there's a bit about it in the live show.

-They play like a Dragnet kind of theme.

-Yes.

-The police are on their way.

-This is the famous scene where Tor Johnson as Inspector Clay.

Inspector Daniel clay.

-Very good.

-They come out here.

They have an old Mariah.

A big, old heavy car and they do a daft 11 point turn and lurch off towards justice.

-As we lurch off from the town of San Fernando, there are a few other Plan 9 sites we'd like to identify.

Sadly, we weren't able to pinpoint the exact spot along this dirt road near Foothill Boulevard and the cemetery but if you can figure it out, please let us know.

We were able to figure out the ambulance scene, which is right at Maclay Avenue and 7th Street, and of course, the Castle Argyll building on the 101.

-People turning south from the freeway were startled when they saw three flying saucers high over Hollywood Boulevard.

-Let's follow them to the studio where they shot scenes for the flying saucer.

The Pentagon, the cockpit, the patio, the bedroom and the rest of the cemetery scenes.

To help us put it all together, we'll be joined by the author of the Plan 9 monograph, Katharine Coldiron and family friend Bob Blackburn.

I can't believe you've got Edward's suitcase.

I've never been here.

Katharine, have you been here?

-Never been here -Dana, you've never been here.

-I've never been here.

-Bob, you've been here once but it didn't look like this, right?

-This is part of the original catwalk from Quality Studios -Wow, isn't that amazing?

This is where the magic happened.

This is where not only Test Tube Babies and Pin-Down Girl and Girl Gang, but also Glen and Glenda.

Right?

-Yes.

-In 1953.

-Yes.

-Holy cow.

Look at this.

It's tiny.

Oh, my God.

-The stage used to run all the way back where all the studios have been built now, but this is what remains of the stage.

-Unbelievable.

Look at this.

-It's about the size of the cemetery set that you'd see in [crosstalk].

-Yes.

-It's amazing.

-Put in a couple of dead trees, filled it up with smoke -What is so special about Plan 9?

Why do people still talk about it?

-I think it's because it is so guileless.

It's so without a sense of its own importance or its own excellence or seriousness, and that makes it extremely funny.

Unintentional comedy is always a perennial audience favorite.

I think that's why.

-You were here in the studio before.

What did it look like when you were here?

-I was here when they were doing the reconstruction, and this would have been maybe seven or eight years ago, and I saw that the gate was open and there were some workers.

It was just a construction site, basically.

There was just a lot of lumber and drywall.

-Very cool.

Should we look around.

-You will be the first live Earth people ever to enter a celestial ship.

-In the film when they approach the flying saucer, it has a right angle which goes against the whole concept of a saucer.

The saucers that they used, they weren't pie plates, they weren't hubcaps.

It was a was a commercially available flying saucer model kit.

They had three of them and at least on one of them they glued a small cube just to match the exterior shot.

I know this for sure because I have this saucer at my house and you can see the outline on the bottom where the cube was and there's a little hole drilled into the top where they had the saucer on piano wire.

-Where's the third saucer?

Who knows?

-Who knows?

-And action.

-This is the wallet that Kathy loaned to Johnny Depp the Ed Wood film.

-This is the one I'll be remembered for.

-Ed wood.

A Tim Burton film.

-Really?

Worst film you ever saw?

Well, my next one will be better.

-When you he it in his pocket, she saw him walk away.

She said, "Now there's my Eddie."

-What is this?

-Just look.

-Is this an address book?

Oh, my God.

Can you see-- Look at this.

Edward D. Wood, Jr. Look at some of these people in there.

-Criswell's addresses in there?

-Trust me, those numbers don't work in here.

-We spent 10 minutes geeking out over this address book, but I was particularly happy to see Ed Wood collaborator and confidant Paul Marko in there.

-Scared?

Why do I always get hooked up with these spook details?

Monsters, raves, bodies, cold water rides.

-[laughs] He knows it by heart.

What do you think, Dana?

Could this be it?

Does it go back?

-It goes back a little ways.

-Wow, I'm going to go down.

Hold on, I'm sorry.

-It is very grave-like, I will tell you.

-I mean, maybe.

If you look at the photos, it doesn't quite match up.

-The pictures that you have of Tor struggling to get out of the grave, it makes it look like they built mounds on either side so that he came up from ground level as opposed to coming up from underground level.

-Yes, but I would love to say that this was in Plan 9 or this was utilized somehow, and I love what you say, which is that if it was here, Edward Wood have figured out his fortune.

-There we go.

Saved by the cut.

-That's great.

Whether or not it's true that Tor Johnson actually rose from this trap door area, we know that this film was shot here, and I'm very honored to be here.

It's exciting to actually be at Quality Studios.

-This is Ed's last angora -Seriously?

-Yes, this is Ed's.

-Oh, my God.

It's big.

-He was a fairly big guy, and it's probably been stretched out.

-That's impressive.

-That's very impressive.

-There's the music.

We need the fanfare, then.

Like when Dolores Fuller takes off his sweater.

This is beautiful.

-You can play that.

It does have a tactile sensuality.

-Oh, yes.

-Yes, I can see where he was engrossed with the soft sensual feel of the angora against his pink skin.

-There you go.

-Throw it on, Harry.

-Is the fabric too long?

[laughter]