Plan 10 From Outer Space – A Wacky Mormon Parody

Review by Steve D. Stones

On The evening of November 24th, 2019, I had the great pleasure of meeting local film director Trent Harris for a special screening of his 1995 film - Plan 10 From Outer Space. During this event, Harris autographed my VHS copy of his other 1992 cult masterpiece – Rubin & Ed. The event took place as a film festival at The Monarch building in Ogden – an arts hub for local artists. The event was well attended and director Harris answered questions from fans in attendance. I also had the pleasure of meeting the parents of actress Stefene Russell at this event.

Norman Talmage, played by Curtis James, is a mad prophet in 1853 who buries a bronze plaque near the shores of the Great Salt Lake in Utah. A hundred and forty years passes, and a young and beautiful woman named Lucinda Hall, played by Stefene Russell, discovers the plaque, known as the Plaque of Kolob, and becomes obsessed with decoding its meaning. Kolob refers to a star or planet mentioned in the Book of Abraham, a foundational scripture of LDS theology.

Hall’s brother Larsen (Pat Collins) is a return LDS missionary, who is receiving shock therapy treatments for stealing women’s panties. Larsen begins to see strange hallucinations after his shock treatment. He intercepts messages from outer space. Meanwhile Hall spends her time writing a book but is greatly distracted by her neighbor who dances almost completely naked in front of his apartment window every evening.

While researching Norman Talmage, Hall decides to track down his only living relative – Guy Fonsbeck (Deva Cantrell). Fonsbeck turns out to be the half-naked guy who dances in front of his apartment window every evening. Attempting to decode the Plaque of Kolob, Hall discovers a plot by aliens and their feminist goddess Nehor, played by Karen Black, for world domination to put women in charge.

The most intriguing scenes of this film are of the one-eyed beehive alien in his red space suit with bee wings. Nehor’s animated throne is another great highlight of the film. Director Harris narrates a sequence early in the film about the history of the Nephites and Lamanites in the Book of Mormon.

An interesting connection is made in Plan 10 to Harris’ earlier film of Rubin & Ed. Hall is not allowed inside a music club where Nehor and some aliens are doing a dance. To get into the club, Hall puts a tire hub cap on her head and dresses in a cape. In Rubin & Ed, actor Crispin Glover also places a hubcap on his head to shield the heat of the desert sun. The hub cap connects the two films together.

If you own the DVD or Blu-Ray of Plan 10 From Outer Space, don’t miss the extras of a documentary Harris puts on the disc – Naked Reality. Harris drives around in the desert near the Great Salt Lake salt flats looking for interesting subjects to film. He encounters a dead beetle that crawled out into the desert and died from the heat. Harris talks about living in Hollywood and getting a phone call to go to lunch with Warren Beatty. Look quickly as the end credits roll for a special thank you to Wade Williams – science fiction archivist and collector. Happy viewing.

(The second photo above shows director Harris at far right. Blog post author Steve D. Stones is at far left. To the right of Stones is Christopher T. Ostler, who arranged to have Plan 10 From Outer Space shown in Ogden in 2028. The photo is from the above-mentioned 2019 event.)

 

Rubin & Ed - Comic Weirdness By Trent Harris

Review by Steve D. Stones, art by Stones

"More psychedelic fun than a barrel of monkeys on mushrooms." - Details Magazine

Words cannot describe the comic weirdness, if not genius, of writer/director Trent Harris' 1991 cult classic - Rubin & Ed. The same can be said about his 1995 cult film - Plan 10 From Outer Space, which is a commentary on Mormon culture and Ed Wood's 1959 classic - Plan 9 From Outer Space.  I find Rubin & Ed to be the greater of the two films, but both make a great double-feature together.

Ed Tuttle, played by Howard Hesseman, is a down on his luck, middle aged loser who will do anything to prove to his wife Rula (Karen Black) that he can provide a living for her. The problem is, it's too late for Tuttle because his wife has left him and wants nothing to do with him. He wears old 70s leisure suits and a toupee to cover his balding hair. Apparently Tuttle has been a complete failure his entire life, but he refuses to give up, which is part of the charm of his character.

Tuttle attends a get-rich-quick, pyramid scheme seminar called "The Power of Positive Real Estate," also known as "The Organization." Attendants are brainwashed into thinking that they can achieve great wealth and success in their lives by bringing others into the group and selling real estate. Little do they know that the seminar is a scheme to take away their time and money.

While passing out pamphlets to promote "The Organization," Tuttle runs into his first and only sales subject, Rubin Farr, played by eccentric cult actor Crispin Glover. Farr lives with his mother in a hotel, wears bell bottom pants and platform shoes, and listens to the loud music of Mahler all day, while occasionally lounging by the pool.  Farr's mother is constantly on his case to make friends. This is where Tuttle makes his appearance. Two losers, Rubin and Ed, are now united.

Tuttle meets Farr at his hotel room and finds Farr's frozen dead cat in the kitchen freezer. Farr agrees to come with Tuttle to his seminar, but only if they can first find a proper place to bury the cat.  The frozen cat, named Simon, is placed in a Coleman cooler. What follows for the rest of the movie is a buddy themed, road trip across Goblin State Park in Utah - only this time Bob Hope and Bing Crosby are nowhere to be found.

One particularly funny dream sequence shows Rubin floating on a tube at Pineview Reservoir in Utah while his cat Simon is waterskiing behind a boat operated by a beautiful girl. Farr gives his most famous line in the film - "My cat can eat a whole watermelon!"

I was fortunate to have found a VHS copy of Rubin & Ed at a local thrift store for less than $1.00. Sources tell me that a used copy of Rubin & Ed on VHS will run anywhere from $40.00 to $100.00 on E-Bay and other movie sales sites. A new VHS copy will run you about $200.00. I often rented the film from Blockbuster Video and Hollywood Video in the 1990s from the "Cult Classics" section of both video stores.

I was also fortunate to have purchased a signed copy of Harris' Plan 10 From Outer Space on DVD at Sam Weller's book store in downtown Salt Lake City about 10 years ago. This is one of my most cherished movie collectibles, next to a clam-shelled 80s VHS copy of Andy Milligan's Torture Dungeon from Midnight Video.

To purchase Rubin & Ed on DVD or other films by director Trent Harris, visit his web store at http://www.echocave.net/rubin_ed.html. Hooray for the Echo People! Happy viewing.