Considering all their releases are full frame I don't see this as an issue. The fact they release a widescreen movie like House on Haunted Hill as full frame is a bigger issue.

I have the version that came with the game, Destroy All Humans....still sealed, never bothered to open it. It was given away w/pre-orders.

I really wonder this movie.

You guys are kidding, right? There's a big difference between releasing a one-and-only studio edition of a film butchered by colorization and changes, and releasing a secondary edition of a film AS A NOVELTY ITEM. And that doesn't even address how they still end up giving the proper respect to the film by including an unedited b&w version on the same disc.

The funny part is that if Legend marketed these as new releases of the classic b&w films and listed the alternate colorized comedy version as a "special feature", everyone here would be saying what a great company this is.

Colorized = No Sale

HoHH was actually shot for both full and wide screen. The widescreen version is just cropped from the full screen. Castle did this with a couple of other releases around the same time. There is no 'definitive' OAR for HoHH, it was made in widescreen and fullscreen for various theaters and markets. Neither format had precedence over the other.

Just got done listening to his track for Carnival/Souls. A BIG improvement over Reefer's track. Sounds like he's starting to get the hang of things.
With that, I'm still looking forward to this release.

Got my incredibly overpriced Mike Nelson Signature edition DVD today and the commentary is again pretty good. They really need to start adding more people than Mike though. He did go to the Bela on heroin and Tor Johnson is a fat ass lines a bit too much but there were also some great riffs in there.

The movie is just awful. Ed Wood really had no business making movies, but I guess it worked out because this mess is so awful it is worth actually watching like most train wrecks. Looks like they did clean up the bad public domain print fairly well though, but I completely missed the picture of the eBay winner, but it was hard to actually keep my eyes on the screen at all times as the plot and cheap sets were making me ill.

Special features are so so. The first 8 plans thing is really lame, but they show some of Ed Wood's TV commercials and that is kind of interesting. Didn't check out the Wood home movie segment, but hopefully he is not in a dress.

How is the print compared to the previous release from Image? If there's no noteworthy difference then I ain't buyin'.

I don't know how it compares, but the print does look decent for a public domain release. Not sure this is a version to buy if you are serious about the film. I could care less about the awful films released by Ed Wood and got this for a laugh. For one thing they inserted a photo of some guy that won an ebay auction into the film. Not sure if its in both the B/W and color versions, but to me that would ruin the movie if it was one I liked.

Plan 9 is not in the public domain.

Question: if it wasn't, wouldn't that mean the Image release would have to go out of print if Fox aquired the rights?

not exactly...they would just have to liscence it over to them...think The Rock or armageddon from criterion.

Okay, I thought Legend only did public domain releases.

I think that Ed Wood would have loved to see his movie in color.

They tried to use "Plan 9" in an episode, but were unable to do so because, at the time, the film was copyrighted, and the copyright owner refused to give them the rights.

It is NOW. There are several different DVD and VHS releases, by many different companies. "Glen or Glenda" and "Jail Bait" are also public domain -- I hope Legend will get around to releasing those films.

I honestly think that Legend's releases are great: you get a great cult classic movie in both black and white and color (and the colorization's damn good, too), plus some great special features. Mike Nelson's commentaries are always hilarious, and, in the case of "Reefer Madness," "House on Haunted Hill," and "Plan 9 from Outer Space," Legend has released the definitive releases of these cult classics, with the best extras and best picture quality.

Yes, "Plan 9" is a good DVD release. If you haven't bought the Legend Films version, pick up a copy today.

As for the colorization: you can choose between black and white and color versions on the same menu, and Mike Nelson's hilarious commentary track is available on both versions.

Here are some screen captures from the disc:

someone schilling me thinks^

what other copies of plan 9 are on dvd other than the two image releases? When did it float over to the public domain, bucause i don't see it popping up on any of the websites of from any of the cheapie companies.

i would hardly say "legend" is doing "definitive" versions... colorizing (bastardizing) and putting on a hokey commentary track is far from definitive.

Passport Video. Their version even has a documentary as an extra. The Ed Wood Story.

http://dvd.ign.com/articles/306/306129p1.html

It used to be on the Internet Archive, but someone managed to convince the webmasters that the film was copyrighted and they took it off the website. The same thing happened to the original Roger Corman version of "The Little Shop of Horrors." And also, yes, there are cheapie companies releasing the film. Go on Amazon.com and do a search for "Plan 9 from Outer Space" or "Plan Nine from Outer Space," and you find several entries. There's one company that released the film in a double feature with another awful (but entertaining) public domain film: The Terror of Tiny Town.

More on the copyright for the Ed Wood filmography: Ed Wood's movies have always had cloudy copyrights on them, which is one of the reasons that his movies got seen enough for him to become a cult hero (the other, most important reason is that the films are terrible).

"Bride of the Monster" seems to be non-copyrighted in the United Kingdom, but it is copyrighted in the United States. (Can anybody confirm the copyright on this film?)

Both "Jail Bait" and "Glen or Glenda" I can confirm are public domain -- I own a DVD release of Ed's first two films on the same disc: the "Glen or Glenda"/"Jail Bait" disc was released by Catcom Home Theatre.

At least for a while, the Wade Williams corporation seemed to have a copyright on Ed Wood's filmography, or believed he owned the copyright to Ed Wood's filmography. If I could take a guess, it is quite possible that "Plan 9" has always been public domain, and since nobody investigated further, it was never aired on "Mystery Science Theater 3000" (because the producers couldn't, or believed they couldn't, get the rights).

I don't know a whole lot about the copyrights on Ed Wood's films, but perhaps someone else can lend his/her thoughts into the discussion. But I do know that "Plan 9," "Glen or Glenda," and "Jail Bait" are most definitely public domain.

I recently sent Legend Films an email asking if they were planning to release any more Ed Wood films. They said they weren't, but that they'd love to do some more, which sounds great to me. I would definitely love to hear Mike Nelson do some more commentaries on Ed Wood's films, since "Mystery Science Theater 3000" only got to mock the one Ed Wood film.

The colorization is extremely good, and is often quite realistic. I wouldn't say that colorizing movies is bastardization...the original versions are included as well, so why complain? Colorization for me is a "eh, whatever" thing. It's kind of like, well, they issued a comic book in black and white and then they re-released it in color. It's like the "Mad Color Classics" thing: it just doesn't matter. Colorization doesn't help or hurt the original product, if the colorization is good.

In specifics, Legend Films releases get a higher notice than most colorized releases because of the campy way they react to certain types of bad movies: both "Plan 9" and "Reefer Madness" are artistically colored, and the new versions add even more humor to these unintentionally funny cult classics. So, with these movies, I can watch either version (and they've given us the ability to), and get a different movie each time.

With other releases, it's just kind of...eh. I'd stick to the black and white version of...say, "Night of the Living Dead," for instance, but I wouldn't mind seeing "House on Haunted Hill" in color once in a while.

Anyway, I just have to say that I've closely looked at the new Legend Films DVD of "Plan 9," and I've compared it to Image Entertainment's DVD, and I have to say, the quality of the restored black and white print on the Legend DVD is much, much better than the Image DVD (which is why I believe this is the definitive release...the commentary is another positive factor). The Image DVD has far too much contrast. This new disc has a more natural look than the older DVD releases.

Sure, the documentaries are a bit of a loss, but the new Legend Films DVD has more extras, better picture quality and especially the Mike Nelson commentary track. I'd definitely rank this one as a great DVD.

The colorization of Reefer Madness and Plan 9 were really the best parts of the DVD package. Almost a comic book colorization that added a lot to the viewing. I could do without the color on the other ones since they tried to be realistic, but whatever. These releases are really more about camp than anything and I have been pretty happy with all of them so far.

Tell me this image isn't funny with the color of the uniforms especially with the dialog spoken during the scene.

Its Fabulous!! (old MST reference)

Legend Films does indeed clean up the Black and White print before "enhancing it with color" so for the most part, the ORIGINAL films look a lot better than most public domain releases. Reefer Madness looks fantastic (can't comment on the colorized version of it tho. I've never bothered to watch it). And some of the captures I've seen of Plan 9 look great too.

Beyond the colorization aspect (which Legend Films says helps finance the restoration of the original Black and White negatives), my problem with these releases are the added bits they drop in. The "420" that pops up during Reefer Madness along with the "funny face" picture in the background of one scene. The blown up scenes from the Three Stooges release. And finally, the contest winner who appears in Plan 9. For the most part, I think they drop these in to protect their work (so some public domain company doesn't steal the restoration work as their own) but with "additions" like these, I wouldn't call a Legend release "definitive."

But....I do own Reefer Madness & The Three Stooges and can honestly say the Black & White ORIGINALS look great. If you're looking for good prints of public domain releases, Legend would probably be the best route to go.

I would KILL for a Terror of Tiny Town release!

How's that for an endorsement?

The funny thing is that these are NOT trying to be definitive releases. These are NOVELTY treatments, people. The films exist in their original format elsewhere (and often on the same Legend discs). It's not as if this is the one and only studio release of the film, and that alone nullifies any argument that they shouldn't exist.

Oh, I totally agree which is why I own a couple of them and have raved about their Black and White restoration efforts. When I was commenting on the "definitive" aspect of the releases, I was only responding to another Poster who said these were "definitive" editions.

I wonder why Legend decided not to go the DTS route this time around?

I never said that ALL of the releases are definitive. But their releases of "Reefer Madness," "House on Haunted Hill" and "Plan 9" ARE, in my opinion, the definitive out of all the versions currently out there, because they provide better audio/video quality (in both formats) than all previous releases (official or not), AND they come with an audio commentary track by Mike Nelson! To me, that's the perfect way to release these campy cult classics, colorization or no colorization.

When the original black and white print is great, and you have a hilarious audio commentary track by a former Mystery Science Theater 3000 member, I couldn't care less about the colorization (though I always check out the color versions, because I want to get the most out of my money by watching every aspect of each DVD release).

So, you've never heard Mike Nelson's commentary track on that one?

No, the added images were added in for a little additional humor (just like the multicolored smoke in "Reefer Madness")--they didn't need to add anything to make sure nobody doesn't rip-off their restored prints, because all of the discs are copy-protected anyway.

The only discs that contain added images are "Reefer Madness" and "Plan 9". And the added images on the Ed Wood disc are only in the color version.

Also, there aren't any "blown up" scenes on the Three Stooges release, as far as I could tell.

I've actually suggested this to them. The copy I have looks and sounds pretty good, but I certainly wouldn't mind a commentary track (which is the main reason I suggested this film to them). If you folks know of any awful cult films that are badly in need of a restoration and a commentary track, email them, and tell them about the films.

They're also going to restore color films as well -- the Abbott & Costello film version of "Jack and the Beanstalk" is getting a release from Legend in February, according to their website (which explicitly states that the black and white scenes in the film will be left untouched). So, if you've bought a color film on a public domain release and the colors are fucked, send 'em an email and suggest it.

In the case of HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL, I'd say Warner's DVD is the definitive one. It includes both a matted anamorphic widescreen version, as well as the open matte version.

The Legend DVD is definitely a notch above. The Warner Brothers DVD doesn't include the press kit material, OR the Mike Nelson commentary (or any extras at all, for that matter). Plus, the picture quality on the Legend DVD is better, in my opinion.