3. Glen or Glenda? (1953) and Plan 9 From Outer Space (1956)
Who's (almost) in it?: Bela Lugosi This one I include mostly because it's the perfect example of what I'm trying to say. People have been fighting over Plan 9 and Glen or Glenda? for years to take the top-spot for the worst movie ever created, and both star a Hollywood legend who once had a fame and glory that perished slowly and embarrassingly. Type-casting and the loss of fame always upsets me, even though deep own I know we can't all act into our eighties as Bill Murray will surely do, and Bela Lugosi is no different. If you haven't seen Tim Burton's movie Ed Wood yet, check it out. By the end of it, if you sympathize as I did more with Martin Landau's Saturn-winning Lugosi than Johnny Depp's simpering Wood (boy did THAT not come out right), you'll downright hate the so-called Worst Director Ever. All Lugosi wanted was a comeback, or at the very least one last chance to shine as bright as his best-friend-turned-rival Boris Karloff in one last decent movie. But Wood made awful movies, casting Lugosi because he thought that alone would improve the hilariously bad execution of his hilariously bad ideas. Shame on you. Even in death, Lugosi was given no peace from his humiliation, as Plan 9 from Outer Space had him in top billing with only stock-footage in his place. I'm sure this wasn't Wood's intention, and thankfully these days when we talk Bela Lugosi we're talking about Dracula and Igor rather than the Scientist. But pull the string? Pull the plug.