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| Sexually defined versions of a man and a woman and three stills from the film stand out on this sensationalist, interest-piquing poster for Edward D. Wood Jr.'s Glen or Glenda |
Glen or Glenda, written and directed by debuting Edward D. Wood Jr. (The Sun Was Setting (1951, TV short)), is the filmmaker's own very sincere illumination campaign about transsexuality and cross-dressing.
We focus on the couple Glen and Barbara: Their issue is that Glen simply loves Barbara's dresses, angora sweater and high heels more than he loves Barbara herself.
Wood himself plays Glen across from his then real-life girlfriend Dolores Fuller (Bride of the Monster (1955)), who can hardly be said to act as Barbara. (It is hard to blame her, since the film reflects their own situation as a couple, as Wood was himself a cross-dresser.)
Around this story is a framing device that has Bela Lugosi (Prisoners (1929)) as the 'character' simply called 'Scientist', sitting in a thunder-plagued 'science' lab, literally babbling about puppy dog tales, snails and other similarly odd things. Glen or Glenda has another framing device also, in which a police commissioner interviews a doctor.
It is primarily the film's lack of structure, total incompetence skill-wise, and the conjoined elements that don't exactly fit together, which has made Glen or Glenda infamous as one of the worst films of all time. At the same time it is certainly singular and not at all without interest.
Watch a trailer for the film here
Cost: 20k $
Box office: Unknown
= Uncertain
[Glen or Glenda premiered in April and runs 65 minutes, (a 1982 re-issue raised the running time to 71 minutes.) The film was commissioned to cash in on the Christine Jorgensen story; the first American to undergo sex change surgery (which took place in Copenhagen, Denmark) went home to the States to instant fame in 1952. Wood convinced producer George Weiss that he was the man for the subject, as he was a transvestite himself. But he then secretly completely discarded the Jorgensen story in favor of a story more similar to his own life and cast the then drug-addicted and poor former star Lugosi for a 1-5k $ check. Shooting took place in Los Angeles. The film's unrelated erotic vignettes were added by Weiss to make the film longer and hotter for the young drive-in crowds it was aimed for. The release was limited, and the gross numbers are regrettably unknown. The film reportedly even enjoyed a brief screening in China. It was denied classification by the conservative British Board of Film Classification in 1958. Warren Beatty is said to have sponsored the film's 1981 re-release, which grossed just 10k $. The making of the film is portrayed in Tim Burton's biopic Ed Wood (1994) with Johnny Depp portraying Wood Jr.. Glen or Glenda has fallen into public domain and can be seen and downloaded free and legally right here. Wood Jr. returned with 3 short and TV-series credits before his next theatrical work, Jail Bait (1954). Fuller returned in Mesa of Lost Women (1953); Lugosi in The Red Skelton Hour (1954, TV-series) and theatrically in Bride of the Monster (1955). Glen or Glenda is rotten at 35 % with a 3.72/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Glen or Glenda ?
