Myra Breckinridge

Plot synopsis:
Myron Breckinridge (Rex Reed) is already waiting at the surgery room to have his pinus removed by the surgeon (John Carradine). The scenery is a bit weird anyway, because there is public watching the surgery, clapping, making comments, and there is in the background a lady (Thordis Brandt) kind of dancing /cracking a whip. Myron can't wait to have it removed, and he is self-assured when the surgeon tells him that it's the first time he's going to perform the surgery, and tells him that once cut, it won't grown on him again. They compare the surgery to circumcision several times.Cut to Myron, walking by the street and pushing away a cigarette butt from the sign of Veronica Lake. He kind of dances with a girl dressed in a sort of very short and showy wedding dress. They both end up dancing on the street and they get onto a taxi together. This scene gets mixed with Shirley Temple dancing and singing in a black-and-white film.The mushroom top of a nuclear bomb. Cut to a scene of a b-series sci-fi film, where women are the only human survivors after the holocaust. Myron and his partenaire are at the rooftop of Chateau Marmon, staring at the scenery of a big placard sign with a plastic-model cheerleader scantily-clad advertising something.Myron becomes Myra Breckinridge (Raquel Welch), and moves to West Hollywood in a flashy car to attend her uncle Buck Loner (John Huston)'s academy. One of the teachers is hugging to a tree in a dramatic way, and telling his students that they should appreciate and become anything, including a tree. Buck tells Myra that she has the potential to become a star. When she tells Buck her name, there are images of houses being blown-up. Myra tells Buck that she's the widow of his late nephew Myron. Buck can't almost believe her. Myra tells him that there was no insurance money, so that she's got not a penny in the world. Buck would like to caress and shag her, but he tries to keep composure. Myra tells him that there was a lost will of Myron, and Myra wants a part of the business. Buck doesn't want to mix lawyers into the matter, so he finally welcomes Myra, who finally will accept a position in the academy earning 1,000 a month, which must have been a huge salary at the time if she keeps quiet about her salary.A student called Irving Amadeus (Calvin Lockhart) who has been in the academy for fourteen years tells her that teachers don't last long in the academy. Posture will be Myra's subject. The student will show Myra around.Buck admits that he gets turned on by watching Myra on tv. Irving shows Myron around.A mock acting activity which involves everybody laughing about a naked woman. Irving is asked whether he's gay, because of his mannerisms. Irving seems unconvinced, and says that the academy doesn't push students to go out and look for a life outside.During a session with a masseuse (Thordis Brandt), Buck talks to his lawyer about the Myra situation. Irving leaves Myra in the classroom, who takes special notice of a Polish student, very handsome but stupid. Buck arrives and makes everybody uncomfortable with his frank personality. Myra tells Buck that the students are inept in front of them. The cute student, called Rusty Godowski (Roger Herren) says that he doesn't like Myra at all. Some female students say that they like Myra, but that she's weird. Irving ends up the conversation because he says he needs to retouch his makeup.Leticia Van Allen (Mae West) is welcomed at the agency by plenty of attractive men offering her bouquets of flowers, presents.... She accepts to see one in particular. Leticia makes his secretary to choose one of them. He looks like an actor on a casting, a very attractive man (Tom Selleck), with a suit and a briefcase. But she shows him a huge bed in her office, so the casting becomes a kind of sexual transaction. Images of a black-and-white scene of Abbot and Costello in which they are moving very long logs from one place to another. As Leticia dismisses the young man saying that she'll use him as a summer replacement, the sexual imagery is clear, and she shouts "Next!". The last of the "applicants" looks like a cowboy. She asks him how tall he is without the horse, and he says six feet seven inches. She tells him to forget about the six feet and concentrate in the seven inches. More logs going back and forth.Chorus music for a radio commercial. Myra reminiscences about the Andrew Sisters and tells Mary Ann Pringle (Farrah Fawcett) that with voice training, she could become a star, but Mary Ann is only interested in getting married and having children. Myra gets flustered and angered by her ignorance and the population explosion she will create with those intended four children. Myron and Myra argue about Mary Ann's case. She tries to put him to bed, kisses him and they make love. He dreams of food and finally eats a banana. Suddenly, Myron is alone, jacking off until he comes.Myra tries to change the way students learn, forget about the truth and make a good performance instead. Buck interrupts her: he knows that all his students are bad, so he doesn't want Myra to rise their hopes. They talk in whispers, until she punches him in his face, and then, she uses that punch as proof that acting makes actions and feeling feel credible, e.g. Buck's face of pain, but that they don't have to be true. The students give Buck an applause for the demonstration.A police officer stops Leticia, who gives him her card, as it looks as though somebody is following her. Leticia makes a pass at every man she finds. Mario Giuseppe Lionardo Something Something Bistriani (Nelson Sardelli) waits for Leticia to give her a message from Italy. He kisses and praises Leticia's beauty, while giving her a letter to read. Mario, with his heavy accent, says that he's in love with her. Leticia Van Allen offers him a job, but he refuses. Mario leaves, and Leticia wants to have his blood test.Myra, dressed up as a jockey rider, talks to Buck, who has discovered that Myron was never married. Myra shows him a marriage certificate issued in Mexico. Buck gets angry.Buck and one of his accolites talk about the destruction of morals in America. Meanwhile, a couple is making out at the café, and the cops are hitting on some demonstrators.At the academy, most students look more interested in frolicking than in learning. Rusty goes to a private tuition with Myra, as Mary Ann has realised that Myra seems to pick on Rusty. Myra thinks that he's got a special talent. Rusty says because he broke four ribs years ago, it'll make it very difficult to succeed as an actor and his posture is horrible. Myra starts imagining that she can listen to Glenn Miller playing, and she tries to make Rusty dance, but Rusty is very awkward. Rusty can't stand up straight because of those damaged ribs, so Myra wants to see the damage for herself, and proceeds to tell Rusty to take off his shirt and t-shirt. She admires his physique. He faces a wall, and Myra pulls his jeans down.Rusty's girlfriend is jealous. Leticia arrives to an academy party with plenty of students naked or with body-painting (Luanne Roberts). Myron goes around checking everybody.Buck is buttoning up his pants. Myra arrives. She tells Mary Ann that she is going to recommend her for a job, but the young lady is not happy at all. Mary inquires, thinking that Rusty may be the problem.Leticia arrives with a full entourage. Buck butt-kisses her, but Leticia realises that everybody is smoking grass. Myra says that Myron used to write books about films. Mrs van Allen thinks that Myron must have been gay. Myra talks about students becoming stars, and Leticia likes what she hears. Myra recommends Rusty to her. Buck tries to spoil it all by mentioning that Rusty has violated his parole. Both Myra and Leticia get turned on by talking of studs (Michael Stearns).Judge Frederic D. Cannon (William Hopper) says that only the Riffle Association stands between the USA and its invasion by the USSR, and lets Rusty go free. He hugs Mary Ann, who was waiting for him. Myra hugs both of them.Leticia Van Allen's performance is diva-like and over the top. The three of them watch her. At the night club, an ugly Cigarette Girl (Toni Basil) approaches them, and Myra wonder aloud what normal is. Mary Ann says that normal is what the majority of society does. Myra doesn't like that answer, although she smiles. Rusty doesn't think about it much.Buck makes a pass at mature ladies. Images of Marilyn Monroe (herself), at a swimming-pool supposedly naked. Buck comes back to Myra with more one-on-one time.Dressed as a nurse, Myra measures him, and makes him get almost naked again. Myra tells him to pee on a bottle. Myra wants now to bend over so that she'll take his temperature. She finds it suspicious when he refuses until a doctor arrives. Myra ties him down and puts a termomether on his rear end. Myra insists that this is no joke. Myra undresses, insisting that she's going to educate him. Myra rides him like crazy, while he tries to resist. She uses a strip-on dildo to rape him. He's not enjoying it at all.Images to suggest sexual imagery, topped by another nuclear bomb mushroom. Myra unties Rusty,in crazy unkempt hair. Rusty leaves with her permission. He even thanks her for the trouble she's taken in educating him.Myra phones Mary Ann, and tells her to pop in. Myra thinks that her victory will be complete if she seduces Mary Ann. The girl arrives crying, while Myron tries to stop Myra to no avail. Mary Ann thinks that Rusty is sick of her, of women... Mary Ann is worried she won't see him again.Myra convinces Mary Ann in putting on a male pyjamas. Myra offers consolation to Mary Ann, while Myron goes into bed with them. Leticia phones to say that Rusty has performed wonderfully in bed.Charlie Flager Jr. (George Furth) has no job, and he offers Buck to help him to get rid of Myra. She arrives dressed in red. Myra first paints her nails and then cries.Dr. Randolph Spencer Montag (Roger C. Camel) will arrive at the end of the week as a witness of Myra and Myron's marriage which entitles her to half of the state. The renown dentist is working on a patient (Geneviève Waïte) which looks and speaks ridiculously.The dentist travels by plane, but he falls sleep. Charlie Flager Sr (Robert P. Lieb) tells his son to go straight to the point. Myra explains that Myron's body was never found. So, finally, Myra explains that she is Myron, Buck's fag nephew. She takes off her thong and throws it to Buck's face. Flager Jr faints.Mary Ann rejects Myra's advances. She doesn't want to have sex with her, but she needs her as a friend. Myra realises that it's still Rusty between them. Mary Ann says that Rusty was very gentle with her. Myra is rejected again. Mary Ann wishes that Myra were a man.Myron runs over Myra, who flips over and is sent flying. The ugly cigarette girl stares at Myron, left for dead on the road. The cig girl tries to flirt. Myron wakes up at hospital, with the surgeon and nurse of the beginning appear to check on him. He notices that he's returned to his male look, so he starts shouting "Where are my tits? Where are my tits?".Images of Myron and Myra dancing and getting into the taxi while ending credits roll by.

Tags: pornographic, cult, satire

Review:
(The later HBO series "Dream On" also used this technique but I think this movie did it much better.) Rex Reed is perfectly cast as Myron, a gay man who decides on having a sex change (though Reed vehemently insisted throughout filming that he *wasn't* playing a gay man...
The book "Myra Breckinridge" is marvelous, and so is its nutty sequel "Myron" (which takes place on the set during the making of the Maria Montez movie "Siren of Atlantis" and, in its original published version, is a diatribe against censorship and finds new ways to use the name Rehnquist).
The Fox Movie Channel showed the film recently in widescreen and I watched it (the latest in several viewings ) and I failed to notice exactly when it begins to unravel.In spite of its ultimately depressing and sleazy tone, the movie does have some lovely things in it: the winking girl who pops up in various scenes throughout, Raquel Welch's game, amusing performance, an intriguing visual style, the usage of old movie clips to comment on the action in a meta-cinematic manner (my favorite is the brief glimpse of Marilyn Monroe in the unfinished "Something's Got To Give," a glimpse that could have been furthered), a bizarre underused supporting cast of excellent Old Hollywood character actors (Jim Backus, Kathleen Freeman, Grady Sutton, Andy Devine, John Carradine, etc.) and a short appearance by Genevieve Waite, the star of the director's previous, and only, hit film "Joanna." Waite is also the mother of Bijou Phillips and the ex-wife of John Phillips, of The Mamas and The Papas.
But it's not all that bad, thanks mostly to some really clever casting (bringing Mae West into the film was a stroke of genius) and a wonderful, bitingly funny and dead-on performance by a young Raquel Welch.
The basic story is a *really* bizarre dark comedy involving a guy, Myron Breckinridge (Rex Reed), who has sex-change surgery--- or does he, really?--- to become his alter-ego Myra (Raquel Welch).
In her DVD commentary, star Raquel Welch says that she seldom had any idea of what Myra's motives were from scene to scene or even within any single scene itself, and that each person involved seemed to be making an entirely different film.
Raquel Welch, a significantly underestimated actress, plays the title role of Myra very much like a Barbie doll on steroids; non-actor Rex Reed is unexpectedly effective in the role of Myron, but the entire role is essentially without point.
He makes it very clear that he disliked author Gore Vidal and Rex Reed (at one point he flatly states that Reed "is not a nice person"), and to this day he considers that Vidal and Reed worked in tandem to sabotage the film because he refused to play into their 'homosexual agenda'--which, when you come right down to it, seems to have been their desire that Sarne actually film Vidal's novel rather than his own weirdly imagined take-off on it.Although he spends a fair amount of commentary time stating that the film is widely liked by the gay community, Sarne never quite seems to understand that the appeal of the film for a gay audience arises from his ridiculously inaccurate depiction of homosexual people.
The sight of an unattractive and elderly Mae West always gets the shaft by the film's critics, yet they rarely comment on the appearance of her male counterpart (played with great relish by John Huston) who also seduces (and I might add verbally abuses) women one-third his age.
It had more to say in its heaving breast about the cruel and elevated ways in which man treats his fellow man than every Oscar-winning picture since...and all while telling its story in the most absurd and drug-inducing manner possible.But what adds even more to the meaning of the film is how it destroyed the career of not just its director (who probably deserved it) but also ruined any chance of a career for Roger Herren  solely because he played a character who was raped by a woman.
And THAT is where MYRA BRECKINRIDGE stands tall.Yes, the movie is a smash-up of styles and insane casting choices and baldly ludicrous dialogue and unintentionally funny acting, but so were more recent idiot movies like THE ROCK and TITANIC and SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE, and look how successful they became...and how quickly they will be forgotten.
TIME magazine aptly described it as being "about as funny as a child molester," but it's not nearly as sympathetic.For instance, poor Mae West bore the brunt of so much of the criticism aimed at the film, being described as looking like everything from an aging drag queen to a reanimated walking corpse.
Rex Reed is her alter-ego, John Huston is perfect as Uncle Buck, Mae West is dazed but ribald as a man-hungry talent agent, and Farrah Fawcett is a sweetly stoned ingénue.
This film was not long in theatres in the United States.Mae West in her last 'successful' performance (in my opinion) and well worth the making of the film if only just for her - Mae has everything we ever wanted her to have.With John Huston as a proper Hollywood creep - we love his candor, Raquel Welch is splendid as Gore Vidal's vision of her true self - Myron Breckinridge (played by Rex Reed) sex-changed into Myra Breckinridge.This gem features a very early Farrah Fawcett in her second ever film, and Tom Selleck in his first film.
I could not imagine that Hollywood could have produced a film of this amazing and bizarre novel; it's no wonder its screen life was cut short.I was already trying to imagine the quintessential scene with Rusty in the infirmary and the famous West Hollywood billboard which puts Wonder Woman to shame.I was lucky enough to have rented one of the few 'unabridged' versions which was 20 minutes longer than many other abridged versions I've seen since that have cut the flashes of Shirley Temple among other things.I find this film to be a fine example of all the things toward which Hollywood might ACTUALLY aspire which includes a sense of humour and poking fun at one's self.View with GUSTO!
Myron Breckinridge (Rex Reed) is submitted to a surgery to change his sex in Copenhagen and he returns to Hollywood telling that she is to be Myra Breckinridge (Raquel Welch) and claiming half the property of his uncle Buck Loner (John Huston).
It's fitting that it shared a double bill with Russ Meyer's "Beyond The Valley of The Dolls" as both feature colorful and decadent adventures in Hollywood, an insane array of characters, a contested inheritance as a plot motivation, unabashed omnisexuality, transgendered players with Goddess Complexes, and a renegade take on film-making.There's a reason this movie works against all odds and its name is Raquel Welch.
After Myron Breckinridge (Rex Reed) has a sex change, he becomes Myra Breckinridge (Raquel Welch), an Ber-feminist who seeks to rid Hollywood of its manhood.
Farrah Fawcett plays Mary Ann Pringle, Myra's friend at the acting school, and Tom Selleck appears as one of Leticia's clients.One more thing: I've seen many of Raquel Welch's movies, but until watching "Myra Breckinridge", I never realized how hot she is..
She hadn't made a film in 27 years and she does her thing.To my knowledge, the old time stars NEVER had a proper chance to come back, even for five minutes, in the movies.
Despite having a cool cast and some interesting oddball antics, BRECKENRIDGE is embarrassing for the viewer, the cast, the crew, even the VCR that is playing it!Rex Reed (good-looking, but horrible) is Myron, a gay guy who gets a sex change from doctor John Carradine (terrible) and becomes Myra (Raquel Welch, who is good).
Add to this mess clips from old films to help "narrate" the action, two songs by West, ludicrous dialogue, Rex Reed masturbating, and a pretty dumb ending and MYRA BRECKENRIDGE may be worth seeing for fans of extremely horrible films.Despite my love for so-bad-it's-good films (i.e., VALLEY OF THE DOLLS), BRECKENRIDGE didn't do it for me.
Starting with the source of Gore Vidal's screamingly funny and outrageous (but with very serious underlying messages on sex, identity, and movies of the 1940's)book we have the one and only Raquel Welch cast in a role nobody but she was born to play.
Raquel Welch, with an incredible body (and she's actually not very tall) in a lead role (except for KANSAS CITY BOMBER when she was quite good) playing Rex Reed's (bad movie reviewer; not critic) alter-ego, only to be surrounded by drag queen (great chick) Mae West, horny John Huston, a young and "naive" Farrah Fawcett (pre-Lee Majors; what a shame), and other various creep-azoids to pretend to spoof WAY too may things has nothing going for it except inter-spliced old films clips (i.e. Widmark in KISS OF DEATH, Lena Horne)...JUST so they can continue to bleed the life out of everyone.A 2 out of 10.
Instead of sitttin' wondrin' why, babe, did they cast Raquel Welch, John Carradine, Farrah Fawcett, and egad, Rex Reed; enjoy the lovely cameo appearance by a young mustache-less Tom Selleck, and annoyingly under-the-top performance by 75 y.o. Mae West.
This movie also has some increadibly funny random scenes, my favorite being towards the end when you see Raquel Welch on a giant swing wearing some Victorian looking dress while she yells the line, "God bless Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck!" The only problem I have with this movie is Mae West who commanded star billing but is only on screen for about 10-15 minutes and all the while she is making horrible sexual innuendo, keep in mind that this woman was close to 80 when she spoke such nightmarish lines as "Don't forget to tell me about the policeman's balls...um, i mean the police show." That line alone should make you shudder.
Myron Breckinridge (Rex Reed!!!) gets a sex change from a doctor (John Carradine--dead drunk) and comes out as Myra (Raquel Welch).
Yes, indeed, this one is a classic.Along for the ride (no pun) with Raquel, are studly Roger Herren (her southern-tounged victim of emasculation), Mae West (and her bevy of men...among them, a young Tom Selleck), Farrah Fawcett, John Huston (as the slimy Uncle Buck), John Carradine (as the smoking surgeon), and Rex Reed (as Myra's alter-ego, Myron).
I'm amazed that screenwriter David Giler actually went on to write good films, like "The Parallax View" and "Aliens." In fact, I'm amazed that he and co-writer/director Michael Sarne - or anyone else connected with this abomination - were ever able to find work in the industry again.I never read Gore Vidal's novel, so I can't compare that story to what I saw on the screen, but I'm guessing the book was just a tad more coherent.
I think it involved a man named Myron (Rex Reed) who had a sex change operation and became Myra (Raquel Welch), who then set out to redefine the rules of gender and sexuality while taking over her uncle's acting school.
On top of that, she's forced to wear incredibly garish costumes that even Jean Paul Gauthier on LSD would never dream of designing.John Huston, as Uncle Buck Loner, the owner of a failing acting school that for no discernible reason appears to be set up on an old Western movie back lot, looks and sounds drunk throughout most of the film.
However, the movie proved to be confusing at times, and it is probably in the viewer's best interest to read the Gore Vidal novel first -- to help fully comprehend Myra's intentions and the events taking place..
Despite Rex transforming through surgery into Raquel Welch (truly an impossibility), you keep seeing BOTH incarnations of the same character (Myron and Myra) as they set on adventures designed to bring him/her hot sex as well as irritate their hated uncle (John Huston).Now had any of this been handled with any degree of finesse, it could have potentially been an interesting sex farce--certainly NOT family material, but still entertaining.
Raquel Welch travels west and says that she is Rex's widow and that through her mother as sister of old time cowboy star John Huston who runs a phony acting school.
At the beginning of the film Rex Reed (Myron) gets the snip in front of an audience and changes into Raquel Welch (Myra).
Amazingly talented director & auteur, he goes low brow & just hams it up.The entire film is a Cult film fanatics wet dream...there were plenty of cinematic car wrecks from the 60's (Candy, Bluebeard come to mind} trying to cash in on the 'hip' times with movies that pushed the envelope but Myra Breckenridge is in a class by itself.Commentary by Welch is worth the price of admission alone.
Rex Reed (who has a rather sweet dance sequence with his alter ego at the beginning of the film) actually looks as if he has a potential woman in him, while Mae West -- whose screen persona was always a thoroughly artificial creation -- appears to have changed remarkably little from her last film appearance, with the exception of an obviously very fake wig and the loss of her singing voice; she still has her old timing with an innuendo.I thought the device of interpolating archive clips to make a satirical comment or illustration of events was a surprisingly successful one -- more so than the similar 'montage' effects introduced by Soviet experimentalists into silent films -- and of course for the old film buff there is infinite fun to be had in identifying the allusions as they rush by, as in recognising the famous faces on the walls of Myra's rooms or Uncle Buck's academy.
But I wouldn't agree with the comment that the film is wholly heartless or unrelentingly vicious; it's hard not to sympathise with Myra as she goes about her self-appointed mission of exploding the myths of contemporary Hollywood, or out-foxing the smarter-than-he-acts Uncle Buck, and there is a genuine poignancy to Myron's increasing confidence and enchantment as he begins to dance opposite his ravishing alter ego, and to the ironic realisation in the end that 'she' cannot find love without being a man.Despite a two-hour-plus running time the film never committed the sin of being boring, although it was sometimes hard to watch (the opening scenes had the audience discernibly squirming in discomfort!) According to the director, it was originally intended as a comedy about the Sixties, elements of which ultimately turned sour as the decade itself soured into disillusionment; much of it is still very funny, even if the humour is often aghast.
This picture opened in theaters June 24 1970, starring John Houston as Buck Loner, Raquel Welch as Myra Breckinridge, and Rex Reed as Myron.
But it's not all that bad, thanks mostly to some really clever casting (bringing Mae West into the film was a stroke of genius) and a wonderful, bitingly funny and dead-on performance by a young Raquel Welch.The basic story is a *really* bizarre dark comedy involving a guy, Myron Breckinridge (Rex Reed), who has sex-change surgery--- or does he, really?--- to become his alter-ego Myra (Raquel Welch).
There are a few side stories along the way, involving Mae West as a sex-mad Hollywood agent, Farrah Fawcett as a sunny-smiling dumb blonde, and Roger Herron as handsome young Rusty-the-Stud, who ends up being nothing much more than a boy-toy (both in the film and in real life.
There are a few side stories along the way, involving Mae West as a sex-mad Hollywood agent, Farrah Fawcett as a sunny-smiling dumb blonde, and Roger Herron as handsome young Rusty-the-Stud, who ends up being nothing much more than a boy-toy (both in the film and in real life.
The inclusion of these off-the-wall clips give the whole movie a slightly off-center, psychedelic feel that must have felt self-knowingly hip in the late 1960s and early 1970s.Two big highlights in this movie: the performances of Raquel Welch and Mae West.
The inclusion of these off-the-wall clips give the whole movie a slightly off-center, psychedelic feel that must have felt self-knowingly hip in the late 1960s and early 1970s.Two big highlights in this movie: the performances of Raquel Welch and Mae West.
It's almost as horrific as reading about it in the book was, and you have to feel sorry for Roger Herron as Rusty, the object of Myra's ugly power fantasy.) It was awfully hard to even put a story like this on film in the first place, but Michael Sarne did try, and he succeeded more than failed.
It's almost as horrific as reading about it in the book was, and you have to feel sorry for Roger Herron as Rusty, the object of Myra's ugly power fantasy.) It was awfully hard to even put a story like this on film in the first place, but Michael Sarne did try, and he succeeded more than failed.
The film revolves around Myra (Welch-the sexiest star of the last 30 years is stunning to watch s usual), the recipient of a sex change operation who is followed by her former male alter-ego Myron (film critic Rex Reed!) in a confusing little bit of storytelling.
Farrah Fawcett and Mae West are decent, and Raquel Welch also gives a good performance despite having some of the worst lines of the film.
Myra (Welch) is originally a gay Myron (Reed) who gets a sex change and spends the movie getting back at men in her life.
Joining Welch and Reed (who appears throughout the film as Myra's inner voice) are John Huston as Buck Loner, an old western star who now runs a talent school that is only interested in retaining rather than training students, and Mae West as Leticia Van Allen, an agent who sleeps with all of the leading men she represents (one of them being a very young Tom Selleck).