Myra Breckinridge (1970)

User Rating:

3.8/10   

Director:

Michael Sarne

Writers:

David Giler (writer)
Michael Sarne (writer)

Release Date:

24 June 1970 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

Meet Myra Breckinridge. You'll Never Forget Her!

Plot:

Myron Breckinridge is waiting for his sex-change operation while a stoned surgeon stumbles into the operating room...

Plot Keywords:

Hollywood | Alter Ego | Talent Scout | Estate | Sex Change

Cast

Mae West	...	Leticia Van Allen
John Huston	...	Buck Loner
Raquel Welch	...	Myra Breckinridge
Rex Reed	...	Myron
Farrah Fawcett	...	Mary Ann Pringle
Roger C. Carmel	...	Dr. Randolph Spencer Montag
Roger Herren	...	Rusty Godowski
George Furth	...	Charlie Flager Jr.
Calvin Lockhart	...	Irving Amadeus
Jim Backus	...	Doctor
John Carradine	...	Surgeon
Andy Devine	...	Coyote Bill
Grady Sutton	...	Kid Barlow
Robert P. Lieb	...	Charlie Flager Sr. (as Robert Lieb)
Skip Ward	...	Chance

Also Known As:

Gore Vidal's Myra Breckinridge

Runtime:

94 min | Spain:91 min (alternate version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Canada:R (Nova Scotia/Ontario) | Germany:12 (re-rating) (2006) | West Germany:18 (original rating) | USA:X (original rating) | Canada:PA (Manitoba) | Finland:K-16 | UK:18 | USA:R (edited for re-rating) (1978) | Australia:M

Filming Locations:

Chateau Marmont - 8221 Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

Bette Davis emphatically turned down the Mae West role expressing her contempt for the book.

Goofs:

Miscellaneous: Apparently pieced together from different takes, Myra's blouse collar alternately appears fully outside, partially inside/outside and fully outside her jacket during the scene in which she "depantses" Rusty in her office.

Quotes:

Charlie Flager Jr.: The point is, can you prove you were married, that's all!
Myra: Proof will arrive before the end of the week in the person of Dr Randolph Spencer Montag.
Charlie Flager Jr.: Montag? The great dental psychiatrist?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Saturday Night Live: Raquel Welch/Phoebe Snow, John Sebastian (#1.18)" (1976)

Soundtrack:

Chattanooga Choo Choo

This movie (was) a slap in the face of America's sexual dysfunction!

I read "Myra Breckinridge" in 1969 when I was riding a bus from St. Louis to San Antonio, and I fell in love with everything about the book. I saw the movie when it first came out (even though I was not, legally, old enough) and had a blast. This film (I do NOT use that term loosely) had so much going on and not going on between pretty people and not so pretty people who were acting badly and beautifully while doing evil and funny and disgusting and sweet things to each other in the most vicious and caring ways possible, I was overwhelmed by it all. 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. Men can play rapists and women can be raped and gang raped and even play lesbians, and they receive Oscars for their performances and no one thinks the worst of them. But let a man get sodomized and suddenly everyone questions his masculinity and ability to relate to the opposite sex. 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. At least MYRA BRECKINRIDGE, the movie (maybe even moreso than the book), worked as a slap in the face of America's sexual dysfunction and hypocrisy...and I believe THAT is what bothers so many people about it. And that is why it remains a movie worth watching,