Glen or Glenda

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Glen or Glenda
Theatrical film poster
Directed byEd Wood
Written byEd Wood
Produced byGeorge Weiss
Starring
Narrated byTimothy Farrell
CinematographyWilliam C. Thompson
Edited byBud Schelling
Music byWilliam Lava
(uncredited)
Distributed byScreen Classics
Release date
  • April 1953 (1953-04)
Running time
  • 65 minutes
    (director’s cut)
  • 71 minutes
    (producer’s cut)
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$20,000 (adjusted by inflation: $227,761)

Glen or Glenda is a 1953 American independent exploitation film directed, written by and starring Ed Wood (credited in his starring role as "Daniel Davis"), and featuring Wood's then-girlfriend Dolores Fuller and Bela Lugosi. It was produced by George Weiss who also made the exploitation film Test Tube Babies that same year.[1]

The film is a docudrama about cross-dressing and transvestism, and is semi-autobiographical in nature. Wood himself was a cross-dresser, and the film is a plea for tolerance. It was widely considered one of the worst films ever made upon release. However, it has since been reevaluated and has become a cult film due to its low-budget production values, idiosyncratic style, and early cinematic themes of transgender acceptance.

Plot

Glen or Glenda (1953) by Ed Wood
Ed Wood as Glen

A police inspector investigating the suicide of a transvestite named Patrick/Patricia seeks the advice of Dr. Alton, who narrates for him the story of Glen/Glenda.

Glen started out by asking to wear his sister's dress for a Halloween party. The narrative explains that Glen is a transvestite, but not a homosexual. He hides his cross-dressing from his fiancée, Barbara, fearing that she will reject him. She voices her suspicion that there is another woman in his life, unaware that the woman is his feminine alter ego, Glenda.

Alton narrates that Glen is torn between the idea of being honest with Barbara before their wedding or waiting until after. Glen confides in a transvestite friend of his, John, whose wife left him after catching him wearing her clothes.

Glen/Glenda is caught in a storm. The sound of thunder drives him to collapse to the floor. An extended dream sequence begins, containing several vignettes symbolically depicting Glen's struggle with his sexuality. Glen/Glenda wakes and decides to tell Barbara the truth. She initially reacts with distress, but ultimately decides to stay with him. She offers him an angora sweater as a sign of acceptance.

Back in Dr. Alton's office, he relates another narrative, this one concerning a

sex reassignment surgery
to become "a lovely young woman" named Anne.

Cast

Production

Shot in four days, the film was loosely inspired by the

sex reassignment surgery of Christine Jorgensen, which made national headlines in the U.S. in 1952. George Weiss, a Hollywood producer of low-budget films, commissioned a movie to exploit the case. Originally Weiss made Jorgensen several offers to appear in the film, but these were turned down.[2] Wood convinced Weiss that his own transvestism made him the perfect director despite his modest resume. Wood was given the job, but instead made a movie about transvestism. Nonetheless, posters for the film still claimed it was based on Jorgensen's case.[3]

Wood persuaded Lugosi, at the time poor and

drug-addicted, to appear in the movie. Lugosi's scenes were shot at the Jack Miles Studios in Los Angeles. He was reportedly paid $5000 for the role, although some stories state the actual amount was only $1000.[2] Lugosi is credited as "The Scientist", a character whose purpose is unclear. He acts as a sort of narrator but gives no narration relevant to the plot; that job is reserved for the film's primary narrator, Timothy Farrell.[4]

This was the only film Wood directed but did not also produce. Wood played the eponymous character, but under the

pulp novel Killer in Drag (1963). The plot features a transvestite called Glen whose alter-ego is called Glenda. He is executed in the sequel Death of a Transvestite (1967) after a struggle for the right to go to the electric chair
dressed as Glenda.

The erotic-themed striptease/bondage vignettes were not created by Wood. They were reportedly added by producer

submissive, seems to reflect male chauvinism.[5] The flirtatious and striptease-themed vignettes were typical of 1950s exploitation films and grindhouse films, as was the rape scene.[5]
Wood’s original director’s cut of the film without those added scenes runs 65 minutes. The producer’s cut of film with the added scenes runs 71 minutes.

The film has

drag, mouthing the word "Cut!"[6]

The second part of the film, titled Alan or Anne, is much shorter, told largely through

sex change film. Alan is a pseudo-hermaphrodite who fights in World War II
wearing women's underwear. After returning, Alan undergoes surgery to become a woman.

Release

Domestically, the film was

Republic of China.[2] It was re-released to theaters in 1981 by Paramount.[1]

According to Tim Dirks, the film was one of a wave of "cheap teen movies" released for the drive-in market. They consisted of "exploitative, cheap fare created especially for them [teens] in a newly-established teen/drive-in genre."[7]

It was

denied classification by the British Board of Film Classification upon submission on February 26, 1958.[8]

The Image DVD release from 2000 was mastered from a censored print and is missing several salacious bits.[9]

In 2009, Glen or Glenda became the final film to be restored and colorized by Legend Films, who subsequently released it on DVD.[10]

Critical reception

Describing the film as "a half-mad old movie Paramount hasn't so much rescued as disinterred," critic Janet Maslin wrote in a 1981 review of the film in The New York Times that "it's dreadful enough to have a certain comic appeal," that the Lugosi character "presides over the action like some sex change deity," that it is "impassioned [and] incoherent," but noted that "there is plenty of inadvertent humor in Glen or Glenda, with its weirdo homilies, rotten acting and frequent talk of underwear."[11] Writing in DVD Talk, critic Ian Jane wrote that "Wood throws in all manner of strange stock footage of Buffalo and bound women alongside clips of Bela Lugosi freaking out," that the film is "so utterly messed up that it borders on arthouse rather than simple b-movie exploitation," but that it "holds up immensely for multiple viewings due to its total incoherence."[12] A review by Andrea LeVasseur in AllMovie described the film as a "showcase of Wood's infamous ineptitude," and noted that "the personal stories of two transvestites are spoken with ridiculous dialogue, terrible acting, and interspersed with irrelevant stock footage. Every so often, a drug-addicted Bela Lugosi would appear with some strange and pointless narration."[13]

The critic Leonard Maltin names Glen or Glenda as "possibly the worst movie ever made".[14] Richard Barrios describes Glen or Glenda as "one of the funniest and worst movies ever made".[15]

Legacy

In 1980, Wood was posthumously given the accolade of 'Worst Director of All Time' at the

Monthly Film Bulletin.[16]

In his book Cult Movies 3,

auteurs.[16]

In 1994, Tim Burton chronicled the troubled production of Glen or Glenda in Ed Wood. The film includes re-creations of several key scenes, including Lugosi's narration and Glen's plea for his girlfriend's understanding at the end of the film.[17]

The characters Glen and Glenda in the film Seed of Chucky, the fifth film in the Child's Play series, were named after the film.[citation needed]

Director David Lynch has named the film as one of his favorites.[18]

The mascot of Plan 9 from Bell Labs (the name of which is also a reference to one of Wood's films, Plan 9 from Outer Space) is a bunny named "Glenda".

See also

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 0-345-34345-X
    . Page 284
  2. ^ a b c Rhodes, Gary D. (1997). Lugosi: His Life in Films, on Stage, and in the Hearts of Horror Lovers. McFarland.
    ISBN 0-7864-0257-1
    .
  3. ^ ""I Led 2 Lives" Based on the Lives of Christine Jorgensen". Archived from the original on 2021-07-08. Retrieved 2017-08-10.
  4. ^
    ISBN 0-671-64810-1
    .
  5. ^ a b c d Craig (2009), p. 30-68
  6. ^ Trailer on Internet Archive
  7. ^ Dirks,Tim. "Citing Website" The History of Film - The 1950s: The Cold War and Post-Classical Era, The Era of Epic Films, and the Threat of Television, Part 1. Accessed March 16, 2015,http://www.filmsite.org/50sintro.html Archived 2016-05-07 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ "Glen or Glenda". British Board of Film Classification. February 26, 1958. Archived from the original on March 17, 2016. Retrieved February 17, 2017.
  9. ^ "Glen or Glenda (1953) - Alternate versions - IMDb". IMDb.
  10. ^ "Glen or Glenda (1953)". Legend Films.
  11. ^ Maslin, Janet (22 May 1981). "BEVARE! BEVARE! IT'S LUGOSI". The New York Times. Retrieved 2023-10-25.
  12. ^ Jane, Ian. "Ed Wood Box, The". DVD Talk. DVDTalk.com. Retrieved 2023-10-25.
  13. ^ LeVasseur, Andrea. "Glen or Glenda? (1953)". AllMovie. Netaktion LLC. Retrieved 2023-10-25.
  14. ISBN 0-451-20940-0
    .
  15. ISBN 0-415-92328-X
    , Page 235.
  16. ^
    ISBN 978-0-671-64810-7
    .
  17. ^ Ed Wood Jr's "Glen or Glenda" The First Trans Film? - The Odyssey Online
  18. ^ ANGORA RISING: TWO FROM ED WOOD - Spectacle Theater

Sources

Further reading

External links

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