Glen or Glenda? (1953, Ed Wood) – So Bad It’s Good Movie 12

Writer-director Edward D Wood Jnr, the notorious director of the legendarily awful Plan 9 from Outer Space (1956), comes up with a double so-bad-it’s-good whammy with his equally hysterically inept 1953 melodrama about transvestism. Its embarrassingly low budget of $20,000, and padding with almost 14 minutes of stock footage, isn’t really its major problem.

Timothy Farrell’s psychiatrist narrator Dr Alton tells two stories, one of a transvestite (Glen or Glenda), the other of a pseudo-hermaphrodite (Alan or Anne). Wood himself stars, perhaps working wisely under a pseudonym as Daniel Davis, as Glen who is unable to tell his girlfriend Barbara (Dolores Fuller, Wood’s actual girlfriend) about his passion for women’s clothes. ‘Tommy’ Haynes plays Alan, who undergoes a painful operation to become a woman. Horror icon Bela Lugosi, playing the Scientist, sonorously comments on the action as a warning voice echoing from a spook house. Wood’s friend Lugosi was broke and a drug addict at the time so he readily took on a role for which he probably paid only $1,000.

Lyle Talbot plays Inspector Warren.

Glen or Glenda? was intended as a serious and sincere appeal for public acceptance for transvestites and transsexuals by Wood, who was a cross-dresser and angora sweater lover himself. But, unfortunately, this gloriously cheap and trashy cult item has turned out a strong candidate for worst film of all time. It’s certainly secure in its place in the top ten best bad films ever made. Somehow though, even as you’re laughing at it, the film remains adorable and so does Wood.

It’s also known as I Changed My Sex, I Led 2 Lives and He or She. The film was originally intended to be loosely based on the story of sex-change pioneer Christine Jorgensen, who refused to appear in the film. The film was reissued in 1982 when Wood’s fame rose dramatically after the Golden Turkey Awards named him the worst director of all time in 1980. The 1982 re-issue runs 74 minutes, nearly 10 minutes longer than the original release.

The only movie Wood directed but didn’t produce. The film is among the Top Ten Best Bad Films ever made in The Official Razzie Movie Guide. David Lynch named it one of his favourite films and used the film’s howling wind sound effect in Eraserhead (1977).

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(C) Derek Winnert 2014 So Bad It’s Good Movie 12 derekwinnert.com