Glen or Glenda (1953, Bela Lugosi, Ed Wood, Timothy Farrell, Dolores Fuller) – So Bad It’s Good Movie 12

Edward D Wood Jr, 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, Glen or Glenda.

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, Glen or Glenda. Shot in four days, 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 character Dr Alton tells two stories, one of a transvestite (Glen or Glenda), the other of a pseudo-hermaphrodite (Alan or Anne). Wood himself stars in the first story, Glen or Glenda, perhaps working wisely under a pseudonym as Daniel Davis, as Glen, who is unable to tell his girlfriend Barbara (Dolores Fuller, Wood’s actual then girlfriend) about his passion for women’s clothes.

The second, much shorter story, Alan or Anne, is told largely through stock footage, to meet the distributor’s demand for a sex-change film. ‘Tommy’ Haynes plays Alan, who undergoes a painful operation to become a woman. Alan is a pseudo-hermaphrodite who wears women’s underwear while fighting in World War Two before later undergoing the surgery 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.

Though Lugosi is credited as The Scientist, the purpose of the character is unclear. He comments on the action but gives no narration relevant to the plot, since Timothy Farrell is the film’s narrator.

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 (look back in angora!). But, unfortunately, this gloriously cheap and trashy cult item has turned out a strong candidate for worst film of all time.

It is certainly secure in its place in the top ten best bad films ever made. Somehow though, even as you are laughing at it, the film remains adorable, and so does Wood.

It is also known as I Changed My Sex, I Led 2 Lives and He or She.

It was produced by George Weiss, who previously made the notorious 1948 exploiter Test Tube Babies, a film about artificial insemination. with scenes of nudity and sexual promiscuity, plus the male lead character’s sperm viewed through a microscope.

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. Wood then convinced Weiss that his transvestism made him the perfect director. But Wood checked out of making a film about sex reassignment surgery, preferring to make a movie about transvestism, though posters for the film still claimed it was based on the Jorgensen’s case. Wood then persuaded the poor, drug-addicted Lugosi to appear in the movie and his scenes were shot at the Jack Miles Studios in Los Angeles.

Ed Wood as Glen.

Running time: 65 minutes (director’s cut) and 71 minutes (producer’s cut). Producer George Weiss added erotic-themed striptease/ bondage  exploitation film vignettes to Wood’s original director’s cut of the film which he felt was too short.

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 (director’s cut).

It is 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).

In the US the film had a limited release, but was re-released in cinemas in 1981 by Paramount. But in the UK, it was denied classification by the British Board of Film Classification when submitted on February 26, 1958.

The cast are Bela Lugosi as The Scientist/ Spirit, Ed Wood as Glen/ Glenda, Timothy Farrell as Dr Alton/ Narrator, Dolores Fuller as Barbara, ‘Tommy’ Haynes as Alan/ Anne, Lyle Talbot as Inspector Warren, Charlie Crafts as Johnny, Conrad Brooks as Banker/ Reporter/ Pickup Artist/ Bearded Drag, and William M A deOrgler, aka Captain DeZita, as The Devil.

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© Derek Winnert 2014 So Bad It’s Good Movie 12 derekwinnert.com