Glen or Glenda
Amazon.co.uk Review
Often mentioned as a contender for the title of Worst Movie Ever Made, Glen or Glenda? (a.k.a. I Changed My Sex, a.k.a. I Led Two Lives, a.k.a. He or She) remains Ed Wood’s weirdest film–and, for the director of Plan 9 from Outer Space, that’s saying something. Yet Glen or Glenda? goes way beyond camp, into some unique zone of demented personal expression, an essay/collage/autobiography that is no less fascinating just because it comes from a second-rate mind. Wood himself, under the pseudonym Daniel Davis, plays a transvestite struggling to reveal his tendencies to his wife (the toneless Dolores Fuller, Wood’s missus in real life). Mixed in with this exploitation story is a tonne of irrelevant stock footage, as well as disconnected glimpses of Béla Lugosi bellowing at the audience; Lugosi’s dialogue is a tapestry of non sequiturs and portentous warnings. The behind-the-scenes creation of Glen or Glenda? forms part of the action of Ed Wood, Tim Burton’s affectionate tribute to the B-movie master. Wood himself was a transvestite, which accounts for the cracked sincerity of Glen or Glenda?; the passion for angora sweaters is real, not a fluffy plot device. Truly a flabbergasting 68 minutes in film history. –Robert Horton
Most people will look for this film after seeing the tragic Tim Burton Ed Wood biopic, and hence will have a fairly good idea at what this film is like. This film isn’t as particularly dull as Plan 9 from Outer Space or even many other 1950’s B Movies, but is utterly incomprehensible to anyone who is not Ed Wood himself.
The film opens with aged Scientist Bela Legosi in a thunder and lightning haunted house set bellowing phrases of doom at the camera. Legosi appears throughout the movie for no other reason than Ed wanted to work with him and to pad the running time to over an hour long. How the mighty Dracula star was fallen. He is completely unrelated to the wafer-thin plot unfolding in front of us and serves no purpose at all. In the main part of the film the trademark Ed Wood clunky dialogue and acting is appalling, leading actress Delloris Fuller in particular seems to be reading her lines from cue cards. Stock footage of cars, Glen walking down the street, and crowds of people is used over and over again, along with arty close ups of people’s ears, radiators and seemingly endless stock footage of WW2.
Glen or Glenda really is pitiful, you can see how badly Ed Wood wanted to make a film that he stretched the story far far beyond breaking point, inserting random fantasy sequences wherever possible to pad out the running time. At no point is this clearer than a point where we see a long drawn-out sequence that features near-naked women being whipped on a sofa accompanied by joyful polka jazz music, for absolutely no reason whatsoever. Presumably this must be Glens inner Glenda? If we just saw the actual story alone we would be left with a movie 15 minutes long, tops. “The story must be told!” the narrator tells us over and over again, but it takes an unbelieveable amount of time to actually do so.
Glen or Glenda is absolutely fascinating to watch if only just to see what a horrendous mess it is. Is it a documentary? Is it a horror movie? Is it an exploitation flick? Is it an art film? It really is impossible to tell. What a strange little man Ed Wood was. He genuinely tried to make a decent film that was informative, deeply personal and entertaining to everyone but ended up with this where his soul is laid bare. Even 50 years later it remains one of the weirdest and most confusing movies ever made. It’s such a heartbreaking, incomprehensible disaster that it’s an essential buy. See the genuine worst film ever made, and it’s hillarious.
Rating: 4 / 5
Nothing like this has appeared on celluloid before-has to be seen to be believed.
So runs a famous review of Glen or Glenda written years later. I couldn’t agree more!
However, don’t let anyone kid you this is just a monumentally incompetent or boring B-movie. It could never be boring, and it makes its points with some zeal and force.
Sure, it goes off the planet at several opportunities, but the dream sequence is utterly mad, surreal AND actually touching & effective.
As is the performance of Daniel Davis, the male lead, who struggles to come to terms with his urge to transdress, if not transgender. Some might wonder why he had no further career, after all he puts into this.
Well, he did, because he WAS actually Ed Wood, under a pseudonym. Considering how hard every big Hollywood name found directing themselves was(just watch John Wayne in the Alamo or Marlon Brando in One-Eyed Jacks & see for yourselves), Ed’s acting performance is excellent. Overwrought, yeh, but visceral & affecting.
This film is such a mix of fact, fiction & narrative voiceover, it may be Ed Wood discovered the mocumentary years before anyone else.
One thing is for sure, it’s not only a film you shouldn’t be without, it’s also one you can watch again and again-try that with today’s action heroes & see the difference.
Rating: 5 / 5