At its core, Michael Sarnes film is essentially a multi-million dollar homoerotic gag, though its hard to say whether the joke was at the expense of Gore Vidal (who wrote the source novel) or backers Twentieth Century Fox, who were left red-faced when the movie grossed only $4 million. Courtesy of a sex change performed by Dr John Carradine, Myron Breckinridge (Rex Reed) has transformed into Myra Breckinridge (Raquel Welch) and decided, for no particular reason, to teach Cinema Love Making at a phony dramatic school run by his/her uncle. Also around, for equally unfathomable reasons, is Mae West, who sings Hard To Handle and talks about establishing a boy bank where credit is always good. Over the course of 94 agonizing minutes, Welch beds Farrah Fawcett and straps on a dildo to sodomize one male lover, during which she comments: My goal is the destruction of the last vestigial traces of traditional manhood from the race. She wouldve been better off quoting Shakespeare: A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
Ian Watson is the author of 'Midnight Movie Madness', a 600+ page guide to "bad" movies from 'Reefer Madness' to 'Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.'
