Glen or Glenda (1953)

Too many fans seem to be blown away

One of the best films i have seen

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Sorry. I can't give this a ten. But at times we must look at the subject matter and say that it took guts when we consider it is 1953 (the same year we bought a new Plymouth). The idea of crossdressing wasn't in the vocabulary of anyone I knew at that time. And, at times, the very physical being of the star here is hopelessly comic. But it treated something that was out there but never above the surface. I fund the cheesy narration endearing and fun. I was pleased to find this after hearing about it many times.

Ah!... To be a transvestite, or to not be a transvestite - That, of course, is the #1 question here in 1953's "Glen or Glenda?".And if director/writer/actor, Ed Wood (who starred as this film's title character) had actually shown some signs of having a real personality - Then, maybe, just maybe, this dead-end psycho-drama about "angora sweater" fetish, and such, may have been worth a serious view.Filmed in just 4 days (and, didn't it show it?) on a budget of $20,000 (it looked more like a budget of only $200 to me) - I cannot believe that back in the paranoid 1950's - This demented, little tale highlighting the whining and snivelling of a heterosexual, male, transvestite actually got theatrical release at all - (It sure is beyond my comprehension) - But theatrical release it certainly got.... (Perhaps "Glen or Glenda?" was marketed as one of those "stranger-than-fiction" novelty pictures, or something) Anyway - For anyone who's at all interested in viewing this cross-eyed soap opera about exorcising one's cross-dressing demon - It certainly does contain its fair share of unintentional humour - And (as an added bonus) - A "Happily-Ever-After" ending that's hastily thrown into the mix, for good measure.

GLEN OR GLENDA is a hilariously conceived mockumentary that comes to us courtesy of bad film director extraordinaire, Edward D. Wood, Jr. While not as iconic as the director's own PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE, it's certainly a remarkable - and memorable - film with plenty of jaw-dropping content to see it through. It's a film that deals with the then-controversial topic of transvestism, although I'm sure the exploitational handling of the subject matter would make this offensive in these politically correct times.GLEN OR GLENDA is a mish-mash of various sub-plots and random footage which has been edited together. There's a narrator trying to make sense of the proceedings and the stories of two different cross-dressers who are trying to come to terms with their 'problems'. When one of the characters joins the army in WW2, five minutes of stock war footage fills the screen. Elsewhere there are cops, bizarre dream sequences that offer tame stripteases, and plenty of wooden acting, not least from Wood himself who plays the titular character. My favourite part of the film involves Bela Lugosi playing a crazy scientist who sits in his study and has no interaction with other cast members. He intones various lines such as "Pull the strings!" and is a real hoot, sad as it is to see him in the midst of his drug addiction.

The world of cross dressing took a beating in this Ed Wood debacle, the first to feature long faded horror star Bela Lugosi, still reduced to touring in wretched productions of "Dracula". In need of quick cash, Lugosi took what he could get to quote non-Edgar Allan Poe poetry that started off with "Bevare!" and concludes with his melodramatic cry of "Pull da strings!". Those who saw this film probably thought, hey that guy reminds me of that dead actor who played Count Dracula, not realizing that like Abe Vigoda, the actor was still very much alive.Lovingly recreated by Tim Burton for " Ed Wood", this film has achieved a legend all its own. Yes, it is wretched, the cross dressers (obviously the transvestites of their day) are sad looking and desperate. Times have changed for men who long to live as women, and in a sense, this film did more harm than good. Wood at this point wasn't the trollish looking man he would ultimately be a decade later, and his efforts to tell what he considered an important story is respectable if ill-advised.Lugosi stands out of course, as a shell of himself, but determined to have some sort of dignity, even if they just meant paying off creditors. In the first of his three Ed Wood appearances, he remains commanding even if the vehicle he prayed would be his comeback failed. Every serious moment Wood intended just brings on laughs, and ultimately, that is why Wood is remembered today.