Yesterday I decided that after watching a great film by a legendary and celebrated director I decided it might be a good idea to go to the proverbial opposite end of the film spectrum. I wanted to see a movie that was so well known for being terrible that it has achieved almost cult-like status. Yet even after sitting though Child Brides, Manos: Hands of Fate and Titanic even I was still unprepared for the horrors I was about to face in the Ed Wood classic, Glen or Glenda.

Glen or Glenda started out as a cheap film made to cash in on the sex change of George/Christine Jorgensen. Director Ed Wood, himself a transvestite, decided to take the film in a completely different direction to talk about transvestism. He even played the main character of Glen(da) under the pseudonym of Daniel Davis. He even hired one of his heroes Bela Lugosi (now down on his luck and heavily addicted to morphine) to play a scientist. Lyle Talbot makes an appearance leading me to think that he either loved working or had no pride in what films he made.

This film is, in many ways the true testament of the talents of Mr. Edward D. Wood Jr. He should have kept those talents to himself as this film is almost totally incoherent. The film is told in a series of flashbacks by a doctor to a police inspector who wants to know what would lead a local transvestite to commit suicide. We are told of the story of Glen who, after being neglected by his father and mother, decides to become a girl. After this tale is over the story of Alan/Ann is told and the real Jorgensen exploitation begins.

Wood's "talents" as a director are further showcased by his refusal to use any symbolism that makes sense to anyone who hasn't been sniffing glue. Many surrealistic and symbolic images appear at totally inappropriate times (e.g Satan being at Glen's wedding) that it feels as though Ed just opened a textbook of film techniques and just decided to use whichever one he found whether they made sense to use or not.*

Several points in the film are interrupted by Lugosi rambling on about "puppy dog tales and big ugly snails" or simply with inappropriate lightning or stock footage if, for nothing else, just to extend the length of the film. One particularly awful scene is when a serious conversation is cut short by stock footage of a buffalo stampede!

Glen or Glenda certainly is an enigma. On the one hand the film is so terrible that no one would ever watch it as a serious movie. Many parts of the film left me openly disturbed, creeped out and just feeling rather uncomfortable. Yet I have not laughed as hard and and long at a film in ages.

If laughter is the best medicine, I truly hope that it means that the therapy required after watching this film will be lessened.

Do not watch this movie unless you have a twisted sense of humor or you are extremely curious. If you do decide to watch it, be sure to watch it with friends. The pain is less when shared with others.

* Ironically this is the same technique that Quentin Tarrantino uses. ^

Labels: 31 days of film, Bad Movies, Bela Lugosi, Crap