All of these thoughts were
filling my mind as I watched “Myra Breckinridge” for the first time. I almost
changed the channel a number of times but there was something about this movie
that kept my attention. Being a dominant woman, I was intrigued by the female
domination symbolism and imagery. Then when the famous Infirmary scene came on
the screen, I was both shocked and delighted. I kept asking myself, “What year
was this movie made?”
From what I understand,
filming this movie was just as complicated as watching it. Scenes changed not
only daily but from hour to hour. There was chaos on the set and turmoil
amongst the actors, and that chaos makes its way into the movie. Nevertheless,
there is a strange sort of cohesiveness that was not apparent the first time I
watched this movie. I had better success understanding and enjoying “Myra” when
I went back and watched it again.
One of my favorite parts
was the film clips of old movies interspersed throughout the entire story.
Definitely confusing at first but on further review Sarne did a marvelous job
finding old clips that interacted with his footage and although I have seen
this done in more modern day movies, I believe this was totally visionary for
1970. Some say he did this out of necessity to lengthen the film but Sarne claims
it was his vision all along to include old film clips. It is little wonder the
actors were confused as they assumed Sarne would be following Gore Vidal’s
book.
In 1968, Gore Vidal
wrote a satirical novel in the form of a diary. Its major themes were feminism,
transexuality and deviant sexual practices. Set in Hollywood in the 1960s, the
novel contained candid and irreverent glimpses into the machinations within the
film industry. Considered pornographic at the time of its first publication,
the book immediately became a worldwide bestseller. The title of the Gore Vidal
novel was "Myra Breckinridge".
Myra Breckinridge is an
attractive young woman with a mission. A film buff with a special interest in
the Golden Age of Hollywood, in particular the 1940s. She comes to her uncle Buck
Loner's academy for aspiring young actors and actresses and not only teaches
regular classes of Posture and Empathy, but she also instructs in the hidden
curriculum of FemDom ("I'm Myra Breckinridge whom no man will ever
possess").
She selects as her first
victim one of the "studs" at the Academy, a straight young man named
Rusty Godowski.
In the climactic scene
of the novel (Chapter 28), Myra has Rusty come to the infirmary under the
pretext of having to conduct a medical examination. Myra quickly assumes the
persona of the chilliest of nurses, directing Rusty down a path of embarrassing
and humiliating processes and procedures. She uses harsh commands, threats and
a few well-placed slaps to get Rusty to obey. She teases his nipples with her
stethoscope; she has him pee in a bottle while making humiliating remarks; she
performs a hernia examination while she humiliates him verbally by asking him
very personal questions about his sex life and commenting, in rather drastic
tones, on the allegedly moderate size of his penis ("I'm afraid, Rusty,
that you've been somewhat oversold on the campus. You possess a boy's
equipment.")
Finally, after tying
Rusty face down to the examination table, she rapes the unsuspecting student
anally with a strap-on dildo ("Now remember the secret is to relax
entirely. Otherwise you could be seriously hurt.") Afterwards, she even
makes him thank her for the trouble she has taken.
Only towards the end of
the novel does the reader learn about Myra's secret: Pretending that she is
Myron Breckinridge's widow, she demands from her uncle (who owns the Academy)
half of what he has built up. The shocker is when Myra reveals that she is in
fact Myron (who had sexual reassignment surgery).
In 1970, Michael Sarne brought "Myra Breckinridge" to
the big screen with Raquel Welch in the title role as Myra. According to Vidal, “Myra Breckinridge” is a
black comedy but Sarne was not interested in directing a black comedy. His
vision was completely different, thus all the confusion and chaos at the studio
and on the set.
While watching the movie
I was delighted to see Myra be as dominant, demanding and pushy as she was. In
my opinion Raquel Welch was one of the most beautiful of all movie stars. She
has always had that star quality and a “don’t fuck with me” edge about her. I
believe that is one reason she was right for this part. And although the
thinking at first was to hire an actual transvestite for the part so that it
wouldn’t be confusing to the audience, I think Raquel did a wonderful job. Some
consider it her finest work ever.
The film had a difficult
gestation, and its birth and early life were painful for the studio, the young
director and virtually everyone involved.
From the outset it was
obvious that this was going to be a difficult project. Even in 1970 -- at the
height of promiscuity in films -- how in the world could anyone successfully
bring to the screen a story whose highlight is the female lead's dildo rape of
a young man?
If such a production
were possible, the earliest signs were positive. A major studio -- Twentieth
Century-Fox -- had taken on the project. There was, for those days, an ample
budget ($3 million), and the original writers and director were established or
promising talent. But all hell broke loose early on.
Despite Welch's initial
efforts to work with West, it wasn't long before they refused to appear in
scenes together; Robert Fryer, the producer, quit and came back three times;
Bud Yorkin, the original director, quit; Sarne was accused of alienating the
cast; Author Gore Vidal, who was supposed to help write the script, fled to
Italy in disgust; Sarne and David Giler finished the script; All of this
trouble and more was being discussed openly in newspapers and magazines, on
talk shows and in the trade press. Those talking the most included movie critic
Rex Reed (Myron in the film), who penned a scathing piece for the August 1970
issue of Playboy.
In the end, Fox simply
stopped production. Many of the scenes Sarne devised were never filmed. He
"finished" the film with the footage he had in the can by adding old
film clips from classic Hollywood movies (everything from Marilyn Monroe to
Laurel and Hardy) and splicing those clips within the action of the film.
The movie premier was in
New York. Mae West attended and was greeted by an adoring crowd. But the
critics had a feeding frenzy:
"About as funny as
a child molester" -- Time
"A horrifying movie
..." -- Newsweek
"The bad taste is
beyond belief." -- Variety
I must admit I was taken aback to see Rex Reed with such a large
part in a film and that was another thing about “Myra” that caught me by
surprise. Reed plays Myron, the male counterpart of Myra who has supposedly
undergone a sex change operation in Copenhagen. I later discovered it was Mr.
Reeds’ movie debut.
Another actor/director
who appeared on screen with Raquel was John Huston as the not-so-lovable Uncle
Buck of Uncle Bucks’ Acting Academy. John plays an over-the-top cowboy full of
piss and vinegar who marginalized Myra’s plight. That is to say he doesn’t care
that she is the recent widow of his nephew (or so she claims) who was left
penniless and has now come to collect on her mother-in-laws inheritance which
is half of the profits from the academy.
The entire storyline
however is just a distraction from what is most appealing about the film and
that is Myra’s philosophy which is “the destruction of traditional man, to
realign sexes while decreasing population and increasing happiness and
preparing humanity for it’s next stage”. What that next stage is I don’t
rightly no but can I get an ‘AMEN’ to Female Superiority?
Speaking of Female
Superiority, as I mentioned earlier there is a blast from the past in this
film, the “tough broad” who is famous for her sexual innuendo’s and double
entendres, Mae West. I found out that West was nearing 80 yrs old when filming
began. Mae still called the shots here and she insisted on writing all her own
scenes and even sings a couple songs. You got to give it to her. Nobody ever
put one over on Mae West and she was perfect for a movie with female domination
symbolism as she was the original dominant female of the silver screen. Having
West in this film added to the FemDom symbolism as she is an icon in her own
right.
In the film Mae played
the luscious Letiticia Van Allen, the man-hungry casting agent who in the end
gets the leftovers of Rusty, the boy-toy that Myra sets her sites on as the
last vestige of a studly man.
It seems apart from
getting her rightful inheritance from Uncle Buck, the most important thing on
Myra’s mind was how to get Rusty alone so she could “educate” him. She uses her
wit and will and her standing at the academy as instructor of the Empathy and
Posture Class to worm her way into the lives of Rusty and his girlfriend Mary
Ann (played by Farrah Fawcett).
And I just adored the
costume changes given to Raquel. They are reminiscent of a by-gone era when
Hollywood Starlets dressed the part. In every scene she is dressed in yet
another outfit more grandiose than the previous. In one scene you’ll find her
dressed in a periwinkle blue Joan Bennett look and the next a stern Joan
Crawfordesque outfit in bright red.
Another interesting fact
I uncovered about this movie is that when polled, more women than man liked
this movie and more women than men enjoyed the famous “strap-on scene”. I
wonder why that is?
I couldn’t quite believe
my eyes when I saw the strap-on scene. Called by one critic "the
most sensational scene in the history of the screen", Raquel Welch sets
the screen on fire and shocks the 1970 audience (and I am sure most 2005
audiences who accidentally come across the movie on cable) by introducing the
strap-on and FemDom sex to the American public. Although never actually shown,
Raquel leaves no doubt what she is strapping around her waist after she bounds
her young hunk across her examination table.
What follows is perhaps
the greatest FemDom scene in the history of Hollywood. Although ruined somewhat
by the overkill of old film footage in an attempt to add humor so the censors
would not ban the movie (seeing Laurel and Hardy during such an erotic scene
can definitely put a damper on the mood), Raquel's acting and the verbal
performance by Roger Herren allows the imagination to fill in the blanks.
Here are some highlights
of that great FemDom scene:
Rusty: "What are
you doing?"
Myra: "I'm
preparing you . . . What's the matter, Rusty?"
Rusty: "You're
playing some kind of joke on me, I know you are. You're playing some kind of
joke!"
Myra: "This is no
joke, Rusty. I'm deadly earnest. You have a lot to learn. All you men have a
lot to learn . . . and I have taken it upon myself to teach you."
Rusty: "What do you
mean?"
Myra: "This is the
most important part of your education. The part your teachers failed to
instruct you in...It's called Balling!"
Rusty: "I know how
to do that."
Myra: "That's what
you think!"
Myra: "What nature
intended is not always good for us, Rusty. You think being a man is such a
simple thing."
(Myra reaches for
something off-screen and begins to strap the unseen object around her waist.)
Myra: "A man should
ball chicks, you said. Well, I tried to explain it to you but you wouldn't
listen. So I'm afraid you require a practical demonstration."
Rusty: "Oh my God!
You'll kill me with that!"
Myra: "I won't kill
you, Rusty. I'll just educate you. You and the rest of America. Must I
demonstrate it to you practically, that there is no such thing as manhood. It
died with Burt Lancaster in
Vera Cruz. Your manhood was taken by Errol Flynn and Clark Gable. I'm only
going to apply you with the finishing touches!"
Raquel Welch makes
cinema history as she rapes the muscular stud with the large, wicked
dildo.
(Accompanied by a rodeo
clip with the announcer saying, "Ladies and Gentlemen, he's never been
ridden before!")
Raquel rides her
"Stallion", making plenty of Cowgirl yells of "Yahoo" and
"Yeehaa" and many other screams of Exhilaration and Pleasure (while
Rusty screams out in pain ---all the while we are treated to a barrage of old
Hollywood clips).
The wild ride concludes
with Raquel experiencing intense and multiple orgasms (shown through footages
of a bursting dam, a roller coaster ride, and an atomic bomb explosion) while
she continues to take her stud with the strap-on.
Myra: "I'm coming,
Scarlet, I'm coming! I'm coming, Anna, I'm coming...Uncle Sam, here I
COMMMMME!!!"
One has to wonder how many men discovered their submissive natures
while watching this scene (and how many others will, once they see this scene).
What man alive wouldn't want his manhood to be taken away by Raquel Welch
wielding a strap-on?
So how does one really
review this movie? It has its faults and I can certainly see how people in 1970
thought this was a terrible movie. If you read the book and were hoping to see
the book come alive on the screen, you were no doubt disappointed. If you were
interested in seeing a “Gay movie” that would make a societal statement, you
were no doubt disappointed (which is one of the reasons Rex Reed trashed the
film). If you were interested in seeing a movie with lots of nudity
and sex, you were no doubt disappointed. And if you were interested in seeing a
comedy that would make you laugh out loud, you were no doubt disappointed.
But what about in 2005?
We have the benefit of 35 years to take a fresh look at this film. I was 7
years old when this movie was made and I had no knowledge of this film until a
couple of months ago.
Let me tell you what I
think of this movie. I think it’s crazy, zany and completely original. It’s not a great movie. I
wouldn’t even call it a good movie. But I believe this film will engage and
entertain you.
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
"There are only two
characters in all of fiction that could have only come from America - Tom
Sawyer and Myra Breckinridge." - a British literary critic.
