Glen or Glenda (1953) Screen Classics/Drama RT: 71 minutes No MPAA rating (mature themes, some sexual material, brief partial nudity) Director: Edward D. Wood Jr. Screenplay: Edward D. Wood Jr. Music: William Lava Cinematography: William C. Thompson Release date: April 1953 (US) Cast: Bela Lugosi, Edward D. Wood Jr. (as “Daniel Davis”), Dolores Fuller, Timothy Farrell, Lyle Talbot, Tommy Haynes, Charlie Crafts, Conrad Brooks (as “Connie Brooks”), William M.A. deOrgler (as “Captain DeZita”), Henry Bederski, Carol Daugherty. Box Office: N/A
Rating: ****
I must be out of my mind awarding four stars to Glen or Glenda. It’s easily one of the worst films ever made, yet quite brilliant at the same time. It was definitely radical for its time. No respectable filmmaker dared broach a subject as controversial as transvestitism, especially not with the Production Code (aka the Hays Code) in effect.
The term “respectable” doesn’t actually apply to Edward D. Wood Jr. who jumped at the chance to write and direct a movie about something near and dear to his heart. A cross-dresser himself, Wood felt he was the most qualified man for the job. This is the pitch he gave to producer George Weiss, the purveyor of exploitation movies like Test Tube Babies, Too Hot to Handle and Paris After Midnight. Weiss was about to start work on a film about Christine Jorgensen, the individual who made headlines after undergoing a sex-change operation. He became a she and shocked a nation not yet accustomed to reading tawdry tabloid tales in the morning paper. Wood lobbied hard and got the gig, his first feature film.
A funny thing happened on the way to the cinema. The movie, originally titled I Changed My Sex, changed direction in the incompetent hands of Mr. Wood. It was supposed to be a loose telling of Jorgensen’s story, but Ed had loftier intentions. He saw an opportunity to make a sensitive and informative docudrama about transvestitism. Semi-autobiographical in nature, it would also be a plea for tolerance. He didn’t abandon the Jorgensen angle altogether; he just set it aside to make way for his story about Glen and his female alter-ego Glenda. And who better to play the lead role(s) than the man himself under the pseudonym “Daniel Davis”.
Wood shot Glen or Glenda in four days guerilla style. This means he didn’t have the necessary permits to shoot on public streets, so he and his crew had to work fast to get the shots before the cops chased them away. Charitable guy that he was, he cast his good friend Bela Lugosi in a key role. The former Dracula star fell on hard times later in life. He was penniless, in poor health, addicted to drugs and unemployable when Ed met him by chance. A fervent fan of the actor, Wood was only too happy to include him in Glen or Glenda. He plays an omniscient overseer who comments on the action in the film. He gets to say things like “Pull the strings!” and “Beware of the big, green dragon that sits on your doorstep.” It makes about as much sense out of context as it does in, but it sounds cool when spoken with a Hungarian accent.
Bela is one of two narrators in Glen or Glenda. The other is Dr. Alton (Farrell, Test Tube Babies), a psychiatrist who relates the story of Glen/Glenda to a police detective (Talbot, Plan 9 from Outer Space) looking to better understand transvestitism in his investigation of the suicide of a drag queen. His rambling narration is something else. He sounds exactly like the guy that narrated all those boring educational films they used to make us watch in school. I kept waiting for a lecture about the practical uses of zinc. He makes astute observations like, “The world is a strange place to live in. All those cars. All going someplace. All carrying humans, which are carrying out their lives.” He makes this deep statement over stock footage of cars on a freeway. Quite a bit of Glen or Glenda is composed of unrelated stock footage. We get shots of buffalo stampeding, steel mills pushing out hot metal, kids playing ball and a military battle. What does it all mean? It either means Wood is some kind of thrifty genius or the biggest cheapskate in the world. Either way, it’s nothing more than filler meant to pad out a film with little in the way of substance.
Finally, we get to the “plot” of Glen or Glenda. “Glen” is engaged to his girlfriend Barbara played by Wood’s then real-life girlfriend Dolores Fuller. He’s in love with her and has a big decision to make. Should he tell her about his feminine side (aka “Glenda”) or keep it to himself? He’s afraid she might reject him if he tells her about his predilection for women’s clothing, specifically her angora sweater. He struggles with this dilemma mightily before deciding what to do.
That’s the Glen and Glenda portion of Glen or Glenda. What about Christine’s story? It’s in there. Near the end, Alton tells the detective about another case, that of a man named Alan (Haynes) who became Anne after a sex change operation. He explains that the two cases are different because Alan/Anne was a hermaphrodite and Glen/Glenda is not. It takes up approximately five minutes of the movie’s 71-minute running time.
Weiss was reportedly furious with the final product, even threatening Wood for not delivering what was promised. In order to salvage the f***ed-up film, the producer added erotic footage of strippers and bondage scenarios to spice things up, to make it more like the exploitation movie he wanted. Then it gets positively surreal with nightmarish images of people in Glen’s life mocking him and a bearded demonic creature (Captain DeZita) staring at him from the abyss.
Getting back to my original statement, why on earth would I give Glen or Glenda a four-star rating when it’s so damn bad? Everything about it is awful. The directing, writing, dialogue, music (so dramatic!), editing, cinematography and especially the acting- all terrible! Fuller is particularly bad as the understanding gf Barbara. Her casting is the very definition of nepotism although Wood probably thought she was a great actress deserving of an Oscar. He was delusional about a lot of things. This is one of his grandest delusions. The woman couldn’t read lines to save her life. The scene where she expresses mental anguish over the bombshell dropped by her intended is a true howler. Fuller would ultimately move on to a successful songwriting career shortly after a bit part in Bride of the Monster. She originally had the lead role, but was demoted to bit player in favor of non-actress Loretta King who Wood mistakenly thought would be financing the movie. She left Ed and Hollywood for the bright lights of New York and never looked back.
For all its many, MANY shortcomings, Glen or Glenda is a lot of campy fun. I love what Lugosi does here. The role he plays and the dialogue- PURE INSANITY! And you know what they say about there being a fine line between genius and insanity, right? Wood had a way with dialogue. The man thought he was Shakespeare with lines like “Only the infinity of the depths of a man’s mind can really tell the story.” This is one of the brilliant insights offered up by the good doctor. It’s right down there with Glen’s self-analytical comment: “My mind is in a muddle. Like…. thick fog. I can’t make sense to myself sometimes.” You’re not alone, Glen (or Glenda). It makes no sense to us either.
Glen or Glenda would have likely faded into obscurity if not for the revival of interest in Wood’s body of work brought about by the Medveds’ book The Golden Turkey Awards. They named Wood as “Worst Director of All Time” and Plan 9 from Outer Space as “Worst Movie of All Time”. Paramount tried to turn Glen or Glenda into a cult film, re-releasing it to cinemas in 1981 only for it to close two weeks later. I guess the world wasn’t yet ready for the demented delight that is Glen or Glenda. It’s as inept as any bad movie ever made, possibly even more so. Wood loved movies, but that didn’t mean he was any good at making them. He made movies that redefined the term “schlock”. That’s what makes him so AWESOME! Is it any wonder Tim Burton made a biopic about him (still his best work!)? Perhaps the best way to watch Glen or Glenda (or Bride of the Monster or Plan 9 from Outer Space) is on a double feature with Ed Wood. No wait, NOT perhaps. It IS the best way!
