"Myra Breckinridge" was recently released on DVD as a "special" edition. This is one of those movies which goes so far beyond bad, it comes out the other side, and like Roger Ebert's work with Russ Meyer, in this case Rex Reed, shows, perhaps movie critics shouldn't get involved in actually making movies.
Adapted from the novel by Gore Vidal, the movie stars Raquel Welsh as Myra, who is the sex-changed Myron, played by Rex Reed who goes to blackmail her uncle Buck (played by John Houston giving a definitive definition of unsavoury, which he obviously used in "Chinatown"). Along the way, she rapes a strapping young he-man with a strap-on, while waving a cowboy hat and ye-hawing. Plus there is Mae West swanning around dropping innuendo like the pony at the petting zoo.
In case you don't get the point, the movie is intercut with clips from movies from the 30s including Shirley Temple, Laurel and Hardy and so on.
But like a car wreck, you can't help but look. The DVD includes two versions, one with a commentary by the director Michael Sarne, who seems like a complete twat, and the other by Raquel Welsh who spends most of her time saying "what was I thinking?"
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