REVIEWED
“I'm a dish, and don't you forget it you mother f@*kers” - Myra Breckinridge (Raquel Welch)
Wildly flamboyant reality/gender bending sexual satire disowned by writer Gore Vidal, that begs you to taste all types of fruit and S.M.I.L.E. to be happy. Its an uneven and unrelenting diatribe on Hollywood's highly camp, morally hollow puppeteers. Myron (Rex Reed) is the nephew of a notorious Hollywood star maker, who decides to take the plunge (and erm snip, possibly) and let his deep rooted inner alter ego Myra (Raquel Welch) run free.
Raquel Welch Wow! Wow! (Chattanooga Choo Choo), is phenomenal in the ballsy lead as Myra, a role turned down by so many high profile starlets. She apparently was favored over arthouse tranny Candy Darling who was desperate for the part. Its a sort of hippie gender reversal fantasy, highlighting the sexual predatory nature of Tinseltown's high flyers, while also capturing the death of the 60's and the mans man styled masculine lead of old. The casting of aged Mae West and John Huston (who both appear more than a little intoxicated) was inspired (even though critics of the era didn't think so). The movies also packed with memorable inserts and I don't just mean the infamous scene Welch sodomizes Rusty, but dozens of vintage clips of Hollywood legends like Shirley Temple and Laurel & Hardy. Really enjoyable time piece, thats undoubtedly aged and rough around its edges. But its still an amazingly fun movie by promising young director Michael Sarne, who got thrown in the gutter, and to think it was a studio picture.
[Personal Reasons For Remembering]
John Carradine's bizarre tripped out surgery, complete with winking nurses was strangely reminiscent of John Frankenheimer's 'Seconds'. Raquel Welch and Farrah Fawcett spooning. And star spangled Welch balling the strapped down 'take it like a bitch' Rusty 'Cherry' Godowski.
Originally taken from Letterboxd
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