Ed Wood's "Glen or Glenda?"

[HarlotBug3]

My first and, till last night, only exposure to Wood's work was a CD of Plan 9 from Outer Space. Not a soundtrack, but the entire audio score, everything from music to effects to dialogue...to more dialogue...to tell me English was not Wood's first language.

I am fully convinced that, hype and irony aside, Wood likely was either the most cynically indifferent or maniacally inept filmmaker of his era.

This might be the one that gets an official badmovies.org format review from me, as it truly must be seen to be believed. There's  bad, there's , and then there's bad...I only thought I understood the later.

I understood nothing.

[asimpson2006]

Glen or Glenda was my first ed Wood Film.  While it's bad, for it's time it was quite groundbreaking in terms of what the film was about.  If the film was done today, it wouldn't have been as groundbreaking since cross dressing and sex changes are not taboo anymore like they were back then.

[RCMerchant]

My gawd....astounding in it's weirdness. Even aside from the whole cross dressing business...what's with the buffalo?

Trivia time!
According to Richard Cremer's LUGOSI: the Man Behind the Cape, Bela refused to do the film unless his pay was raised from $500 to $1000 . And he didn't like the idea of the bubbling chemicals burning holes in his clothes or skin.

How did Bela keep a straight face with such nonsensical dialouge?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=qHkXFsK6UUg
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..."Bevare!"...dam straight...!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=8b_zIy97FyE
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...yet he does it like he's doing HAMLET! Great job,Bela!

[Derf]

This one was just painful for me to watch; not funny bad, not bad bad, just painful. The "psychological" monologue, going to ever greater lengths to "prove" that men wearing women's clothing are just normal, everyday people with offbeat fashion sense, was just sad. I really don't care what fetish a person has, as long as he or she or it doesn't try to shove it onto me and it isn't illegal. And I don't care all that much about the "legal" part. But to claim that anything that maybe 1-5% of the population does is "perfectly normal" is a quantitative lie; "Normal" is what a majority of the population does, believes, or holds true. Not being normal isn't wrong, and I'm not trying to make this into a moral judgment, but transvestitism is not normal, at least not in America at large, and no amount of insanely bad movie dialogue is going to make it so. I love Woods's feature films for the most part; they are horrendously entertaining, but this one hurt.

[Rev. Powell]

I love this movie, possibly as much as PLAN 9.  On the surface it's absurd and hilarious, but underneath the surface there's something touching and quixotic about Wood's naive plea for understanding.  It's unintentional tragicomedy.

[Oldskool138]

This movie was already strange...and then Satan shows up.

I'd like to see a remake with Eddie Izzard playing the Wood character.   

[InspectorDC]

It lacks the flair of Plan 9 and Bride of the Monster, but it's probably his weirdest film and truly awful. But good on him for making a film about his fetish, and getting it released.

[peter johnson]

The man invaded Guadalcanal wearing womens' silk undies, for goodness' sake!
A man among men, he worried about being shot in battle & being exposed --
* * *
I still love the angora sweater scene, where the ACTING TENSION BUILDS TO A RAGGED CLIMAX, and she . . . . THRUSTS the sweater at him --

Man, they just don't write 'em like that any more . . .

Ed Wood remains the top of my bell-curve, whereby I measure the enjoyability of any other bad movies.  If you like coming to this board, and you haven't already, you really should try and see his entire filmographic output.  Someone mentioned "Bride of The Monster" -- yeah, do that one next . . .

peter johnson
dennycrane

[InspectorDC]

Man, they just don't write 'em like that any more . . .

They never made them like that apart from this one 

[Dr_Malavaqua]

I can only concur with the 'pain' remark above...it hurts to watch it. This is one of the absolute worst movies I have ever laid my sticky hands on. 
Don't get me wrong RC, or anyone else, I love Bela, love Ed - but this movie made me cringe! I can't pinpoint exactly what it is that makes it so horrid, if it's the total lack of suspense or plot, or just the whole incomprehensible soup of random sh*t that it consists of!
I do know a couple of things about it though; I have it my collection, I have only watched it once and that sometimes when the sheer morbid curiosity is about to make me watch it again, a big green dragon, with a slimy grin, pops up from nowhere and whispers: "DON'T F*CKING DO IT!"       

[RCMerchant]

I can only concur with the 'pain' remark above...it hurts to watch it. This is one of the absolute worst movies I have ever laid my sticky hands on. 
Don't get me wrong RC, or anyone else, I love Bela, love Ed - but this movie made me cringe! I can't pinpoint exactly what it is that makes it so horrid, if it's the total lack of suspense or plot, or just the whole incomprehensible soup of random sh*t that it consists of!
I do know a couple of things about it though; I have it my collection, I have only watched it once and that sometimes when the sheer morbid curiosity is about to make me watch it again, a big green dragon, with a slimy grin, pops up from nowhere and whispers: "DON'T F*CKING DO IT!"       

I'll let you in on a little secreat....after the dream sequence....I had to shut it off. I haven't been really able to get past the Glen or Glenda part....the other stories are still future horrors for me to endure....!

[Rev. Powell]

I can only concur with the 'pain' remark above...it hurts to watch it. This is one of the absolute worst movies I have ever laid my sticky hands on. 
Don't get me wrong RC, or anyone else, I love Bela, love Ed - but this movie made me cringe! I can't pinpoint exactly what it is that makes it so horrid, if it's the total lack of suspense or plot, or just the whole incomprehensible soup of random sh*t that it consists of!
I do know a couple of things about it though; I have it my collection, I have only watched it once and that sometimes when the sheer morbid curiosity is about to make me watch it again, a big green dragon, with a slimy grin, pops up from nowhere and whispers: "DON'T F*CKING DO IT!"       

I'll let you in on a little secreat....after the dream sequence....I had to shut it off. I haven't been really able to get past the Glen or Glenda part....the other stories are still future horrors for me to endure....!

Phillistines!

[Raffine]

Phillistines!

 
I was just going to say make sure you get the version that has all the bizarre footage of ladies in 50's lingerie rolling around, tying each other up, and being chased around by a guy dressed as a devil! The music for these sequences is great, too!

[Dr_Malavaqua]

Phillistines!

 
I was just going to say make sure you get the version that has all the bizarre footage of ladies in 50's lingerie rolling around, tying each other up, and being chased around by a guy dressed as a devil! The music for these sequences is great, too!

Oh I got that one.. - like a salt shaker to an open heart wound!!!    By the time that music started playing, my ears were allready filled with blood-so it was kinda' hard to make it out..
RCMerchant: You mean you are..      ..human, after all? Hats off and a drink to that!