Glen or Glenda (1953)

Director:

Edward D. Wood Jr.

Writer:

Edward D. Wood Jr. (story)

Release Date:

30 September 1995 (Japan)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

"I Changed My Sex!"

Plot:

A psychiatrist tells two stories: one of a transvestite (Glen or Glenda), the other of a pseudohermaphrodite (Alan or Anne).

Plot Keywords:

Transvestite | Psychiatrist | Scientist | Angora | Suicide

Cast

Bela Lugosi	...	Scientist
Lyle Talbot	...	Inspector Warren
Timothy Farrell	...	Dr. Alton / Narrator
Dolores Fuller	...	Barbara
'Tommy' Haynes	...	Alan / Anne
Edward D. Wood Jr.	...	Glen / Glenda (as Daniel Davis)
Charles Crafts	...	Johnny
Conrad Brooks	...	Banker / Reporter / Pickup Artist / Bearded Drag (as Connie Brooks)

Also Known As:

Glen or Glenda: Confessions of Ed Wood
Glen or Glenda? (USA) (alternative spelling)
He or She
I Changed My Sex
I Led 2 Lives (UK)
Male or Female (USA) (poster title)
The Transvestite

Runtime:

65 min | 74 min (1982 re-issue) | 68 min (DVD version) | 61 min (cut)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-18 (2004) | Spain:T | Australia:M | Italy:VM14 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 (DVD rating) (2006) | UK:R (original rating) | USA:Not Rated | Argentina:13

Filming Locations:

Jack Miles Studios, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Screen Classics (II)

Trivia:

Warren Beatty is purported to have sponsored its 1981 reissue by Paramount, while he was working there making Reds (1981).

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: In the very first scene with Bela Lugosi, the shadow of the cameraman is clearly visible when he zooms out with the camera.

Quotes:

Scientist: No one can really tell the story. Mistakes are made. But there is no mistaking the thoughts in a man's mind. The story is begun.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in Seed of Chucky (2004)

Way ahead of it's time, and was also used as a teaching tool!

I am a huge fan of Ed, after seeing "Ed Wood", and I have since bought the book "Nightmare of Ecstacy". Also, I bought all of the films that he had made that I could get my hands on.

Like it or not, "Glen Or Glenda" was a landmark film!

This particular film was made WAY AHEAD of it's time!! While I was first watching Tim Burton's fantastic film, recreating the making of "Glen Or Glenda", I noticed that there were things in it that seemed rather familiar to me, even after 30+ years have passed, and that is what partly interested me in looking into both the book, and Ed Wood's films. What I discovered was, I had seen this film when I was in GRADE SCHOOL!!

After viewing the REAL "Glen OR Glenda" film, I realized that I had had seen this exact same film before, although heavily edited!

It was shown as a part of our sex-ed class!! I can hardly believe it that they showed us this back then, but they did. No

thanks to the school I went to, and the horribly incompetent teachers, but they did show it!

Now, fast forward to today, the reason for all of the extra scenes near the end of the film, such as the 'Devil' sequences, and the rest of the rather abstract looking scenes, were not originally part of the screenplay. Those scenes (baffling and dumbfounding), were NOT part of the film as Ed had written. His script left the running time short of what George Weiss had told him he wanted, a 7 reel, 16MM film, which was what he needed to sell it. A 16MM reel runs about 10 minutes, and George needed a 70 minute film (at least), because he pre-sold it in several states as a "Feature", before he actually found out what it really was. He wasn't too pleased with what Ed had made, but he was able to distribute it to his clients, after all of the extraneous material was added at the end. George did eventually make his money back, and he and Ed worked on a couple of other projects, unlike what is shown in the "Ed Wood" film.

Even today, though, I think that this film was made way before it's time, and Ed Wood should deserve some credit for trying to bring a sense of understanding to what was then a totally misunderstood way of life for a select few.