I first watched this on a horrendous magnetic VHS tape 30 years ago, and watching the definitive widescreen version in gorgeous Technicolor completely unedited simply reaffirms my conclusion that this is the craziest catastrophe ever made. In fact, if they ever want to remake it (or do it as a part of "Feud"), they should do the "making of" story instead.
When news got around that the filmmakers were utilizing old 20th Century Fox film clips, actress Loretta Young discovered that she was going to be a among the veteran stars utilized against her will and sued to have the sequence removed. too bad other stars who were living at the time didn't do that, or that Judy Garland, Laurel and Hardy, Carmen Miranda, Charles Coburn and others were not living so a huge lawsuit could have been brought against the way they are inserted into the film's alleged premise. As for veteran actors John Houston, John Carradine, Kathleen Freeman, Andy Devine, Grady Sutton and especially Mae West, their appearances may seem to have a vision of the nostalgic, but what ends up on screen is so horrendous that it is unimaginable to consider what they were thinking when they saw the final product, if they dared.
Rex Reed, future film critic, claimed that Myron Breckenridge was not gay, but the script defies that by Houston referring to his nephew's character with a derogatory term. the opening scene with Carradine as the doctor allegedly performing Reed's sex change isn't shocking now, but what comes after it is a series of events that make Myron (if indeed he did become Myra in the guise of Raquel Welch) one of the most hateful characters ever in a movie with his disgust towards human nature and the revenge he takes on it in a sociopathic manner.
For all its nudity and sexuality and insinuations of physical pleasures, this film's narrative is obviously pointing the finger of shame at the world for its sexual freedoms of the late 1960's. It's that hypocritical nature alone and the sadomasochistic treatment of both genders through Myron/Myra's actions that makes this despicable, and even if you are able to follow the convoluted plot, there is a sense of how could this happen from a major Hollywood studio in the viewer's mind.
I must admit that I did laugh a few times, and Mae West does get a few really good lines. But when she breaks into a musical number, it becomes embarrassing, and you have to wonder why she didn't see the crassness of how she would end up being presented. Farrah Fawcett isn't horrible as the pretty blonde whom Welch sets her sites on (seemingly to destroy), and I truly felt sorry for Roger Herren who is involved in the film's most notorious sequence that in real life would have probably resulted in homicide. Poor editing (among the worst ever in a major Hollywood studio film) and shameful direction makes this among the worst bombs Hollywood has ever produced. 4 film connoisseurs, it probably should be seen once for the experience, and maybe in 30 years I can watch it again and find something artistic to reassess my feelings of this movie as a whole.
When news got around that the filmmakers were utilizing old 20th Century Fox film clips, actress Loretta Young discovered that she was going to be a among the veteran stars utilized against her will and sued to have the sequence removed. too bad other stars who were living at the time didn't do that, or that Judy Garland, Laurel and Hardy, Carmen Miranda, Charles Coburn and others were not living so a huge lawsuit could have been brought against the way they are inserted into the film's alleged premise. As for veteran actors John Houston, John Carradine, Kathleen Freeman, Andy Devine, Grady Sutton and especially Mae West, their appearances may seem to have a vision of the nostalgic, but what ends up on screen is so horrendous that it is unimaginable to consider what they were thinking when they saw the final product, if they dared.
Rex Reed, future film critic, claimed that Myron Breckenridge was not gay, but the script defies that by Houston referring to his nephew's character with a derogatory term. the opening scene with Carradine as the doctor allegedly performing Reed's sex change isn't shocking now, but what comes after it is a series of events that make Myron (if indeed he did become Myra in the guise of Raquel Welch) one of the most hateful characters ever in a movie with his disgust towards human nature and the revenge he takes on it in a sociopathic manner.
For all its nudity and sexuality and insinuations of physical pleasures, this film's narrative is obviously pointing the finger of shame at the world for its sexual freedoms of the late 1960's. It's that hypocritical nature alone and the sadomasochistic treatment of both genders through Myron/Myra's actions that makes this despicable, and even if you are able to follow the convoluted plot, there is a sense of how could this happen from a major Hollywood studio in the viewer's mind.
I must admit that I did laugh a few times, and Mae West does get a few really good lines. But when she breaks into a musical number, it becomes embarrassing, and you have to wonder why she didn't see the crassness of how she would end up being presented. Farrah Fawcett isn't horrible as the pretty blonde whom Welch sets her sites on (seemingly to destroy), and I truly felt sorry for Roger Herren who is involved in the film's most notorious sequence that in real life would have probably resulted in homicide. Poor editing (among the worst ever in a major Hollywood studio film) and shameful direction makes this among the worst bombs Hollywood has ever produced. 4 film connoisseurs, it probably should be seen once for the experience, and maybe in 30 years I can watch it again and find something artistic to reassess my feelings of this movie as a whole.