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Amazon.com: We can safely call it one of the most notorious films in Hollywood history: Myra Breckenridge, the wild, tasteless, legendary disaster. Sprung from a novel by Gore Vidal, Myra tells the tender tale of a man (damply played by film critic Rex Reed) who has a sex-change operation and goes to Hollywood as a woman--played by Raquel Welch. Mae West creaked out of retirement to play a man-hungry agent (one of her meals is young Tom Selleck), and John Huston is an aging cowboy star, Myra's nemesis. To say the movie endorses the destruction of sex roles in modern society would be giving the rampant incoherence too much credit. Old film clips, plus footage (all too apt!) of atomic bomb tests are spliced into the action, to puerile effect. Almost everybody involved with the film disowned it, especially a horrified Vidal. Is there a cult for this movie? They can have it. --Robert Horton
Customer Reviews:
- Great Companion Piece to Sextette! : Any movie where Mae West Sings and doesn't act her age is fine in my book! A MUST! Myron Breckinridge is waiting for his sex-change operation while a stoned surgeon stumbles into the operating room. Before the drugged doctor begins Myron's operation, he counsels him. Myron persists and the doctor goes through with it. An enthusiastic audience observing the operation applauds the medical achievement and rises in a standing ovation. After the operation, Myron arrives in Hollywood as Myra while in the rest of the film Myron pops up from time to time as Myra's alter ego. Myra goes to an acting academy owned by her uncle, Buck Loner, a former cowboy star. The real reason for Myra's arrival is to claim her half of Uncle Buck's estate, which she says she's entitled to. Buck Loner stalls by giving her a job teaching the history of motion pictures. Buck Loner has several friends. One of them is Letitia Van Allen, an ancient Hollywood talent scout. The sex-starved septuagenarian runs an acting agency "for leading men only."
- Myra Breckinridge: Kind of quirky, but in all a nice movie, great cast Mae West,a young Tom Selleck and Farrah Fawcett,Raquel Welch it's not the greatest of movies made but it kind of pokes fun at the subject of transgender. I like it. No harm intended in the movie it'just for fun. Mae West and Raquel Welch are both stunning as always.
- Bad Bad Bad!: Bad Bad Bad! This picture opened in theaters June 24 1970, starring John Houston as Buck Loner, Raquel Welch as Myra Breckinridge, and Rex Reed as Myron. Myron wants to have a sex change operation and he's waiting in the operation room for his doctor. Right before he does the surgery he councils Myron not to have the surgery but Myron sticks to his guns. That's when Raquel Welch enters the picture as Myra Brecknridge. That's when John Houston enters the picture as Buck Loner. Loner runs and acting school filled losers of every race and life style. The school is barely surviving and that's when Myra shows up on the school doorstep. Myra informs Buck that he was married to one of his relatives and that she's entitled to have of his estate. Stalling Buck gives Myra a job as a teacher until he can fine a **** ** *** *****. Now a thought on this picture! How can you waste Raquel Welch talent in this stupid picture? This movie had no action, no plot and very little comedy. Mae West was just awful in this picture and so was John Houston. Making her film debut was Farrah Fawcett and even thought it was a very young Farrah Fawcett she wasn't half bad. The only thing that made this movie worth watching has Raquel Welch. When Raquel wasn't on I fast forward until I got to her parts. Her wardrobe in this picture was fantastic. Her acting was just as good; however, it was a shame that they waste such great talent in a movie like this. On the movie itself, I give this picture 1 weasel star because the picture doesn't get your attention or keep it. However, if you're a Raquel Welch fan like I am then watch it for Raquel only because that's all you fine interesting in this picture.
- Brilliant (almost despite itself) romp! Don't sneer--give in and enjoy!: I wonder how many people so quick to call this the desecration of a great novel actually read the book. As film adaptations of novels go, it's actually quite faithful to the material (except for its abstruse, cop-out non-ending, and the omission of a catfight between Myra and Letitia). Trashy movie? Okay, but so was the book.
Since the whole point of the book was to satirize sleazy, depraved 1960s Hollywood, cheerfully devoid of ethics or morals, where even low-budget "B" movies of yesteryear could attain cultural status as camp ("During the years 1935 to 1945, no unimportant film was made in Hollywood," Myra instructs), what choice did the film version have--made by the self-same sleazy, depraved 1960s Hollywood, mind you--but to be exactly what this movie is?
It's sad to find out what a painful experience filming was for the cast, because they're all wonderfully effective within the helter-skelter framework. (It seems only John Huston understood the material enough to have had fun with it.) Raquel Welch at least seems to be having a ball as Myra. Of course it's absurd for 73-year-old Mae West to believe she was the star (and demand top billing) and to be given two--count 'em, two--songs to do, but who else could have delivered the line "Get your resumes out" quite like that? Tom Selleck and Farrah Fawcett, their TV stardom ahead of them, are both breathtakingly lovely. The inspired use of old film clips to comment on the action (a device stolen by the 1980s cable sitcom "Dream On") lifts the film to something perilously close to art.
It's a great movie to watch with friends and drinks on New Year's Eve (more fun than paper hats and getting trashed among strangers). At the very least, "Myra" is a class act compared to today's show-biz parodies. - why isn't this movie on queer film lists???: i have been walking past this movie for years in the video store and passed it up as many times... except this last time.
of course raquel is a steammy dream in her flashy and skimpy get-ups [a bonus] but the story is equally as fun to watch unfold. since i don't like to give away too much on a review, i will leave you with a few tidbits to ponder:
1] watch it for the cast (raquel welch, farrah fawcett, rex reed, mae west, tom sellek, etc.)
2] stay for the mildly eyebrow-raising plot.
there is a strap-on.
there is a nurse with a bullwhip.
there are fabulous costumes made with scant amounts of fabric.
there is an acting ranch.
there is gender questioning.
there is gender non-answering.
but for your own good i will leave you with a quote:
"i like it when you touch me... up to a certain point."
that's farrah's character to raquel's character. it is what you think.
not convinced? you must have no camp in your veins. too bad.
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