Great Moments in Filmmaking Incompetence: Myra Breckinridge

In the Gore Vidal novel Myra Breckinridge, “Myra” is really “Myron Breckinridge”, a homosexual who has a sex change to become a woman. When 60′s sexpot Raquel Welch signed on to play Myra, she assumed that she would be playing both Myra and Myron, dressing in Men’s clothing while playing Myron. Director Michael Sarne, however, had other ideas and cast Rex Reed as “Myron”. While it isn’t hard to imagine the queeny Rex Reed being a homosexual, it takes a leap of faith to imagine that the dumpy, flabby Rex Reed could ever be turned into the hot and sexy Ms. Welch, no matter how talented the plastic surgeon is. (and the hack doctor portrayed by the slumming John Carradine would definitely not be up to the challenge.) While we are often asked by movie makers to suspend disbelief, imagining a world in which a toad like Mr. Reed could be turned into a sexpot like Ms. Welch is asking for way too much.