Low Budget/Low Quality
Glen or Glenda? (1953)
Inducted 2017
How did it take this long for Ed Wood to make it on this list? Sure, this is just the second year of the Film Un-Preservation Society, but Ed Wood's name is synonymous with bad films. The disasterpiece Glen or Glenda? was one of his worst.
Glen or Glenda? was an insane hodgepodge of stock footage and Ed Wood's fever dreams brought to life. Mr. Wood enjoyed a private life of cross dressing and he put this sordid life of his onto the big screen. While the film's producer had wanted a movie about someone who changed his sex, Ed Wood provided a movie about cross dressing.
Even with nonsensical scenes of screen legend Bela Lugosi screaming about strings and the miles of unrelated stock footage used, this low budget mistake only lasts an hour and five minutes. It feels much longer, however. Originally meant to cash in on the story of Christine Jorgensen who became one of the first Americans to have a sex change, the movie instead is more of a sordid look into the mind of its director- Ed Wood.
