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Friday, July 12, 2019

Glen Or Glenda (1953)

Starring Bela Lugosi, Lyle Talbot, Timothy Farrell, Dolores Fuller, Tommy Haynes
Directed by Edward D. Wood Jr.
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

The suicide of a transvestite leads a police inspector and a doctor to discuss other such cases, including that of a young man trying to get up the courage to tell his fiancee he likes to wear women's clothes.

Ed Wood's feature film debut is a bizarre concoction, an attempt by the writer/director to humanize transvestites, including himself, to the extent that he appears in an acting role as the central character of Glen.  He actually doesn't give a bad performance, but his script leaves much to be desired, featuring a non-sensical dream sequence, and strange dialogue delivered by horror icon Bela Lugosi, often with laughable facial expressions, while seated in a mad scientist's laboratory with stuffed fearsome creatures on display.  Wood is certainly earnest in his role, and some of the statements he's trying to make are not without profundity, especially at the time this was released, but that's outweighed in the film by plenty of ridiculous content.  

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