Film review - Glen Or Glenda? (1953)

'Glen or Glenda?' was the first 'major' film project of the renowned Edward Wood Jr, immortalised in Tim Burton's 'Ed Wood' (1994) and whose infamous 'Plan 9 From Outer Space' (1959) was reviewed by myself here: https://the-dw-review.blogspot.com/2020/11/film-review-plan-9-from-outer-space-1959.html

The story takes a half-drama, half-documentary format where the focal character is Glen, who is struggling with making a confession to his fiancee (Dolores Fuller - Wood's real-life girlfriend) about his interest in cross-dressing.   In this case, Glen happens to be played by the director/writer/editor/you name it under the pseudonym "Daniel Davis" - possibly distancing himself from how many finger prints he had all over this picture.

Over halfway through the film, a second plot develops involving a sex change operation which, in a sign of the times, makes national newspaper headlines.  In a curious note this is where the film becomes more docu-like and less 'dramatic', carrying on for the remaining duration. 

The narrators, which include Bela Lugosi's cryptic figurehead, cast an authorative if unsettling approach, stopping short of casting judgment by providing commentary on the respective subject's worlds around them.  Stock footage of lightning strikes, people walking about their business and cars driving make up the vast bulk of the picture, thus illustrating Wood's budgetary measures.

Looking back on this picture nearly seventy years later, it feels like a missed opportunity more than anything else.  While it's implied we're to sympathise with Glen's dilemma, that emotion is quickly dampened by the supporting characters' interactions.  By contemporary standards a story of this nature would hopefully be handled with more sensitivity and less subtle comedic themes, unless it were appropriate. 

Rumour has it that this story had an autobiographical flair:  Ed Wood allegedly had a genuine enjoyment in wearing feminine clothing, so the theory is this is Wood's story with some creative twists thrown in.  Given his actual other-half plays his fictional one here, it's easy to see why there's such a school of thought.

While following the plot line, the cross between documentary and blatant drama gets confusing and unfortunately Lugosi trying his hardest not to sound like Dracula doesn't help.  Which makes the viewer wonder what on earth is he meant to be here? Is he a scientist? Is he a sorcerer? Or are we just to assume because of his Universal Horror history he represents the macabre?

Whether it was due to lack of finance or even patience, the scientific element seems like a metaphor for Wood's overall will to conjure up any old film.  Kudos must go to Wood for daring to introduce the theme of cross-dressing in the early 1950s when it was most likely unprecedented within mainstream storytelling.  For all his film-making flaws it showed he had a vision if nothing else, however he was evidently unable to execute the cinematic vision he had, and not for the last time.

I would agree with the IMDB's star-rating of 4.2 out of 10 for this movie because it set the tone for later Edward Wood Jr pictures to have little rhyme or reason to them.  Whilst not unwatchable, the obviously cheap production and underlying flatness to the narrative makes it insufferable.