"myra breckinridge"

Gore Vidal’s “unfilmable” bestselling comic novel about a gay male film critic undergoing a sex change and reinventing himself as a glamorous Amazon-like woman to wreak revenge on the heterosexual male world reached the screen in the topsy-turvy radicalized Hollywood of 1970. Sex symbol Raquel Welch, seeking legitimacy as an actress in a high profile film, played Myra post-surgery, with film journalist Rex Reed making his acting debut as the pre-surgical Myra.  The casting decision that received the most publicity was the return of the legendary Mae West in her first film in over twenty-five years. The highly publicized off-camera feud between the two leading ladies was ultimately more delicious to the public than the finished film. However, Myra Breckinridge was a major breakthrough in bringing a post-Stonewall camp sensibility to mainstream American cinema. 

Chalres Busch