Gore Vidal: Myra Breckinridge (1970) Starring Raquel Welch

Source:Rotten Tomatoes- Raquel Welch is Myra Breckinridge.

“Myron Breckinridge (Rex Reed) flies to Europe to get a sex-change operation and is transformed into the beautiful Myra (Raquel Welch). She travels to Hollywood, meets up with her rich Uncle Buck (John Huston) and, claiming to be Myron’s widow, demands money. Instead, Buck gives Myra a job in his acting school. There, Myra meets aspiring actor Rusty (Roger Herren) and his girlfriend, Mary Ann (Farrah Fawcett). With Myra as catalyst, the trio begin to outrageously expand their sexual horizons.”

From Rotten Tomatoes 

“After undergoing gender reassignment surgery, an aspiring actress travels to Hollywood, where she also wants to make a claim on her wealthy uncle’s estate.”

Source:Basic Trailer Database- Raquel Welch is Myra Breckinridge.

From Basic Trailer Database 

Myra Breckinridge may be the best movie that ever flopped at the box office. It lost more than the 1962 New York Mets who lost something like 120 games that season. I don’t believe the movie made a dime or anyone gave a damn. It was too far ahead of its time. If it were made today with the right cast, it would probably be a huge success.

Raquel Welch plays Myra Breckinridge and really makes the movie worth watching all by herself. Watching her, it is very difficult to look at anyone or anything else. She is at her hottest, sexiest, cutest and funniest. She shows the world that she is much more than a hot and sexy babe. She has great wit and stage presence.

Myra is a former gay man who is now a transgender woman. She goes to Hollywood to claim what she believes to be her inheritance. Her uncle, Buck Loner (John Huston), an over-sexed, horny bastard (which could’ve been called The Horny Bastard) runs an acting school that he inherited from his parents. Myra thinks that he owes her half of it.

Buck has no idea that his nephew, his sister Gertrude’s son, is now a woman calling herself Myra Breckinridge. She tells her uncle to pay up or she’s going to a get a lawyer to get what she believes is hers.

To buy time, Buck gives Myra a job on the school faculty. He tries to prove that Myra never married his nephew and that he doesn’t owe her anything. He’s right that she never married his nephew. She is his nephew and she’s now a woman. She has a fake marriage license that keeps her in the game until she can get what she really wants, the five-hundred-thousand dollars that she believes her uncle owes her.

While Myra is trying to get her money, she uses her time at the school to do research on modern young straight men with the goal of dominating them, one day. This movie is hysterical. It has all sorts of funny characters including a gay man who plays the part of the queen perfectly. There’s also a very young, baby-faced, Farah Fawcett who’s actually cuter than Raquel, but not as sexy.

I’m not saying that Myra Breckinridge is the best comedy or best produced comedy of all-time. I’m saying that it’s 90 minutes of a lot of fun and laughs. Most of those laughs and fun being intentional. And besides, it stars Raquel Welch. Do you really need any other motivation to watch it? 

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