How Myra Breckinridge Became One of Hollywood’s Most Controversial Films

The controversial 1970 comedy “Myra Breck­inridge” tells the story of a man named My­ron, played by film critic Rex Reed, who undergoes a sex change op­eration and transforms into Myra — played by buxom bombshell Raquel Welch!

The film follows the exploits of Myra, who now claims to be her own widow. She manip­ulates her uncle into giv­ing her a position at his acting school, where she tries to upend traditional male and female roles. The movie bombed at the box office, with crit­ics calling it a “sexual freak show.”

“‘Myra Breckin­ridge’ was a night­ mare,” said Welch.

Directed and co­written by Michael Sarne, based on Gore Vidal’s 1968 novel of the same name, the making of the movie was filled with just as many twists and turns as the storyline itself!

The film cost a mint even be­ fore it went into production — the book rights were bought for $900,000, including a percentage of the profits and a fee for Vidal to pen the screenplay. In the end, 10 versions were written.

After Welch was cast in the title role, Bette Davis was offered the role of maneater casting agent Leticia Van Allen but turned it down because she despised the novel. Screen legend Mae West, then 76, agreed to play Leticia — her first film role in 27 years.

“It’s a return, not a comeback,” Mae said. “I’ve never been away, just busy.”

Producers paid West $350,000 and allowed her to rewrite her dialogue, sing some songs, arrive no earlier on set than 5 p.m., and have final approval over her wardrobe – and Welch’s too.

Farrah Fawcett and Tom Selleck sign on, along with John Huston, Roger C. Carmel, Jim Backus, John Carradine and Andy Devine.

The movie originally had a number of fast-cut montages freaturing footage from past 20th Century Fox films during a male rape scene – but stars including Shirley Temple, Betty Grable and Loretta Young successfully sued the studio to have their images cut from the film because their permission.

Sarne reportedly encouraged friction between the actors, but Welch and West apparently needed no encouragement. Their characters had scenes together but they had to be spliced together because West refused to be filmbed standing next to Welch.

Fawcett claimed the pair projected their dislike for each other onto her to the point she would cry in her dressing room and was afraid to come out. The future “Charlie’s Angels” star said she tried not to be a diva after she became famous because of the way they treated her.

Despite the impressive cast, “Myra Breckinridge” flopped in a big way.

Trashing his own movie, critic Reed predicted the movie was so bad that 20th Century Fox would never release it. Critic Leonard Maltin said it is “as bad as any movie ever made.” And one magaine called the comedy “about as funny as a child molester.”

While Welch loved Vidal’s book, she was revealed that “very early on I realied this isn’t Gore’s book. Nobody’s going to understand it. They hired Sarne, whose only claim to fame was ‘Joanna,” a visual montage kind of thing, and that’s what he did to this movie. The fact that it had dialogue was secondary.”

The “one Million Years B.C.” and “Fantastic Voyage” star added that making “Myra Breckinridge” was “sad fun. I didn’t want to make a movie that didn’t make any sense. I thought we were going to make something that was revolutionary. I did think it was kind of a landmark that said it’s very likely that world culture will change from this point on.”