Gore Vidal's Myra Breckinridge

Based on the novel by Gore Vidal and directed by Michael Sarne, this film adaptation is a highly stylised and over acted parody of the Hollywood system and a surreptitious study of gender and sexual identity. Myron (Rex Reed) undergoes a sex change to become the woman he has always felt inside - Myra (Raquel Welch). Myra arrives at her Uncle Buck’s (John Huston) acting school claiming to be Myron’s widow and arguing for her half-share of the business. Uncle Buck lets her teach the weird and wonderful ‘students’ of the school while he investigates her claim with lawyers. Mae West features as an agent for leading men (“Get your resumes out boys”) resplendent in Edith Head designed costumes and satirising herself as part of the very loose plot. An absurdist take on one man’s life and sexual identity intercut throughout with some memorable and not-so memorable clips of classic Hollywood feature films and stars. Musical numbers, hippies and homosexual men get Myra though her day until it all becomes too much and her inner Myron has an run-in with a car. Cast includes Farrah Fawcett and Tom Selleck.