Myra Breckinridge Details

Time has tempered the scandalised revulsion that initially greeted director Michael Sarne's ultra-melodramatic adaptation of Gore Vidal's transsexual satire. Clouded by the controversy, contemporary critics failed to see it as a rather sly “kitsch and think” deconstructive essay on gender, all-American movie-star stereotypes and vintage Hollywood nostalgia. Despite Mae West's barnstorming comeback after a 27-year absence from the big screen to play a triple-entendre “talent agent”, the movie belongs to Raquel Welch in her most under-rated role. Nowhere near the epic disaster it's always made out to be.

A sharply satirical novel has been turned into a sleazy and aimless picture which became a watershed of permissiveness; after international outcry it was shunned even by its own studio. A few good laughs do emerge from the morass, but even the old clips a