Glen or Glenda (MRA) (1953)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1953
Running Time	66:28 (Case: 80)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Edward D. Wood Jr.
Studio Distributor	Screen Classics MRA Entertainment	Starring	Bela Lugosi Lyle Talbot Timothy Farrell Dolores Fuller Edward D. Wood Jr. 'Tommy' Haynes Charles Crafts Conrad Brooks
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$9.95	Music	William Lava

    Despite being filmed by the "worst director of all time", Edward D. Wood, Jr., Glen or Glenda (a.k.a I Changed My Sex, a.k.a He or She? - take your pick) is one of the most enjoyable films I have come across. A somewhat misguided but sincere plea for understanding on behalf of transvestites the world over, ("the less fortunate Glens"), Wood's film is a pseudo-documentary, relating Glen's (Wood himself) struggle with cross-dressing as he tries to reveal his secret to his fiancé Barbara (Dolores Fuller). We are led to understand that cross-dressing is quite common among men and to be expected: as the narrator suggests, for example, since men's hats are so tight and can cause baldness, we should hardly be surprised that some men prefer to wear a loose fitting woman's hat. And women's underwear is just simply much more comfortable. In Wood's world, being a transvestite is about tactile sensation and enjoying the touch of an angora sweater.

    Hovering in the background as a strange kind of narrating mad scientist (though most of the story is narrated by Glen's sympathetic psychiatrist (Timothy Farrell)), Bela Lugosi rants and raves about green dragons eating "big fat snails" and commands both the characters and the audience to "Pull the string! Pull the string!" while a herd of buffalo stampede across the frame. Similar episodes of bizarreness and odd dialogue fill the entire film, including a creepy dream sequence in which the devil marries Glen and Barbara, and a poorly inserted "pornographic" scene demanded by the film's producer. Wood even manages to find a way to insert war footage.

    As inept as it all sounds, though, it's the bizarre elements that makes Glen or Glenda so enjoyable to watch. It's badly acted and pieced together in ridiculous ways, though it sometimes makes you wonder if Wood didn't do it all on purpose as some kind of clever joke. Either way, it's great fun and, with its low RPI, is highly recommended.

Video

    Glen or Glenda's video transfer is watchable, but is let down by poor source materials. It is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, close to its original ratio of 1.37:1.

    Sharpness and contrast are weak. Shadow detail is very limited and, as most of the film is shot in low lighting and in black-and-white, faces and objects tend to blend into the background. Low level noise is present throughout, though never distracting. It is most visible at 12:33. Pleasingly, though, macro-blocking remains relatively under control, the worst example occurring, again, at 12:33. Brightness fluctuates constantly.

    Posterization is plentiful, particularly on faces (10:18). I noticed some aliasing on the bookshelf in the psychiatrist's office (7:27) (although not in every scene in which they appeared) and on Bela Lugosi's chair (3:59). The transfer is plagued by film artefacts: black and white marks of all sizes and scratches are present in every shot. Reel change marks and vertical lines also appear. The worst damage, in the form of multiple horizontal scratches from top to bottom of the screen, begins at 18:55 and lasts, with varying visibility, for most of the film.

    The major disappointment of the transfer is the intermittent appearance of an MRA watermark. The watermark is not embedded in the transfer, in the sense that it appears at different times in each viewing. I thought I had imagined it the first time it appeared (when I rewound, I couldn't see it anymore) but it made two more appearances. Even though barely visible, such a practice is both unnecessary and highly irritating.

    A subtitle stream marked English is on the disc: it is, however, empty.

    This is a single-layered disc and has no layer change.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Glen and Glenda's soundtrack is as lacklustre as its video transfer. A single Dolby Digital 2.0 track is provided approximating the original mono.

    Dialogue is fairly clear and audio sync is accurate. Hiss is heavily present during dialogue but absent during voice over segments. On the whole, the audio-track comes across as very thin, although Lugosi's scenes, naturally accompanied by thunder, sound very muddy. There is also some occasional distortion (19:05) and audio drop-outs (21:19), as well as a sudden increase in volume at 00:24, inherent in the film source.

    Non-original music is credited to William Lava. I wasn't able to discover how much of the score is Lava's or who else contributed. Mostly swelling strings (with a jarring change in music during the inserted "pornography"), the score blends pleasantly into the background and suits the film well.

    There is no surround or subwoofer activity.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    There are no extras.

    There is censorship information available for this title. Click here to read it (a new window will open). WARNING: Often these entries contain MAJOR plot spoilers.

    Glen or Glenda is also available in Region 1 from Image (individually and as part of The Ed Wood Box). From screen-caps I have seen, the Image disc has a much more detailed and sharper transfer. The same disc has also been released by Image in the UK (Region 0). Image's version does, however suffer from censorship issues.

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

• Theatrical trailer

    The Region 1 (and Region 2) version of this disc misses out on;

• Nothing (barring censorship issues)

    The Image disc's transfer makes it a winner, though some may want the MRA with its more complete cut (although it too has been censored).

    Glen or Glenda is highly enjoyable in its own bizarre way.

    The video quality is poor, though not unwatchable.

    Audio quality is poor.

    The disc has no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall