Hitchcoc Sorry. I can't give this a ten. But at times we must look at the subject matter and say that it took guts when we consider it is 1953 (the same year we bought a new Plymouth). The idea of crossdressing wasn't in the vocabulary of anyone I knew at that time. And, at times, the very physical being of the star here is hopelessly comic. But it treated something that was out there but never above the surface. I fund the cheesy narration endearing and fun. I was pleased to find this after hearing about it many times.

Red-Barracuda Glen or Glenda is the debut film of the legendary director Ed Wood. It was certainly his most personal film, seeing as it was about a subject he knew plenty about. Wood was a practising cross-dresser and this movie is partly a heartfelt plea for understanding for transvestite behaviour. He even plays the main cross-dressing character in the first segment of the film under the alias of Daniel Davis. The film is roughly made up of two stories about different transvestites but, really, that only scratches the surface of this one, as this is overall a pretty delirious and bewildering movie.Inspired by the sensational nationwide coverage of the first widely reported sex-change operation in 1953, an enterprising exploitation producer quickly jumped on the bandwagon and gave the go-ahead for a cheap quickie to be made to cash in on the story. From this situation Wood was given his first crack of the whip at directing and a very, very strange movie emerged. In many ways the story mainly boils down to a tale of a man who wants to tell his girlfriend he likes to cross-dress and would dearly love to put on her angora sweater. But in the hands of Wood this is expanded into an often incomprehensible mish-mash of disparate elements. There is copious amounts of melodrama, much earnest social commentary, lots of often irrelevant stock footage (a herd of buffaloes?!), a surreal dream sequence, some early 50's sexploitation, very silly monologues and a healthy dose of pseudoscience. The dialogue is often quite hilarious, with typically terrible Wood script-writing very abundant throughout with talk of things like people not being born with wings or wheels. The acting is often of a heroically terrible standard, with Wood's real-life girlfriend Dolores Fuller once again displaying her highly entertainingly poor acting chops. Bela Lugosi is of course the main name actor but he has clearly been roped in with little overall plan other than to have him appear in the movie. He appears as a character known as 'the scientist' whose dialogue really doesn't connect with anything that is actually going on elsewhere, yet his performance is compellingly weird just the same. Which is essentially a term that could be applied to Glen or Glenda in general. Woods films are often held up as examples of the worst movies ever but really this is a nonsense statement. Unlike most films out there, his output has genuine originality and all are unique and interesting. Okay, there's a lot of technical and artistic deficiencies but those only add fun to the overall whole. For those who like to see something unpredictable and unusual then Glen or Glenda is clearly a must.

gavin6942 A psychiatrist tells two stories: one of a transvestite (Glen or Glenda), the other of a pseudohermaphrodite (Alan or Anne).Ed Wood is often seen as a bad director, and this is often seen as a bad film (though not his worst). As I type this, IMDb gives it a 4.4 out of 10. Not atrocious, but still low. In my opinion, much too low.Yes, it is campy and is bloated with stock footage and scenes of Bela Lugosi that make no sense. But it also happens to be fun. And even if the science is not necessarily correct (I have my doubts about "curing" transvestites), it does have a favorable and progressive approach to gender that had to be unequaled in 1953.

Souzi Karpouzi Ed Wood is thought to be the worst director of all time.... maybe that's true... "Plan 9 from outer space" is a movie from outer space!!But that does not change the fact that "Glen or Glenda" is 100% a piece of movie history. Not so much a movie with the "strict" meaning of the word but rather a dramatized documentary about a subject that even today, 60 years from its time, raises brows, frowns faces, causes unease and creates misconceptions...The prologue of the movie says it all I think. Yes, all the technical elements are flaky and below mediocre...etc etc... the actors are not top notch.. yeah well, how many low budget movies now days "suffer" from that and on top of it have absolutely nothing to say!! And even high budget movies with superstars still have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO SAY! Nobody can "accuse" Glen or Glenda and ultimately Ed Wood of such a "film crime"... on the contrary. It will give you and your company PLENTY to take into consideration and talk about!Ed Wood hit home run with this one and he deserves to be acknowledged for it even now.... Sure, he hit the ball half naked, barefoot and dirty, staggering drunk, with his eyes half closed and with an awful haircut but he certainly hit a great home run!