Farrah fawcett played a role in this movie.. she later became one of the most sensational star of all time via Charlies angel...nneverthought as luck would have it... two sensational stars met....
@@mrwindsor9082 no, Meryl Streep is a great actress. Raquel no. If she was so great, she would have been great in something. Her acting is dull with very little range. She had a high opinion of herself. Every straight man that met her had a a boner that wouldn't quit. Other than that. Meh
I've had this in my queue forever but have yet to watch it (or the other 'infamous' one Valley of the Dolls) - just keep forgetting. Right about the 7 minute mark on this video is the ridiculously AGE RESTRICTED part that was CUT OUT (of original broadcast?). Racquel states UNEQUIVOCALLY she thinks that 'mae' was a GUY. ("....i mean look at those dockworker hands, never mind the chest" [kind of like Seinfeld and the Lobster Hands?]) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-R7cjij272HQ.html
Raquel was a bitch who ended up with the same old lady hands,, the big difference between her and Mae West is Mae is a legend who will live on in history,, Raquel was a lousy actress and is quickly fading into obscurity as we speak ....
The reason it was unfilmable was the book contained scenes on the back lot of major film studios which would never be allowed to be included in this film. Scenes where the "protagonist" interferes with the production of old films through a time travel scheme. This production company was never going to get permission for such scenes, and trying to reproduce them would have tripled the cost of this film. The book's main theme was just set aside and the movie simply ignored vast tracts of the book. Oh, btw, the entire theme of transexuality was merely a fictional device, a fantasy of the protagonist film critic, a throw away idea in reality. What was filmed was a crude and thankfully fantastical imitation of this storied surgery, no credible surgeon would entertain smoking within a surgical theatre but as fantasy... it works sort of. I liked the book, hated the film. I list it as one of the worst films ever made.
It's sad that people don't get this movie; it's even sadder that the stars (with the exceptions of John Huston, who clearly understood what the movie was and ran with it, and the incredible Mae West, who demanded top billing and her reading of the line "Get your resumes out" earned it) apparently had a miserable time making it. Raquel Welch is quite brilliant, as is the device of using old movie footage to comment on the action (it was used 20 years later in the sitcom "Dream On"). Filming Gore Vidal's novel "straight" would have resulted in dullness; it had to be insane. Of course you wonder who the target audience was. A trans film buff who proclaims "Between the years 1935 and 1945 no unimportant movie was made in the United States" and who plans on aligning the genders by raping both was not likely to appeal to hip kids or their parents at the time, let alone now. But it's a lot of fun.
Longest 94 minute film I've ever seen. This film is painful to watch. I LOVE quirky. This is not quirky, it's an abomination. I went to the film after seeing Michael Sarne in A Place to Go, a lovely little British crime/love story. They shoulda picked a different director. What a mess. Just so ugly.
Well, Raquel now your croaked and Mae West is still a film legend and you aren't,, miss Rex Reed being snarky about Mae being led to a white piano,, there's no scene like that,,, at the time this "" expose'" was made Mae had died so she couldn't say anything in her defense, but she never badmouthed any of them because she was a true professional....
And Raquel made her money by showing her body while Mae made her money from her intelligence. Huge difference. Mae has been dead since 1980 and there still making films about her. Raquel who!
