Myra Breckinridge (1970)

You wouldn’t think a movie featuring some of the screen’s biggest bombshells would be both a critical and box office bomb — but that’s the fate which befell Myra Breckinridge (1970). Based on Gore Vidal’s same-named novel, the R-rated flick features Raquel Welch, Mae West, Farrah Fawcett, and a controversial script that covers bisexuality, gender nonconformity, and femdomism. The story gets underway when Myron (played by film critic Rex Reed) sees a surgeon (John Carradine) about a sex change. After having the operation in Europe, Myron becomes the man-hating Myra (Welch). Once she returns to the States, Myra works as a tantalizing (yet terrifying) teacher at an acting school run by her uncle Buck Loner (John Huston), who is a bit suspicious of her. In Myra’s quest to destroy “the American male and all its particulars,” she wears down the biggest macho man (Roger Herren) in the school and sets out to seduce his little blonde girlfriend (Fawcett). As such, Raquel and Farrah wear lacy lingerie while in bed together. If that’s not arousing enough, the former strokes the latter’s arm. In doing so, Ms. Fawcett gives us a slip of her nip! Meanwhile, man-eating talent agent Leticia Van Allen (West) is decked in décolletage-dipping dresses. As the Hollywood icon delivers double entendres and sings sultry songs, she adds a layer of bizarro icing to this nutty fruitcake of a film. The offbeat comedy also includes Tom Selleck, Jim Backus, and Toni Basil. But viewers will have to supply their own tissues!