Line #28 Film/MyraBreckinridge


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/534837157ef06bd773565e3bcb29f28d.jpg]]
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3	->''"Who is Myra Breckinridge? What is she? Myra Breckinridge is a dish, and don't you ever forget it, you motherfuckers - as the children say nowadays."''
4	-->-- '''Myra Breckinridge'''
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6	A 1970 film [[TheFilmOfTheBook based on the novel of the same name]] by Creator/GoreVidal, it stars Creator/RaquelWelch and Creator/RexReed, along with Creator/MaeWest and Creator/JohnHuston.
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8	Mousy, neurotic Myron Breckinridge (Reed) secretly receives gender-reassignment surgery in Copenhagen and returns to Hollywood as the glamorous, charismatic Myra (Welch). Posing as her own widow, Myra Breckinridge goes to her uncle Buck Loner's acting school, claiming that Myron is dead and that she is owed half the school and a huge inheritance. To pacify her while he verifies her claims, Buck gives Myra a teaching position. But Myra has bigger plans.
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10	Myra's ultimate goal is [[MissingStepsPlan to save humanity from itself by destroying the entire concept of traditional masculinity, thus bringing about gender equality]]. She plans to do this by [[ReallyGetsAround sleeping with a lot of people]]. Myra's unlikely partner-in-crime is... Myron, a mental manifestation of her former self. The two of them have already lined up Myra's first test subjects: Rusty, a young, hunky, clueless would-be actor, and his sweet, submissive girlfriend Mary Ann, who together represent the very binary Myra believes is the root of all human misery.
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12	This synopsis makes the plot sound much, ''much'' more coherent than it actually is.
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14	In reality, it's a psychedelic rollercoaster full of random public-domain movie clips, musical numbers, costume changes, over-the-top stereotypes, and a questionable grasp of how gender and sexuality (not to mention ''human beings'') actually work. A legendary box-office flop, creator Gore Vidal [[DisownedAdaptation later disowned it]], [[LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain the cast won't talk about it]], and lead actress Raquel Welch once commented, "The only good thing about it was the clothes."
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17	!! ''Myra Breckinbridge'' contains examples of:
18	* AdaptationalAlternateEnding: In the novel, [[spoiler:Myra is injured in a car accident, has to have her breasts removed, and ends up reverting to her life as Myron and living in a SexlessMarriage with Mary Ann.]] Myron's actor Creator/RexReed refused to portray this ending and it changed to the AllJustADream resolution of the film.
19	* AdaptedOut: In the book, one of Myra's colleagues at the academy is the lesbian teacher Miss Cluff. She also became acquainted with a hippy called Clem, whose orgiastic parties she attended. Both are unaccounted for in the movie (although the scene where Myra is singing in a bathtub at a party does come from one of Clem's parties in the book).
20	* AllJustADream: It's strongly suggested through the scenes at the start and at the end with Myron in the hospital that Myra's life—complete with Myron's own sporadic pop-ups as her alter ego, the last of which was him running her over in order to [[DyingAsYourself die as himself]]—was all a dream of Myron's prior to a gender reassignment surgery that presumably didn't take. This is honestly the least unfortunate and terrifying interpretation of the story, and Rex Reed wouldn't play the part otherwise.
21	* AndYouWereThere: Part of the All Just A Dream ending above. [[spoiler:Myron awakes after his accident to find that his alter-ego Myra was inspired by a magazine cover of the real Raquel Welch and that Mary Ann is his nurse.]]
22	* BlackComedyRape: In arguably the film's most (in)famous scene, [[spoiler:Myra rapes Rusty with a strap-on, set to a psychedelic montage of old movie clips and one-liners.]]
23	* {{Blackmail}}: Myra blackmails Rusty into letting her "examine" him. She also blackmails Uncle Buck into giving her the job in the first place by pretending Myron is her late husband.
24	* CampGay: Irving, who wears makeup and jewelry.
25	* CastingCouch: Inverted by Leticia Van Allen, who does this with hot ''male'' actors rather than would-be starlets. (Her office has an enormous satin-draped four-poster bed hidden behind a wall.)
26	* CelebrityParadox: Among the films whose clips appear in this film is ''Film/OneMillionYearsBC'', which features this film's star Creator/RaquelWelch. This appears to be {{Foreshadowing}} that [[spoiler:the events of the film are actually Myron's dream while in a hospital, and that he modelled Myra's appearance on Welch herself, from a magazine.]]
27	* ComingOutStory: The film is basically a gay man's fantasy about his struggle with coming out of the closet.
28	* DepravedBisexual: Myra, who seems to be bisexual only to further her obscure, insane goals at the cost of other people.
29	* DirtyOldWoman: Leticia Van Allen keeps a king-sized bed as a casting couch for the hot young men who step into her office. (It's Creator/MaeWest, what the hell do you expect?)
30	* TheDitz: Mary Ann is sweet and trusting, but not exactly bright.
31	* DumbMuscle: Rusty comes off as a man's man, but turns out to be incredibly gullible.
32	* DoubleEntendre: Most of what Leticia Van Allen says.
33	-->'''Leticia Van Allen:''' Hi cowboy, how tall are you without your horse?\
34	'''Stud:''' Well ma'am, I'm 6 feet 7 inches.\
35	'''Leticia Van Allen:''' Well, never mind about the 6 feet, [[BiggerIsBetterInBed let's talk about the 7 inches.]]
36	* EasySexChange / MagicPlasticSurgery: From Rex Reed into Raquel Welch. Justified, though, as [[spoiler:It was AllJustADream]].
37	* FalseWidow: Myra claims to be Myron's widow in order to get her own inheritance.
38	* {{Foreshadowing}}: Among the films whose clips appear in this film is ''Film/OneMillionYearsBC'', [[CelebrityParadox which features]] Raquel Welch, something particularly conspicious given that it was a relatively recent film at the time and most of the films featured were old black-and-white films. [[spoiler:This appears to predict the reveal that the events of the film are actually Myron's dream while in a hospital, and that he modelled Myra's appearance on Welch herself, from a magazine.]]
39	* IncompatibleOrientation: Myra attempts to seduce Mary Ann as part of her plan to TakeOverTheWorld, only to be thwarted in the simplest possible way: Mary Ann is straight. Ironically, Mary Ann tries to let her down sweetly by saying that Myra is exactly the sort of person she'd fall for if only Myra was a man.
40	* LameComeback: When Buck and Charlie Flagler Jr. accuse Myra of having never been married to Myron, she says she'll bring a witness to prove her case. Thus, this exchange:
41	-->'''Myra:''' I trust his word will be sufficient. ''(turns and leaves)''\
42	'''Charlie:''' ''(shouting after her)'' Let me make it perfectly clear that it... might.
43	* LovableSexManiac: {{Subverted\|Trope}} and arguably {{deconstruct\|ion}}ed with Myra.
44	* MindScrew: The entire movie is very bizarre and doesn't have much of a coherent plot (some of this is because it leaves out a lot of context from the book).
45	* MissingStepsPlan: It's unclear just how, exactly, sleeping with a bunch of people will result in universal gender equality, but that's a risk Myra's willing to take.
46	* MoodWhiplash: The aftermath of the aforementioned rape scene. The whole movie up until now has been a batshit trainwreck, and the scene itself is clearly supposed to be BlackComedyRape. But afterwards Rusty seems so numb with shock that he's almost been reduced to a child, asking if he can please leave now and obediently thanking Myra when she demands it. It's a disturbingly plausible reaction to being raped.
47	* TheMovieBuff: Myra is fascinated with Old Hollywood movies and extremely knowledgeable about cinema.
48	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: In the book, Myra (and the reader) finds that in spite of his sexism and homophobia, in practice Rusty was gentle and considerate towards the women in his life, but that after the assault, he began taking his rage out on women, even raping Leticia violently enough to put her in the hospital. (Fortunately, [[TooKinkyToTorture Leticia's into that sort of thing,]] but Rusty didn't know that when he did it.)
49	* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: Assuming she isn't an outright VillainProtagonist, our protagonist Myra is a seductive, manipulative, blackmailing, sex-maniacal sadist, and the story doesn't seem to have a problem with it.
50	* ScrewYourself: Myra kisses Myron and goes down on him. Then Myron has a fantasy about Mary Ann and Myra seemingly vanishes while Myron masturbates. (Note that nothing like this is in the book.)
51	* SobriquetSexSwitch: After undergoing a sex change, Myron becomes Myra.
52	* SoundtrackDissonance: Goofy music plays during a rape scene.
53	* StockFootage: Old movie clips appear often, many times for comedy's sake. Many of the depicted people complained and sued about this, and the White House downright asked for the removal of a Creator/ShirleyTemple clip given she was by then an U.S. ambassador.
54	* TakeOverTheWorld: Part of the motive for Myra's reassignment surgery is that she plans [[InsaneTrollLogic to singlehandedly destroy the very concept of gender by sleeping with everyone,]] thus bringing equality to the sexes. Or something.
55	* ThatManIsDead: Aside from Myra pretending to be Myron's widow to fool Buck, Myra genuinely thinks of her pre-op self Myron as a separate person who died, and from whom she emerged. He's a very lively ghost, though.
56	* UnsettlingGenderReveal: Myra, when she lifts up her skirt and drops her panties in front of Uncle Buck and his lawyers, declaring "Gentlemen…''I'' am Myron Breckinridge!"
57	* VillainProtagonist: Unless it's ''just'' ProtagonistCenteredMorality, Myra is a seductive, manipulative, blackmailing, sex-maniacal sadist, and she's the protagonist of the story.
58	* VisualPun: While Myra rapes Rusty, the stock footage shows a clip of dockworkers literally [[SexualEuphemism laying plank]]. That this is the funniest of the dozens of similar visual puns in this movie may indicate the general quality of the humor.
59	* WearingAFlagOnYourHead: Myra's iconic star-spangled swimsuit.
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Context Film / MyraBreckinridge