The Myra Breckinridge movie has been on my radar for a while. Talked about in college a few times along with other movies and etc. Keep in mind that movie was made in the 70's and like the first to have a female on male rape. These days norm if you just talk about it first!
But what we sort of knew about was how the movie was made. A guide how to not make a movie! We where talking about the movie where we should of been talking about how it was made! Or both!
~~~~~Filming was laden with controversy due to Michael Sarne being granted complete control over the project. Sarne quickly went over budget due to his unorthodox techniques, which included spending up to seven hours at a time by himself, "thinking", leaving the cast to wait around on set for him to return so that filming could commence. Additionally, Sarne spent several days filming tables of food for a dream sequence which, in addition to being non-essential to the plot, appears in the film for only a few seconds.
According to many accounts, Sarne encouraged bickering among cast members. After the failure of this film, he was never asked by an American studio to direct another film. Upon learning that Sarne was now working at a pizza restaurant, Gore Vidal is said to have commented that this was proof of God's existence.[better source needed]
There were also reports of conflicts between Raquel Welch and Mae West, who came out of a 27-year retirement to play Leticia Van Allen.
Furthermore, some 1940s- and 1950s-era film actors who appeared in Myra Breckinridge were upset that footage from their old films was inserted into the movie to punctuate some of the gags and the film's climactic rape sequence. After the film was previewed in San Francisco, the White House demanded that footage from the 1937 film Heidi, featuring Shirley Temple, be removed due to Temple's role as a United States ambassador. Loretta Young also successfully sued to have footage of herself removed from the film.[15] Commenting on this, Rex Reed, who co-starred and was then a columnist, said "This was a film where the lawsuits really flew".
"I've never seen so many personality conflicts on one picture," said Richard Zanuck. "Fryer has quit three times. I don't think there's anyone on this movie who hasn't been fired or quit three times. Including me."
"I feel sorry for Bob," said Zanuck. "Raquel is always nervous during a film. Rex isn't exactly easy. And Sarne is rough. Much tougher than he looks."
"Fryer is a really nice man," said Sarne. "We just disagree on everything."
"He tells everybody on this picture we're diametrically opposed, which we are," said Fryer. "I want to do a comedy. He wants to do a fantasy. He's trying to superimpose 1964 Fellini—not Fellini, mind you, but 1964 Fellini—on a subject matter which is way out to begin with."
"I don't understand it," said Giler. "Bobby Kennedy and Jack Kennedy, they were assassinated. But no one touches Sarne. Sarne's script for Myra should be hermetically sealed.
