Myra Breckenridge

When Twentieth Century Fox optioned the movie rights to Myra Breckinridge, author Gore Vidal's satire of American sexual mores and gender roles, the studio was still reeling from the big-budget disaster that was Elizabeth Taylor's Cleopatra. Director Michael Sarne's finished film did not help the cause. Myra Breckenridge is a scattershot mess that goes nowhere slowly. Film critic Rex Reed plays Myron, a young gay man who undergoes gender reassignment surgery; he emerges as Myra, played by Raquel Welch. Myra goes to Hollywood to seize her uncle Buck's estate, and ends up hanging out with an aged Mae West and briefly encountering a young Farrah Fawcett and Tom Selleck (sans mustache). While it's viewed as a cult classic, it's also one of the biggest flops in cinema history. The Strange Brew film series present Myra Breckenridge tonight at 8 p.m. at the Schlafly Bottleworks (7260 Southwest Avenue, Maplewood; 314-241-2337 or www.schlafly.com). Admission is $5.