(7 of 9)
During this period she was cranking out most of her sparsely budgeted, highly profitable, eminently disposable movies. Bedazzled, a whimsical parable of the Seven Deadly Sins at work in British society, was the exception. In a brief appearance as Lust, Raquel buffeted the distressed, innocent hero, Dudley Moore, with forethrust bosom and broad double-entendres ("Would you like hot toast—or buttered buns?"). Raquel's own, equally broad brand of humor surfaced during shooting breaks. Once she and Moore repaired to a dressing trailer while the crew eavesdropped outside. Raquel, playful lass that she is, suggested that she and Dudley pretend that they were making love. Accordingly, they made the appropriate sound effects, and then emerged to a chorus of whistles.
Raquel had less fun in her celebrated confrontation with Jim Brown in 100 Rifles. She reportedly called Brown "a convict" during a tantrum in Fox Vice President Richard Zanuck's office. On location, Brown did little to smooth the situation, which took on unfortunate racial overtones. At lunch he growled at her: "Pass the salt; it isn't black." She and Brown finally stopped talking altogether. The picture was execrable. But it cost only $6 million and raked in money. Another south-of-the-border oater, Bandolero, gave Raquel the opportunity to demand of Dean Martin, "How duss hay man get to be han hanimal like ju?" Such lines at least scotched rumors that Raquel was a crypto-Chicano; her accent was pure Hollywood.
. . . Hollywood is finally at my feet. Beyond that, ambition stops and godhood begins . . .
Raquel desperately wanted parts that called for something more than guttural one-liners, but the pattern seemed set. Then, in March 1968, Fox announced that it had purchased the rights to Myra. Trouble was, Fox was at a loss to cast the transsexual title role. Elizabeth Taylor, Angela Lansbury and Anne Bancroft were considered. Fox even tested eight real transvestites, but decided that an uncloseted queen just wouldn't do. Then Producer Robert Fryer (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie) had an inspiration. "If a man were going to become a woman, he would want to become the most beautiful woman in the world. He would become Raquel Welch."
Raquel got the part, and production began in September. But fitfully, oh so fitfully. Raquel's iron will and her proven ability to hog the spotlight were put to their most severe test. For sheer incompatibility, the volatile cast of Myra is rivaled only by the Burton-Lyon-Gardner gallimaufry of Night of the Iguana. There is crustaceous Veteran Director John Huston portraying Uncle Buck Loner, the sagebrush sybarite. Huston, an inveterate cigar smoker, has been unhappy with a no-smoking clause that Mae West had written into her contract. There is the epicene Rex Reed, who eats peaches, scribbles notes for his book (about the making of Myra, naturally) and regularly breaks up the crew with his lavender drawl. Towering over all is the ribald old empress, Mae West, who threatens to steal the show as Leticia Van Allen, the drunken, horny agent.