Let Me Die A Woman opens with a post-op transsexual called Leslie putting make up and nail polish on, thus confirming that he/she is indeed a woman. Then we are introduced to, and I quote "our guide through this strange new world is Dr. Leo Wollman M.D., P.H.D., Doctor, Surgeon, psychologist, minister, medical writer. A man uniquely qualified to help us understand this phenomenon." This guy appears to be a real Doctor but gives one of the most unenthusiastic, dry and flat performance in front of the camera I've ever witnessed, check his eyes out as they dart all over the place almost as if he is reading cue cards and then looking back at the camera again. I'm not 100% sure but he looks and sounds dubbed throughout as well. Dr. Wollman is an ever present throughout the entire film. He discusses all things transsexual! We, the viewer that is, are also treated to various dramatic reconstructions. The first one we are shown is a 'woman' walking through Central Park in New York (that path looks familiar!). He/she picks up a bloke off a bench and they both go back to her/his apartment. Once there they have sex. As the man leaves the pre-op transsexual turns around and even though he/she has the upper body appearance of a woman, face and breasts, he/she has a dick. He/she then takes a long shower which we, the lucky viewer, get to watch for a couple of minutes as he/she soaps themselves up and washing it off. You know the sort of shower scene I'm talking about, the sort that focuses on the genitals in a totally exploitative way. There are more reconstructions, Dr. Wollman says that a post op transsexual formerly known as Ronald, now Rhonda was "extremely impatient to try out her new vagina" and had sex too soon after his/her operation and his/her vagina started to bleed, the man who just had sex with him/her just laughs and walks out as he thinks he/she was a virgin! A sequence where a man in denial hangs himself and an alarming scene where a desperate guy tries to do the job himself by taking a hammer and chisel to his penis, ouch! Dr. Wollman pops up every so often to give his opinion and some dry medical facts. But not wanting to be upstaged Dr. Wollman does appear in two of the films more memorable sequences. The first is when he talks about various different dildo's! As Dr. Wollman picks each one up and talks about it he tries to make out their for purely medical reasons, yeah right! This part is supposed to inform us about the facts of how transsexual's keep their newly created vagina's dilated and of course how some even like to pleasure themselves! Dr. Wollman picks up the 'Dildo gun', which is basically a water pistol with a dildo on the end. Dr. Wollman explains that the gun is filled with "warm soapy water" and is for transsexual's who want to experience "hot fluid emission's into the vagina"! The other memorable bit with Dr. Wollman is footage of the operation itself. Any males may want to look away for a few minutes during this section as a surgeon gets to work and takes his scalpel to some guys penis, ouch. Although this surgery scene is actually very short and in total is probably less than three minutes long. There is also a part when Dr. Wollman indicates the direction of the vaginal passageway by inserting his lubricated finger into it! No doubt the volunteer 'Debbie' was pleased to assist Dr. Wollman.......... At this point Dr. Wollman also explains that 'Debbie's' hairy bum is normal. Finally after just over 70 odd minutes of this sort of thing Let Me Die A Woman ends and that's about it. Directed by Doris Wishman this is part exploitation and part documentary. I'm not sure which Wishman was concentrating on the most, in the end it's probably 50/50 between smutty sleaze and hard medical facts & interviews with those involved. I'm not sure that I really learnt anything from this film about transsexual's or their feelings that I couldn't guess. The actors in this film are also very unattractive and in one sex scene the guy has the hairiest bum I've ever seen! There is also a sequence where Dr. Wollman holds a discussion with various transsexual's, these are some of the ugliest people I've ever seen and their dress sense is also horrendous, one guy/gal wears what looks like a bright multi-coloured tea cosy on his/her head! It's very poorly filmed and that too distracts from what is in reality a weighty issue for some. The film either comes across as cheap and smutty or dry and boring. At the end of the day I'm not too sure what to make of it, it certainly kept me watching right through to the end but I not sure I would call Let Me Die A Woman entertaining. I will sit on the fence a little bit and give it a 5 out of 10, an incredibly curious film that I don't quite know what to make of.

An extension of the Mondo-style documentary, with their "mission" to illustrate, and exploit unknown or forgotten cultural practises and habits, Doris Wishman's (see Review #298: 'Deadly Weapons' (1974)) Let Me Die a Woman follows the work of sex reassignment surgeon Dr Leo Wollman (who also acted as the films adviser), and his work with both post- and pre-op transsexuals. The film has interviews with the aforementioned doctor, along with several transsexuals in various stages of transformation, and also throws in some re-enactments and dramatisations of some of their experiences.

Whilst this is billed under the exploitation banner, and would have been shown in these types of cinema, the film is not overly exploitative, and presents the stories and their participants in quite a sympathetic manner. However, the film does explore, in a very graphically visual manner the operations required to alter the genitalia. Of course with this being made in the 1970's means that the screen is filled with incredibly hairy, militant-looking pubic areas, whilst these men with tits flash their flaccid c***s for the camera. In one scene the doctor probes a post-op vagina with his fingers - a sexual orifice so hideous that I simply had to avert my eyes.

Aside from the Mondo movies (and of course Faces of Death (1978) et al), I am not really aware of any other exploitation film that used this documentary style to expose new, sometimes weird phenomenon - except for Being Different (1981) that focused on exploiting circus sideshow acts, and included a modern day Elephant Man - so I am unqualified to state whether this film is emblematic of it's kind. What does strike me is the fact that this type of documentary was so new, and also that it was marginalised to the exploitation/grindhouse circuits. The subject matter, and the gratuitousness of the film highlights to me how this kind of "exploitation" is in fact now a fundamental part of prime-time television, with shows such as Embarrassing Bodies or any others of the many, many similar formats that infest our screens, in our homes, whilst we f*****g eat our dinner! Given this parallel, and shift in the ways in which the participants are exploited in the modern-day TV show and the cinematic format, the film is pretty naive.

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Wow...this one's a weirdy...

Doris Wishman's schlock-umentary LET ME DIE A WOMAN is definitely one of the strangest things I've seen - and I've seen a lot. Appearing to be a somewhat "serious" documentary on the plight of the trans-sexual - it really comes off more as a sleazy exploit film piece-mealed together with some "scientific" elements.

The "story" is narrated by a Dr. Wollman, who is apparently an expert in all things trans-gendered. He basically pokes and prods these individuals with a metal probe, and recounts their "horrifying" trials and tribulations as trans-sexual individuals. Interspersed are oftentimes hilarious "re-enactments", and one pretty nasty portion of a male-to-female sex-change operation. There is also a repulsive scene where the good doctor probes a patients newly formed vagina (which looks more like it was made by a shotgun-blast then a scalpel...) with his finger. I only hope for the sake of the trans-sexual population that the medical community has made some MAJOR strides in terms of vaginal reconstruction since this film's creation...

In some ways, LET ME DIE A WOMAN seems as though it's truly sympathetic to the hardships of the trans-sexual community - and other times it seems as though the goal is simply to exploit them. To be honest, I couldn't care less as this is a subject I neither understand nor have any real interest in - this is another film that I watched strictly for curiosity's sake. For fans of uber-weirdo cinema, I'd say this one's a must-see, as they don't come much stranger than this - and it's honestly not even because of the subject matter. It's more because of how ineptly it's handled. I give the film a relatively decent rating because it's just so damned strange - most "mainstream" viewers won't care to watch this type of material...and honestly, I wouldn't blame 'em. 7/10