First depiction of sexual bondage in a mainstream Hollywood movie?
During the dream sequence, two women are struggling and tying each other up on a couch. This had to be a first for the time, right?
shareThe short answer is no. The long answer is as follows.
First and foremost, Glen or Glenda was not a mainstream film by the furthest stretch of the imagination. It may have had a name from the past in it, but this movie had as much credibility as your typical Asylum movie does today.
As for the bondage elements, pretty much from the minute moving pictures were invented there have been those who want to film sexual situations.
Once the Hayes code came in, the way to bypass it was to make the movie a morality tale. Glen or Glenda is just one of literally hundreds of Z-grade exploitation movies from the 1930's to the 1960's to depict provocative situations under the guise of teaching a lesson.
To put this into perspective, all of the really sleazy footage in this movie (the strippers, whipping, etc) were not filmed by Ed Wood but taken from other films made by producer George Weiss, so it's really not as if Wood was doing any trailblazing.
"To put this into perspective, all of the really sleazy footage in this movie (the strippers, whipping, etc) were not filmed by Ed Wood"
I didn't realize that. But makes sense. Ed Wood seemed to have a thing for using found footage.