Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970)

User Rating:

5.7/10   

Director:

Russ Meyer

Writers:

Roger Ebert (screenplay)
Roger Ebert (story) ...

Release Date:

17 June 1970 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Music | Romance | Thriller

Tagline:

This time... they've really gone

Plot:

Three girls come to Hollywood to make it big, but find only sex, drugs and sleaze.

Plot Keywords:

Drugs | Lesbian | Sex | Band | Paraplegic

Cast

Dolly Read	...	Kelly Mac Namara
Cynthia Myers	...	Casey Anderson
Marcia McBroom	...	Petronella Danforth
John Lazar	...	Ronnie 'Z-Man' Barzell (as John LaZar)
Michael Blodgett	...	Lance Rocke
David Gurian	...	Harris Allsworth
Edy Williams	...	Ashley St. Ives
Erica Gavin	...	Roxanne
Phyllis Davis	...	Susan Lake
Harrison Page	...	Emerson Thorne
Duncan McLeod	...	Porter Hall
James Inglehart	...	Randy Black (as Jim Iglehart)
Charles Napier	...	Baxter Wolfe
Henry Rowland	...	Otto
Princess Livingston	...	Matron

Also Known As:

Orgissimo (Canada: French title) (France) [fr]
Blumen ohne Duft (West Germany) [de]
De Volta ao Vale das Bonecas (Brazil) [pt]
De vallei der verdorven zeden (Belgium: Flemish title) [un]
Hollywood Vixens (France) (reissue title) [fr]
La vallée des débauchés (Belgium: French title) [fr]
Lungo la valle delle bambole (Italy) [it]
Más allá del valle de las muñecas (Venezuela) [es]
Nukkelaakson amatsonit (Finland) (TV title) [fi]
Nukkelaakson tuolla puolen (Finland) (TV title) [fi]
Pera ap' tin koilada me tis koukles (Greece) [el]

Runtime:

109 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Canada:R (Nova Scotia/Ontario) | UK:18 (2003 re-rating, uncut) | UK:X (cut) | France:-16 | Singapore:R21 | West Germany:18 | Australia:R | Canada:PA (Manitoba) | Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:R18 | USA:NC-17 (re-rating) (1990) | USA:X | Canada:18+ (Quebec) | Finland:K-18 (2004)

Filming Locations:

Century City, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

The ending was not in the script. Roger Ebert and Russ Meyer came up with the idea on the day of shooting, based on the recent Manson Family murders.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Ronnie 'Z-Man' Barzell drops Lance Rocke's severed head, it breaks in half when it hits the floor.

Quotes:

Harris Allsworth: I want it, I need it, I love it when a beautiful woman licks between my toes.

Movie Connections:

References Valley of the Dolls (1967)

Soundtrack:

Incense and Peppermints

Russ Meyer's first studio film is his most easily accessible

After the huge success of director Russ Meyer's VIXEN!, 20th Century-Fox knew that he was a talent to reckon with and hired him for a two-picture deal in 1970. His first film (his only good studio film) was written by Roger Ebert and was titled as a sequel to Fox's VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, an embarrassment to the studio. When this was released, it was almost as big an embarrassment. But it's an awesome film with something to please everyone. While not as sex-filled as Meyer's earlier and later works, it still works as a spoof, a drama, and an adults film.

Dolly Read, Cynthia Meyers, and Marcia McBroom play Kelly, Casey, and Pet, an all-female rock group called The Kelly Affair that start out small and make it big in Hollywood as The Carrie Nations. The story is filled with soap opera contrivances, such as various love affairs, lesbianism, drug addiction, suicide attempts, and money scandals. While some of these instances can be seen as serious drama (these girls can act, believe it or not), most of them are played to be campy, complete with cheesy soap-opera organ music in the background.

BVD is filled with little surprises: FASTER PUSSYCAT's Haji makes a cameo in two scenes; women-in-prison movie regular Phyllis Davis plays nice Aunt Susan, Kelly's rich relative; Meyer regular Charles Napier plays Aunt Susan's fiancee; VIXEN! star Erica Gavin plays the lesbian dress designer Roxanne; John Lazar (later in SUPERVIXENS) steals the show as Z-Man, the psychotic gay manager who speaks in Shakespearean prose and goes crazy at the end, pretending he's Superwoman!; VIXEN! co-stars Michael Blodgett and Harrison Page play Lance, the money-hungry hunk, and Emerson, the black law student; sex starlet Edy Williams is luscious as Ashley St. Ives, famed pornographic movie star; and recurring character Martin Bormann makes another appearance. Pam Grier's supposed to be here, too, but I couldn't ID her in the big crowded party scenes. But I think my favorite thing about BVD is the musical soundtrack. Fabulous performances by The Carrie Nations make me wish a soundtrack CD was readily available! While there were 2 good songs in VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, BVD has around 9! The Strawberry Alarm Clock appears performing "Incense and Peppermints" and a non-hit at a Hollywood party, too.

While BVD is not as unintentionally hilarious as the original VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, I liked it a lot better. The performances are great by all (how does Meyer get such great-looking women who can act to boot?!), the music fabulous, and the pace of the film is brisk and doesn't sag. The one sequence that went on forever was the lesbian sequence between Erica Gavin and Cynthia Meyers, which was unerotic and just dumb. I don't know how this got an NC-17 rating (there isn't very much sex). BVD is highly recommended to anyone making their first dive into the cinema of Russ Meyer or anyone who was ever in a rock band that wanted to make it. Pure fun, all 112 minutes of it!