Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970)

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!

Fmovies: I liked this movie but I was prepared, having read about it extensively before seeing it. From the soundtrack to the camera and editing tricks to the performances, I liked it all. My only problem was the middle part of the movie which concentrated on the personal troubles of the band, sort of dragged. Only when John Lazar came back did the movie pick up and I guess I'm in the minority because I liked the ending. Mainly, because it took the outrageous flavor from the beginning and went even farther. The casting was especially noteworthy. Normally, people who can't act really bother me but watching all of the Playboy playmates trying to act serious while spouting out hilariously clichéd dialogue (I can only hope that Roger Ebert and Russ Meyer weren't trying to write authentic dialogue) was very funny. Special note must be given to the drummer trying to pretend that she could really play. Only Lazar came off as a real actor and he tackled his role with gusto. It is a shame to see that he has never really done anything worthy of his talents after this. Having seen this film only once I don't know how it would hold up after repeated viewings but I can say it is worth seeing at least once.

"Harris, make love to me!" "Where? Here?" "NO! IN L.A.!"

A 60s all-girl rock band decides to get in the van and head to Los Angeles to try to make it big. And they find it is super easy, and they make connections fast, but fame and fortune comes at an expense.

Although it claims to be unrelated, this is basically "Valley of the Dolls" made fun and trashy. Yes, this is the movie that is infamous for being written by Roger Ebert. Yes, this is a bad movie with appalling editing. Yes, this is tasteless schlock. But, it is tasteless schlock at its best. Even though the lead cast is comprised of (very lovely) Playboy pin-ups and models that look stoned half the time, they do a great job at portraying immediately corrupted innocents. I actually really enjoy the 60s soul garage music (even though none of the actresses actually played or sang, whoever played and sang for The Carrie Nations sounded damn good--the soundtrack has recently been released to CD, which I plan on picking up and playing at my next trashy dance party). I can watch this movie over and over again, and the unforgettable drug-soaked finale never ceases to shock me. But I really could do without the moralizing voice-over at the end. It makes me question whether or not the filmmakers were really serious about the psychotranny, abortion-pushing lesbian, and other disturbing colorful characters. My Rating: 8/10.

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls fmovies. Ever since I showed interest and sympathy for the more bizarre efforts in cult cinema, people have been recommending me to check out the oeuvre by director Russ Meyer. This peculiar director and scriptwriter is often named the maestro of American Cult cinema.Unfortunately, his movies are pretty hard to find (at least where I'm from) and they rarely ever receive a decent release on DVD. After finally having purchased Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, I can fully second the statement that Russ Meyer truly is one of a kind and certainly a director to check out entirely. Perhaps the weirdest thing about this film is that it was co-written by the respected and Pulitzer price-winning critic Roger Ebert! This - usually - very harsh critic joins the Meyer-madness here gladly.

I doubt Meyer's typical style will appeal to many people but for the more developed cult-fans, his colorful tale of 'Hollywood Vixens' is a true joy to observe! You might as well call it the definition of cult! It has everything: from bizarre and extremely eccentric characters over subtle (and less subtle) humor to explicit violence, sexual images and drug abuse. Wild parties are thrown in this film and offensive orgies are held.you can't imagine it yourself wild enough and Meyer adds it to his movie. Some of the biggest taboos are taken care of here shamelessly, like Nazis, drag queens, lesbians, unfaithful behavior and even abortion!! Keeping in mind this film was shot in 1970, this is a pretty remarkable achievement to say the least. BTVOTD also has a terrific soundtrack and pretty likeable acting performances. The leading girls do a pretty good job in making themselves believable, even though they're rather inexperienced. Needless to say they're stunning beauties in the first place.Especially Cynthia Meyers in the role of Casey! She's a true cult-Goddess and a wet dream for many men.yours truly included. BTVOTD ends with a truly absurd and explosive finale that easily can be considered as one of the weirdest twists in cinema history ever! Yet, I'm very careful in recommending this film to a large public. chances are that you'll be very disgusted by this movie or even loath it terrible. Therefore, I only recommend it if you're used to seeing quite an amount of weirdness already and you're not too quickly offended.

Easily the best (and funniest) film about sex, drugs and rock and roll, ever made! Gorgeous women (Cynthia Myers is almost too incredible to believe), great tunes, time capsule worthy costumes, and break-neck editing, put this film in a class all its own. There has truly never been anything like it. Must be seen (in WIDESCREEN ONLY) to be believed. Wonderfully appropriate score by Stu Phillips. For what it is, the film's a masterwork. Recommended!

This movie really tested my patience and I went to see it after Ebert waxed poetic about it in a two page article in the Sun Times. It's not enjoyable camp like Rocky Horror and it really says or adds nothing to the original Valley of the Dolls. It's just dumb and wears thin very quickly.