Beyond the Valley of the Dolls

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Dave S Okay…so what am I missing here? I get camp and understand the draw of cult movies, but what is the appeal to Beyond the Valley of the Dolls? On top of its repetitiveness (sing, smoke weed, dance, get naked, drink alcohol, have sex, and then endlessly repeat the cycle), this may be the most poorly edited movie ever made, a masterclass in how not to edit a film. And then there’s the ridiculous dialogue (thanks, Mr. Ebert), the crappy acting, and the total absence of a story. And then there’s the narrator, who pops out of nowhere near the end, who makes a lame attempt to justify what you just watched. Other than the cool wardrobe and sporadically decent camerawork, what is the appeal to this? Seriously. I’m confused. Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 07/25/25 Full Review Stephen C Funny in 1 hour and 49 minutes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 06/25/25 Full Review Audience Member The late Russ Meyer known for his witty, gritty independent features directs with a large cast of unknowns. Amazingly he actually collaborated with future film critic Robert Ebert having a writing credit. During this period men and women engage in debauchery, drinking, partying, sex, and rock n roll. There’s a lot of free love to go around for everyone involved but there’s probably such a thing as too much as their naive dreams clash with seedy reality of show business. This is total 1970s cinema about a girl band partying non stop and swinging with many people. Trippy, campy, and shows the results of hilarious antics and terror of what free love does. Each decision affects all involved. I won’t lie it was difficult to get a grasp on most of what was going on because the editing is so scattershot. The ending was quite terrifying too. There’s even a horrifying reveal that makes one of the players lose all touch with reality. Full of sex, nudity, bloody violence Meyers says we must all decide what our lives must be, a hand extended to fellow man is a gesture of love, it asks nothing expects nothing but being simply there, if it’s there then there will be gentle steps ahead A true cult flick of its time over 50 years later that’s more than just showing skin but showing how love should be handled by all of us. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 06/17/25 Full Review Shioka O Hugely laughable great trashy camp classic. I didn't expect much before seeing it, and I realised that it's Russ Meyer's. So imaginative and thrilling actually. Not for everyone but for someone who loves groovy 70's cult. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/19/25 Full Review Taylor L "You will drink the black sperm of my vengeance!" It will never stop being funny that Gene Siskel gave this film - written by his famed co-critic Roger Ebert, who together would go on to define film criticism for decades - a score of zero out of four stars. Ebert, already a critic for the Chicago Sun-Times took a five-week hiatus from his role to develop the script, but the film still wound up being highly improvised and was shot cheaply, mostly using existing sets. The actors apparently didn't know what tone they were supposed to use for each scene, whether the film was supposed to be either satirical or sarcastically sincere; this would result in a tone that Ebert himself would describe as "curious". Panned on release (where it received an X-rating), Beyond the Valley of the Dolls only gained recognition as a cult film, thanks to the campy style that director Russ Meyer (who by that point had basically made only porn or at best, sexploitation flicks) brought to the material; basic plot elements of original - young women lured to show business - are preserved, but the melodrama and moral preachiness of the original are flipped on their head with some absurdism. Though legally, the film had no relation to Valley of the Dolls, it didn't stop Fox from getting sued. For Ebert of all people - the stuffy, frequently disparaging critic who never found a loose thread he didn't like to pull - to write a movie this zany certainly is something. All the sexual liberation and fun-loving nature of the swinging '60s that the original film cashed in on with a disapproving finger wag is given a pumped up to loving and frantic excess by Meyer, and it's certainly unique. (3/5) Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/14/23 Full Review Audience Member Roger Eden co-wrote this with the king of cheesy sleaze, Russ Meyer. Did he ever review it? What dreck.. The dialog is campy groovy and like nails scraping on a blackboard. That's on Roger. The rest of it is on Russ. Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 02/17/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls

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