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
matthew d
Insanely entertaining chaos in the ultimate camp film of all time!
Russ Meyer went from directing X-rated pornographic features to the biggest cult classic perhaps ever with his outrageous, erotic sexploitation comedy Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970). Meyer lets his actresses be naked, his performers deliver over the top displays, and allows the party to never end on the silver screen. Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is a time capsule of the late 1960's and the early 1970's for those who would otherwise never believe they happened.
Dolly Read is beautiful, talented, fun, and engaging as the singer of The Carrie Nations named Kelly McNamara. Her powerful vocals, natural beauty, easy charm, and endearing personality are fascinating to watch as Kelly sleeps around and ruins her life. Dolly Read's playful lead actress role centers Beyond the Valley of the Dolls into a coherent narrative.
Michael Blodgett's role as the blonde beauty Lance Rocke is perfectly entertaining as this sleazy egomaniac with his own plans for wealth at the cost of anyone in his bed. David Gurian is interesting as the depressed, jealous lover and The Carrie Nations' manager Harris Allworth. His love triangle with Dolly Read and Michael Blodgett is great. It's his shocking and sorrowful scenes with Cynthia Myers that hit hardest though as they get into a drunken rape reference followed by a regretful abortion scene. Beyond the Valley of the Dolls has everything to show how Read's Kelly changes the lives of everyone around her. I should mention director Russ Meyer's wife, model, and actress Edy Williams plays the promiscuous porn star Ashley St. Ivens with a delirious zeal in her sexual tasks.
Cynthia Myers gives the best acting performance as the drop dead gorgeous brunette bassist and backup vocalist Casey Anderson, who realizes she is a lesbian and desires real love away from the lecherous men surrounding her. You feel so sorry for Myers as she's adorable and heartfelt in every little moment. I loved the supporting actress Erica Gavin as the sultry and flirty lesbian lover to the effervescent Cynthia Myers' empathetic and uncertain Casey Anderson. Gavin calms Myers' insecurities with emotional scenes that give Beyond the Valley of the Dolls some dramatic weight.
Marcia McBroom is great as Petronella Danforth, the energetic drummer for The Carrie Nations, with a longing for a real man of substance. Her entanglement with Harrison Page's sympathetic lawyer Emerson Thome and James Inglehart's massive boxer Randy Black is intriguing as a side-plot on its own. Her story is about loyalty, cheating, and what you value in a man. It's cool to see black main characters too among all these other characters.
Phyllis Davis is nice as the sweet Aunt Susan Lake, who helps out Dolly Read's Kelly once she arrives in the turbulent world of California in 1970. Charles Napier is kind alongside Davis as Suan Lake's true love Baxter. Duncan McLeod is good as the self serving lawyer Porter Hall with his sleazy and sexist attitude towards women. You'll hate him immediately.
John Lazar's chaotic villain Z-Man is a full on portrayal of the kind of producer mania and murderous sickness that Phil Spector and his ilk carry on with in Hollywood. He gives a splendid and haunting performance that is totally his own. There's no acting role quite like Lazar ever captured before or since. Haji is the Cat Woman at a party, Pam Grier is a dancer in the background at a party, and director Russ Meyer even cameos as a TV cameraman.
Director Russ Meyer brings a sultry style, scores of drugs, psychedelic imagery, wild partying, 60's mod fashion, psych rock musicals, casual sexual encounters, and a plethora of nude playboy models to Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. The result is a mind bending experience of sex and heartbreak with starnger elements. It's a funny comedy at times and a deathly serious melodrama at other moments. Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is certainly the most out there picture ever made.
Fred J. Koenekamp's cinematography has endless gorgeous close-ups for the intimate love scenes and breathtaking wide shots of LA and chaotic parties. I have to mention that Dann Cahn and Dick Wormell's experimental editing cuts conversations, rock musical performances, orgies, and passionate love making like they are dream sequences. You never get a chance to breathe as Beyond the Valley of the Dolls blasts its way through 109 minutes like it's nothing.
Renowned film critic Roger Ebert actually wrote the screenplay and came up with Beyond the Valley of the Dolls' strange and crazy story as a satire on the original dramatic film Valley of the Dolls. Ebert's writing is peak manic energy with scandalous depictions of lesbians, homosexuals, day drinking, raging alcoholism, infidelity, serial killing, erotic dancing, loud rock and roll, casual pill popping of downers (dolls), and not to mention the drug fueled orgies.
Roger Ebert was both a gifted writer and an absolute nutjob with the pen. He has trans men in drag reciting Shakespeare while lesbians make love in the moonlight in the other room. There's really no way to describe this shocking picture full of debauchery and delights other than Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is certainly creative. He's sending up the grisly, recently occurred then, murder of Sharon Tate as well as the sustance abuse of actresses with equal glee. His horny lens gives us a visual art gallery of gorgeous nude ladies, while critiquing manipulative men who use women for sex and money in the entertainment industry. He's doing what the original classic Valley of the Dolls did as a drama, but with a scathing satirical edge and sex fuel frenzy to his script writing. I cannot even imagine what Beyond the Valley of the Doll's screenplay looked like on the page. Maybe it was a bunch of colorful wavy lines in between smart dialogue and strange eccentricities with song breaks? It's simply magnificent, like watching an explosion bring an entire building down.
Stu Phillips' playful psych score has an air of whimsy and eeriness to it. I love the music made for the girl group rock band The Carrie Nations that sounds like Heart or Jefferson Airplane down to Dolly Read's Ann Wilson and Grace Slick like soaring vocals. The cameo from iconic psych rockers Strawberry Alarm Clock was radical with a fun rendition of Incense & Peppermint among other Strawberry Alarm Clock tracks. David Hayes' costumes are the pinnacle of hippie dresses and loud suits with the entire spectrum of colors from the rainbow represented here.
In all, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is a riot from the groovy language to the insane performances. It's not Lawrence of Arabia, but Beyond the Valley of the Dolls knows it's a satire on some level. Russ Meyer and Roger Ebert really were on one with Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is a prefect cult with campy humor. a good written story and even more fun than the 1967 movie.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/07/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls is a great movie! I loved every minute of this 70's exploitation ride! This movie is a great satire and study of the hypocrisy of fame, and the sacrifices and consequences one can find in underbelly of showbiz. The music is fabulous and I wish I had the soundtrack as it really is fantastic. All of the characters are relatable if not a little over the top at times, but you can still see the reality within them as they each go through their individual struggles, and if that's not enough, the climax of this movie is by far one of my new favorites in any movie I have seen thus far, it is absolutely insane! It really is something you have to see to believe. If there are any nitpicks for this movie, it's that at times the plot moves very rapidly with from my viewing appeared to have some of the plot points not get proper closure or clarification. Also I must make a mention this movie is rated NC-17 for a reason, though this may not be Caligula, this movie does contain subject matter and material that really should only be viewed by movie lovers 18 years or older, this includes quite a few scenes of female nudity. All in all though this movie really is a real treat and is a must see for any lover of cinema! I give Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls a 8.5/10!
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
01/29/23
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Audience Member
Definitely amongst the weirder pornos I've ever watched. I'm not sure what the plot was about but no one watches porn for the plot. There were some great looking women in the film and some of the bodies were exceptional. A lot of action but not quite explicit enough so it leaves you a bit frustrated.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
01/28/23
Full Review
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