Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970)

Such a frustrating disappointment

Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Good start, but then it gets ruined

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Fantastic encapsulation of the Russ Meyer style with an over the top story, hilarious satire, and great songs! Super fun and tremendous to watch again and again.

"Buyer beware" that's the cautionary tale underscored in Russ Meyer's campy, melodramatic foray into the seedy underbelly of Hollywood, where sex, drugs and every vice imaginable runs rampant after dark. The film is co-written alongside Meyer by Roger Ebert. Together there cynicism and self-awareness help elevate a scattershot screenplay that's filled with clichés, and under-cooked plot threads.The film follows three young women performing in a rock band 'The Kelly Affair' featuring Kelly (Dolly Read), Casey (Cynthia Myers), and Petronella (Marcia McBroom). They are managed by Kelly's boyfriend Harris (David Gurian). Together they head to Los Angeles to collect Kelly's inheritance. Upon arrival she meets with her estranged aunt, who invites them to a party, which gives the group a taste of the high-life. Whilst simultaneously, outside influences begin digging their claws in, which starts splitting the four friends apart piece by piece, as is the nature of the beast.For the most part this film doesn't live up to the craziness the films reputation has. For it's time I could imagine the ruckus it caused, but by today's standard it's fairly tame. So where this films main focus is now, is in its characters, all of whom are hyperbolic and aren't given a great deal to work with. However there's a strange likability to the characters that makes you care for them.There isn't a great deal of plot in this film, other then a power struggle over the band between Harris and the bands new manager, which isn't fully explored. The film acts more as voyeuristic look at the hippie scene of the late 60's early 70's, as the parties become more and more crazy and dangerous. All of which leads up to a final act that is so over the top, and so far out of left field. I've never seen a film shift gears into sheer mania so quickly.Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is a dated film. It's script and parables are at times fairly clunky and in your face. However there is a-lot of fun to be had from this film, and it's a film that still has a-lot of gas left in its tank.

This is not a sequel to the Valley of the Dolls. Kelly MacNamara, Senator's daughter Casey Anderson, and Pet Danforth are in a girl rock band. Along with Kelly's boyfriend Harris Allsworth, they decide to drive to L.A. Kelly finds her estranged aunt Susan Lake who inherited the family fortune. To her sleazy money man Porter Hall's dismay, Susan promises one third of the fortune to her niece. Rock producer Z-Man Barzell takes over the band and Kelly falls for money grubbing gigolo Lance Rocke. Harris feels Kelly drifting away and is seduced by porn star Ashley St. Ives. Kelly wants more of the inheritance. The young group gets pull further and further into the wild risqué world.This is definitely a Russ Meyer movie with his love of the female body. Roger Ebert has written a hippie soap opera. By the time of Harris' attempted suicide, this ridiculous movie turns into a comedy. An abortion has never been filmed in a more silly way. The scramble eggs are not lost on the audience. The problem is always the limited acting talents of the cast. They fail to make their characters compelling. The cheese factor is very high. It's almost a spoof. The ending does spin out of control as if Ebert knew that he had to top all the ridiculous stuff from before. I don't want to be mean-spirited but I laughed at Harris and his wheelchair.

An all-girl group, the Carrie Nations, comes to Hollywood to make it big. But Kelly (Dolly Read), Casey (Cynthia Meyers) and Pet (Marcia McBroom) are lured into a kaleidoscope of sex, drugs and evil that leads to the ultimate violence in a city of deranged angels.The first time you watch Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, you experience it as a cult cinematic mind trip: a hallucinogenic soft-core porn tour to the tail end of the Swinging Sixties.On another level, it is a clever, funny, subversive. The Carrie Nations are named after a Mother Grundy leader of the moral majority, a woman opposing booze. Z-Man (John Lazar) with his OTT Shakespeare-by-way-of-an-acid-trip dialogue is a fitting tribute to the Bard: in Shakespeare's plays no one was ever what they truly seemed. The horror at the end makes a statement about the notorious Helter Skelter murder of Sharon Tate in its own twisted way.The film is also better structured than the incoherent Valley of the Dolls. It makes good use of montage sequences, set pieces and music. It succeeds, for me, because it never for one single frame takes itself seriously.