Beyond the Valley of the Dolls *** (1970, Dolly Read, Cynthia Myers, Marcia McBroom, John LaZar, Michael Blodgett, David Gurian, Edy Williams) – Classic Movie Review 2866

Director Russ Meyer’s legendary, infamous 1970 movie is a cult classic that entertains all lovers of enjoyably bad movies. Lusty porn film-maker Meyer heads for the mainstream with this camp and hilarious bad-taste sex and showbiz send-up for 20th Century-Fox studios, working for the first time with an important film company.

But he wasn’t destined to work in the mainstream for very long. Fox later soon regretted its involvement in this movie with a story and screenplay by American film critic Roger Ebert about a three-woman rock group enjoying the more disreputable parts of Hollywood life. Big-bosomed Dolly Read (Playboy’s Miss May 66), Cynthia Myers (Miss December 68) and Marcia McBroom play the all-girl rock band pop stars trying their luck in Tinseltown but only finding sex, drugs and sleaze.

The movie did very well at the box office, proving a hit for the troubled 20th Century-Fox. Budgeted at a modest $900,000, it grossed ten times that in the US alone. However, it attracted a lot of adverse publicity for Fox, when the mainstream press stirred up controversy against a major Hollywood studio allowing a ‘pornographer’ (Meyer was labelled ‘King Leer’ at the time) to make a film under its aegis.

Grace Kelly, a member of the board of directors of Fox, was outraged and lobbied to have the studio’s contract with Meyer terminated. And indeed that happened after Meyer’s next Fox film, The Seven Minutes (1971).

It is now a minor cult favourite but more importantly it is proof, if it’s needed, that film critics can write screenplays! It is rightly listed among The 100 Most Enjoyably Bad Movies Ever Made in The Official Razzie Movie Guide. With lack of good taste or regard for conservative values written over every frame, it is quite a hoot and a half, an icon from an era of liberated indulgence.

Also in the cast are John LaZar, Michael Blodgett, David Gurian, Edy Williams, Erica Gavin, Phyllis Davis, Harrison Page, Ducan McLeod, Jim Iglehart and Charles Napier.

Fox intended it as a sequel to their hit Valley of the Dolls (1967), whose author Jacqueline Susann submitted a screenplay that the studio rejected. Their contract gave them the right to produce a separate version but Susann was offended and threatened to sue. Fox added a disclaimer ‘This is not a sequel to Valley of the Dolls’ in all advertising.

The film got an X rating, surprising Meyer, who said he would have added more nudity and sex to the film if he had known beforehand.

Ebert and Myer came up with the idea of the gory climax on the day of shooting, based on the August 1969 Manson Family murders.

The Strawberry Alarm Clock does the soundtrack. The band’s only big hit ‘Incense and Peppermints’ can be heard in the first party scene.

The character of Ronnie Z-Man Barzell is based loosely on legendary record producer Phil Spector.

Roger Ebert became the first movie critic to win a Pulitzer Prize, but admittedly not for Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. He died aged 70 of cancer on April 4 2013 in Chicago. His  favourite actor and actress were Robert Mitchum and Ingrid Bergman.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2866

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