How Had I Never Seen… the "Valley of the Dolls" movies?
Monday, June 28, 2021 at 12:19PM ;)
As part of a robust Pride-themed selection, the Criterion Channel has added Russ Meyer's 1970 Beyond the Valley of the Dolls to its streaming roster. The Roger Ebert-penned follow-up cum send-up to the 1967 trashterpiece Valley of the Dolls is as campy as its predecessor, making the lurid underbelly of show business into the stuff of dragtastic entertainment. In other words, it's a perfect flick to put on whilst celebrating Pride Month. As I'd never seen either picture, I decided to take this as an opportunity to explore them both and share my thoughts with you, dear readers. I don't know what I was expecting from this double feature, but it wasn't what I found. Suffice it to say, I was surprised, gooped, and gagged…
Adapted from the bestselling novel of the same name by Jacqueline Susan, Valley of the Dolls follows three women trying to make it in the entertainment industry and eventually succumbing to barbiturate addiction. While the novel sets its story across decades, the picture's narrative is more compact, making the characters' demise feel precipitous rather than protracted. Anne Welles is a secretary turned model and our entry point into the world of stars and glamour. We follow her from small-town America to New York, where the film and its erstwhile protagonist find Neely O'Hara, a Broadway newcomer destined for Hollywood greatness. There's also Jennifer North, a talentless chorus girl whose self-worth is perilously tied to physical beauty.
In between kicky montages dripping with the desire to appear psychedelic, Valley of the Dolls moves with a leisurely pace, if not lethargy. While the film may jump over entire character arcs in a scene transition, its individual passages linger. Early on, between slow-motion snow and beguiling shots of 1960s Manhattan, director Mark Robson casts a spell with trance-like properties, lulling us into a state that's not too distant from oneiric reverie. The artifice of the story, the sets, and indeed the performances only adds to this sense of dreamy unreality, a nightmare that's so pretty it hurts. It's easy to laugh at the spectacle, sure, but some specters of genuine emotion haunt the accidental comedy, as much a tribute to Morpheus as Dionysus.
In the role of a domineering Broadway diva, Susan Hayward gives us pure drag excellence, lip-synching from within a giant kinetic sculpture and being forced into unwilling wig reveals. However, she seems to know what film she's in and precisely the type of acid to lace her dismissals with while delivering her viperous lines. The Oscar-winner's paradox of aloof bombast only makes the other human elements more distinct in their idiosyncrasy. None of the leads may be examples of disciplined character creation, but they sure leave a strong impression. For instance, there's a plastic sheen to Barbara Parkins' Anne, who ends up feeling more unnerving than risible in her emptiness.
Sharon Tate may underplay Jennifer with woodenness in her first scenes, but she knows just when to inject a shot of reality into the pageantry. During her character's tragic end, the actress's body language is disarmingly loose, as if the barriers of fakery separating us from this woman had disappeared for one cruel instant. It's because of such moments that one can't wholly dismiss Valley of the Dolls. All that and we haven't even gotten to Patty Duke's Neely, a Judy Garland-esque nightmare of self-destruction paired with consummate showmanship. If Hayward chews on the scenery, Dukes swallows it whole, a gorging black hole of infinite depth and bottomless darkness. She's an actress possessed!
More importantly, she finds something worth loving about an actorly expression that goes so beyond the norm it's easy to consider obscene. Drunkenly parading through the ludicrous scenes in Travilla couture, Dukes' Neely is a celebration of brokenness. A shattered porcelain doll, each of her cracks are filled with gold, perilously glued and unable to keep itself together to the bitter end. As we witness character and actress shatter into pieces, it's difficult not to stand up and applaud even as our faces may still be recovering from a mocking sneer, throats vibrating with a contemptuous cackle. In a flash, ironic pleasure morphs into unironic awe. That's the power of Patty Duke and the unholy mess that is Valley of the Dolls.
Despite all its dysfunctions, I couldn't help but enjoy this 1967 classic. I was even moved by the preposterous melodrama, the absurd creative choices, and remain slightly agog at my reaction. I can certainly understand why audiences flocked to see it and why, a couple of years later, 20th Century Fox decided to go ahead with a putative sequel. Well, a quasi-sequel is probably more accurate. Beyond the Valley of the Dolls explicitly refutes its sequel status on an opening title card. Instead, it proposes a variation on the original's themes, its mechanisms, and archetypes. Such language could indicate a high-minded affair, but the reality is far from such lofty ideas. The movie positively runs away from that stale possibility.
One of our beloved Pope of Trash's favorite films, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls takes the same premise and twists it out of shape. Not quite a parody, more of a fever dream, the movie is what happened when Hollywood gave a provocateur like Russ Meyer access to studio resources. Edited at breakneck speed, the parody is so naked it defies its audience to take offense while never giving them a second to breathe. In that regard, it's very much the opposite of the first film's intoxicating dullness. Still, even with antithetical editing and pacing strategies, both movies are mesmerizing, making their rhythms a big part of the spell. Valley waits around so long that tragedy turns to comedy and back again, while Beyond is just unrelenting in all the best ways.
Bombarded by equal opportunity nudity, repeated images, and the purpliest of dialogues, the audience has no option but to succumb to the movie's attack. Helpless and defeated, the viewer must give themselves to the fantasia of L.A. depravity. Orgiastic ecstasy is soon to follow such surrender to the marvels of Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. Critics panned the thing on initial release, just as they did the first movie, but modern cinephiles have been prone to imbue these artifacts with cult status. Honestly, I'm with them. Sign me up to the cult of this demented diptych. In fact, I can't wait to re-watch Valley of the Dolls and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. But which one shall I revisit first? Which one is better? Which one is more fun?
Looking back at these hallucinatory moving pictures, I can't help but think one's preference will end up reflecting what kind of camp is more to one's taste. Valley of Dolls is pure naïve camp, the sort which Susan Sontag so effusively celebrated and dissected in her "Notes on Camp". Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is more intentional, though I don't think such purpose deems it less pleasurable. As self-aware kitsch or a facsimile of failed seriousness, the Russ Meyer crown jewel is never burdened by the pretension of great art, the responsibility of prestige. It's thus freer to have fun and invite the audience along for the ride, forging a strange complicity, almost a camaraderie, between the trash on-screen and the trash-loving viewer. So, points for the second movie.
In any case, both films are a delight, and I heartily recommend you watch them if you can and haven't yet. As mentioned before, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is on the Criterion Channel. The first movie, on the other hand, is available to rent from various services.
Reader Comments (27)
"Valley' is classic movie camp..."Beyond" is just nuts but fun
A lot of the reason Valley of the Dolls is outstanding is because it came out at exactly the right moment. Hollywood censorship was collapsing, but not yet completely gone. A year or two earlier and too much would have been expurgated and left out. One or two years later and everything would have been made too explicit, and where's the fun in that? Patty Duke's performance as the Betty Hutton/Judy Garland figure has to be seen to be believed. Was she deliberately trying to end her career? Did she lose a bet? Susan Hayward as the Ethel Merman monster actress is superb. She really deserved an Oscar nomination for stealing every one of her scenes. Remember: You have to climb Mount Everest to reach the Valley of the Dolls. Can we do Where Love Has Gone next?
"This is my happening and it freaks me out!"-The purpliest of dialog indeed!!
The original Valley of the Dolls has so many things wrong with it but the things it gets right (most surely by accident) compensate somewhat. Barbara Parkins is horrendous but her "Gillian Girl" segment is fantastical fun. Sharon Tate is tentative in the beginning (according to Patty Duke's bio Mark Robson was relentlessly cruel to her shaking her confidence) but she improves as the movie goes along and her last scenes are very touching. Poor Patty is just a trainwreck that keeps on giving, bless her. Lee Grant gives you method brooding as she gets to mutter such immortal lines as "I'll heat up the lasagna". Finally Susan Hayward is the MVP effortlessly making her character work in every single scene. A goddess!
Wish I could be as positive about Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. It starts well and those initial scenes are hilarious in their ridiculous dated non-sensibility and outre extravagance but at least for me after that humorous start it spiraled down. I grew bored with it by the end.
I watch the original every now and then but the sequel was a one and done.
I love the first because it's naive camp. The second not so much, because it's trying, consciously, to be camp. That's never as good. Still, it's worth a look. But the first one is the one I revisit every now and then.
Classic interview clip with Patty Duke on Valley of the Dolls filmed at a tribute at the Castro Theater in San Francisco
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3N9AAnnxpS8
I really enjoy Valley of the Dolls on a camp level, but I also think it has genuinely effective moments and Patty Duke is great in it.
Beyond… is a different story. Watching it was WILD, but I can’t say I got much out of it. It just gets nuttier and nuttier. I find it most interesting as an artifact, less as a film. But I’ll never forget the line "You will drink the black sperm of my vengeance!"
I find the first one boring, try hard as I might to love it -- it has its moments but the pacing is so excruciating. Beyond on the other hand I've watched a dozen times and never grow tired of it. It's SO funny. Yes it's self-aware but Ebert's writing is so endlessly quotable and everybody's just having so much fun, I find it intoxicating.
I think the character’s name is Neely O’Hara, not Nelly.
Yass, love this piece. These are the acceptable flaws in Claudio. Not egregious non-contextualising films from days of yore or mind boggling bad Baxter takes. Claudio listens, reflects and grows. Love to see it.
I non-ironically love Hayward AND Duke in Valley of the Dolls. Sue me.
As book reader says, it's NEELY O'Hara, a name that's hard to forget especially after that breakdown monologue where she calls out everyone's name and ends with God's...and then her own. Incredible.
Though Neely was partially based on Judy Garland, the Helen Lawson role was actually almost played by Garland: "I'll Plant My Own Tree" and Judy's Valley wardrobe tests
Book reader & Working stiff -- Thank you so much for pointing out the mistake. I've corrected it.
Also, as an added note, I must say I kept trying to find a place to quote my favorite line from BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS but ended up cutting it out of this write-up. "Ere this night does wane, you will drink the black sperm of my vengeance!" is just an amazing piece of dialogue. Roger Ebert deserved an Oscar nomination - I'm not even kidding.
@Jason. The pacing is so excruciating?? Only someone raised on movies in the Bourne/Transformers/Marvel era could say that. I remember when people thought RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK and MAD MAX 2 sped along too quickly for people. Now they must seem like Bela Tarr to the kids. I'd say VALLEY OF THE DOLLS hops along at a pretty good pace for those of us raised on movies in the GODFATHER, NASHVILLE, TAXI DRIVER era.
Some cult movies are so strange that I cannot decide whether they are good or just pure disasters. I still don't know how to evaluate movies like Daisies (1966), Deadly Sweet (1967), the Holy Mountain (1973), or Mysteries of Organism (1971).
@Sam. Classic, Never saw it, Hippy Classic, Classic. You're welcome.
The idea that anyone who think that Valley of the Dolls is less than ideally paced was brought up on Marvel movies and has no use for Godfather Movies and Nashville is so nuts I really hope it was a joke.
it all comes down to the most quotable quotes and even though every word of susan hayward's dialogue is gold i bow down to beyond the valley's greatest pick up line ever: "you're a groovy boy; i'd like to strap you on sometime"
BEYOND isn't really my cup of tea but I adore the '67 film, esp. the music.
@Peter. Sorry. No joke. I've watched it twice., most recently with a living room of friends aged mid thirties and up. No one seemed restless they all told me they really enjoyed it--and believe me, they complain if they don't like something.
I don't even know if I can evaluate the first movie properly. I saw it for the first and only real time at the Castro Theater in San Francisco in the early 80s sometime. It was the equivalent of going to see The Rocky Horror Picture Show for most people I'd imagine.
I'm sure I was the only virgin there, and most people seemed to know all the lines and could act out the scenes. Despite all that, I could sense that I was seeing a monumentally bad movie with no real subtlety or talent whatsoever. Patty Duke's performance seemed to be the craziest thing I had ever seen. That "singing" was dreadful and the way the scenes were paced were ludicrous. Did she sing someone out of catatonia at a mental hospital just with her "talent" or am I misremembering. And wallowing among the dumpsters while screaming out her own name may be the apex of camp.
Dan-Well sorry if I find it incredibly insulting to claim someone who finds structural flaws with Valley of the Dolls is obviously doesn't have the stamina for great movies and is all caught up in Marvel. I find Valley of the Dolls to be flawed and pretty blatantly poorly made and, yes, often quite boring. Full character beats and plot developments are sped thru in a movie that is somehow over two hours long. Your anecdotal example is all well and good, but the notion that it's some sort of perfectly paced movie is something I completely disagree with. So I guess I'm just an idiot then who can't possibly appreciate something like Nashville. And I'd take the Bourne Supremacy over Valley of the Dolls any day for it's direction, screenwriting, and acting. I guess I'm just some plebeian.
@Peter Ugh. First of all, I wasn't even responding to you. I was responding to Jason.
I never said VotD didn't have problems or was a great or even good film. I certainly never said it didn't have "pacing problems," and indeed there are places where it clearly could have been trimmed a bit. I was responding to Jason (and at this point, I'm pretty sure you and "Jason" are the same person) who said the "pacing is so excruciating". At the risk of sounding condescending there's a difference between "pacing problems" and "excruciating" pacing. There were a lot of films from the late 60s that are slow as molasses: CAMELOT, CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG and DOCTOR DOLITTLE, for instance, and both of those were made for children with inherently short attention spans. BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS is not one of those films. It had a typical pace for big budget films of the era and although the acting and melodrama was over the top, it entertained a huge number of people and was Fox's top grossing film of the year. It outgrossed such blockbusters as YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE and THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY, hardly the accomplishment of an excruciatingly slow film.
Finally, if this is the kind of thing that sets you off as "incredibly insulting," you might just be too sensitive for social media. Still, peace. Enloy the rest of your day.
Dan-I am not Jason. Being on social media means having the ability to respond to comments regardless of who they're directed at initially. you did in fact equate someone making that comment with someone who was basically raised on marvel/bourne movies. I found that insulting, or at at that very list exceptionally dismissive.
The comment about "excruciating" pacing was about Valley of the Dolls btw, not Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, as were my own comments. I never said anything about Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.
@Peter. Okay. My bad on that. I'm also referring to the original, not BEYOND.
But if we're going to talk about insults, calling my comment "nuts" is far more insulting than suggesting someone was raised on Bourne/Marvel movies. Almost anyone who went to Hollywood movies as a kid in the 00s and 10s was "raised" on that kind of fast paced film that are epitomized by Marvel and Bourne. (Of course this is typical. It's usually the most insulting people who can't take any pushback.) But, what do I know? Maybe you were watching Apichatpong Weerasethakul films when you were in junior high school. Conversely, maybe you're 77. I will say whatever your age and your past history of filmgoing, it is kind of odd that you're so hurt. but "Jason" has completely moved on.
It was just a comment on a thread. Calm the F down.
You were the one who got pushback and responded in kind. And my "insulting" comment was a response to yours. But whatever. Have a good day.
I just rewatched this last night to see what I though of it. My random thoughts:
-I got my first big laugh at the Neely telethon performance. My swinging necklaces at one point completely encircles both of her breast. Looks completedly unintentional, but then seconds later, both necklaces land on her right breasts as if you were tossing rings at a carnival game.
-When Neely receives a Grammy Award, I was kind've hoping that she'd be all popped up on dolls that her acceptance speech would resemble Duke's Emmy Award speech in 1969.
-Favorite lines of dialogue; Liked when Duke got home to discover her husband fooling around in the pool and slurs, 'All right, fagit, start explaining!' Also like the Hayward classic about 'you come crawlin' back to Broadway, but Broadway don't go for booze or dope...'
-Lee Grant is a prickly presence and a bundle of nerves. If you could belt a tune, I could almost see her in the Susan Hayward role instead.
-For different casting, perhaps this sordid tale would've worked if Ann-Margaret was in the Neely role. She had that mid 60s triple threat going for her. Who knows.
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