Beyond the Valley of the Dolls

Plot synopsis:
The film concerns three young women, Kelly McNamara (Dolly Read), Casey Anderson (Cynthia Myers), and Petronella "Pet" Danforth (Marcia McBroom), who are in a rock trio called The Kelly Affair. Harris Allsworth (David Gurian) is their manager and Kelly's boyfriend. At the beginning of the film, Kelly gets the idea to relocate to the West Coast and look up her estranged Aunt Susan. It seems that Aunt Susan (Phyllis Davis) is holding a large inheritance that would have been shared with Kelly's mother, had she been alive. Kelly feels as if a share of this money could be hers, so the foursome sets out for Hollywood.Aunt Susan welcomes Kelly and her friends, and even promises a third of the fortune to Kelly, but Susan's sleazy financial advisor Porter Hall looks down on the girls, deeming them "hippies". Meanwhile, Susan introduces The Kelly Affair to a flamboyant and well-connected rock producer named Ronnie "Z-Man" Barzell (John LaZar), who urges the girls to give an impromptu performance at one of his outrageous parties. The number goes over so well that Z-Man takes the band under his wing, changing their name to The Carrie Nations, much to the chagrin of Harris. Harris is even further demeaned when Kelly gets involved with a gigolo named Lance Rocke (Michael Blodgett), who knows about her inheritance and wants her to claim as much of it as possible so that he can bleed her financially. Harris has a fling with porn star Ashley St. Ives (Edy Williams). Casey, who clearly mistrusts men, is pursued by lesbian clothes designer Roxanne (Erica Gavin). Meanwhile, Petronella has a very sweet, proper romance with law student Emerson Thorne (Harrison Page).The Carrie Nations take off as rock stars, but their personal lives begin to unravel. Porter Hall wages war on Kelly to get her to drop her claim for her share of the inheritance, and his scheme backfires; spurred on by Lance, Kelly changes her demands to half of the fortune instead of a third. When Porter realizes that Susan intends to honor her wishes, he attempts to buy Kelly out with an offer of $50,000.Ashley dumps Harris because he doesn't respond to her charms or her voracious sex drive. She insults him by suggesting that he is really gay, which causes Harris to suffer a mild identity crisis. Harris confronts Lance at Z-Man's house, and Lance immediately assaults him in front of the whole party. Despondent, Harris takes up with Casey for the evening, and the two of them engage in a moment of lovemaking fueled by pills and alcohol. Petronella is upset by Harris' humiliation at the party, and she is comforted by heavyweight champion Randy Black (James Inglehart); unfortunately she takes him home and beds him, and their interlude is interrupted when Emerson comes home unexpectedly. Emerson is nearly killed when he confronts Black, who attempts to run him down with his car.Casey wakes up next to Harris and goes berserk, accusing Harris of raping her. Kelly dumps Lance after the incident at the party, but the damage has been done; Harris attempts suicide by leaping from the rafters of a soundstage while The Carrie Nations are filming a television appearance. The girls find out that Harris will likely be a paraplegic. A mortified Casey reveals that she is carrying his baby, but Roxanne convinces Casey to have an abortion. Casey finally gives in and becomes Roxanne's lover, seemingly finding happiness at last with her. Kelly devotes herself to caring for Harris, and Emerson forgives Petronella for her infidelity.The final act of the film takes place at Z-Man's beach house; Z-Man invites Lance, Casey, and Roxanne to a private party at his house, where he gives them superhero costumes to wear and they take large amounts of drugs. After retiring to their respective rooms, Casey and Roxanne make love while Z-Man attempts to get Lance to make out with him. When Lance rejects him, Z-Man turns violent, hogtying Lance and threatening him with a sword, calling himself "Superwoman". Ultimately, Z-Man unbuttons his shirt and reveals his shocking secret to Lance: Z-Man has real female breasts, and seems to have been a woman all the time. The revelation causes Lance to laugh in disgust, calling Z-Man "an ugly broad". Z-Man immediately decapitates Lance with his sword. Casey and Z-Man's servant witness the murder; Casey tries to hide as Z-Man chases the servant down to the beach and murders him. Z-Man rushes back up to the house and produces a gun, which he uses to murder Roxanne. Casey places a frantic phone call to Kelly and the others, but Z-Man finds her and kills her with a shot to the head. Kelly, Petronella, Emerson, and Harris arrive too late and are attacked by Z-Man. Petronella is wounded in the shoulder after Z-Man shoots her, but in the ensuing fight that follows, Z-Man is killed in self-defense with "his" own gun. As they all react in horror to what has happened, suddenly Harris regains the sensation in his formerly paralyzed legs.Afterwards, there is a brief montage discussing the fates of the various characters in the film; how their choices have led to their ruin, those who died either from said choices (Lance and Z-Man) or by the cruel twist of fate (Roxanne and Casey), and the hope of a second chance that the surviving characters have been given at the end of the film. The film concludes with a triple wedding: Aunt Susan weds a former beau of hers, while Kelly marries Harris and Petronella marries Emerson.

Tags: pornographic, murder, cult, violence, absurd, humor, satire, comic, melodrama

Review:
One of the all-time great cult films, BVD is an energetic, imaginative parody of Valley of the Dolls and other such dippy Hollywood melodramas.
The ending has to be seen to be believed, and even then....The acting is very good (though Dolly Read's natural British and fake American accents are openly battling throughout), with top prizes taken by John LaZar as freaked-out record mogul Z-Man and Edy Williams as voracious porno queen Ashley St. Ives.
BTVOTD is the ultimate camp film that, unlike Valley of the Dolls, is knowingly campy, deliberately absurd, never comes down to earth, and achieves a non stop contact high.
After finally having purchased Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, I can fully second the statement that Russ Meyer truly is one of a kind and certainly a director to check out entirely.
While not as sex-filled as Meyer's earlier and later works, it still works as a spoof, a drama, and an adults film.Dolly Read, Cynthia Meyers, and Marcia McBroom play Kelly, Casey, and Pet, an all-female rock group called The Kelly Affair that start out small and make it big in Hollywood as The Carrie Nations.
While some of these instances can be seen as serious drama (these girls can act, believe it or not), most of them are played to be campy, complete with cheesy soap-opera organ music in the background.BVD is filled with little surprises: FASTER PUSSYCAT's Haji makes a cameo in two scenes; women-in-prison movie regular Phyllis Davis plays nice Aunt Susan, Kelly's rich relative; Meyer regular Charles Napier plays Aunt Susan's fiancee; VIXEN!
co-stars Michael Blodgett and Harrison Page play Lance, the money-hungry hunk, and Emerson, the black law student; sex starlet Edy Williams is luscious as Ashley St. Ives, famed pornographic movie star; and recurring character Martin Bormann makes another appearance.
The Strawberry Alarm Clock appears performing "Incense and Peppermints" and a non-hit at a Hollywood party, too.While BVD is not as unintentionally hilarious as the original VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, I liked it a lot better.
Normally, people who can't act really bother me but watching all of the Playboy playmates trying to act serious while spouting out hilariously clichéd dialogue (I can only hope that Roger Ebert and Russ Meyer weren't trying to write authentic dialogue) was very funny.
"Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" is soft-core auteur Russ Meyer's drug-drenched, sex-soaked parody of "Valley of the Dolls," the film based on Jacqueline Susann's best-selling novel of the same name.
"Sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll" is the main theme here; the secondary theme is "voluptuous, scantily-clad starlets displaying miles of cleavage."  (This is, after all, a Russ Meyer film!)  Those discriminating viewers seeking insightful social commentary, three-dimensional characters, and plot twists that actually make sense had better look elsewhere.
(Screw schlepping around town submitting demo tapes; this is the way to become a rock star.)  Having achieved overnight fame, our busty, lusty heroines then confront the Dark Side Of Success, finding themselves quickly entangled in various soap opera-ish sub-plots.The Suff I Liked: The acting:  good, not great, but great acting would only detract from a movie like this.
The plot of this movie revolves around a female rock group, that pursues their dreams of stardom in the Hollywood jungle of ambitious hopefuls.All the characters are beautiful looking, particularly the drop-dead gorgeous women in the band.
The brutal violence winds-up spoiling the fun, comic tone of this movie.For the most part, this film is an amusing send-up of The Valley Of The Dolls.
Along the way they encounter all manner of eccentric characters; plus sex, drugs and murder.Like other Meyer movies the story-line isn't the main appeal.
But with a Russ Meyer's film, it does have bad acting and a weak plot, that it appears to be a "bad" movie.
But with it's sharp dialogue, rapid editing, good cinematography, and nice shots of women's assests, a Russ Meyer film is one to watch at a party or in the theater.
With Beyond the Valley of the Dolls he and, yes folks, Roger Ebert, got in and, as Meyer described, the "lunatics took over the asylum." Which isn't to say their movie didn't make money, or end up as a big cult smash that can play any time in the country to a packed house.
It's raunchy (albeit, and maybe to somewhat disappointment, not as raunchy as some of Meyers smaller budgeted films), it's flashy, it's a rock and roll fantasy of campy and drugs and, in the end, lots of over the top violence.In fact, when 'Beyond' is at its best, it's got the stuff of classic exploitation film-making, and with a bit more finesse and class beneath its subversion.
It's strange to see how fast the movie does that, MOVE, with twice as many cuts per scene, but not with the kind of obviousness that seems to come around today (albeit, as others have said, Meyer was ahead of his time).
Comic-book like, but not quite, it's one of the things that sets him definitively when watching any of his work; there are some scenes, like the "intro" to Los Angeles, the drug scene at Z-Man's pad with the Sorcerer's Apprentice music on, and all the 'fluffy' scenes that are 100% self-conscious, work in large part to Meyer's spectacular style at the movieola.Plot?
Think Josie and the Pussycats in a fricassee of X-rated madness.Though I should say, contrary to a few critics of the film, if anything puts it into the stratosphere of being memorable so many years later- when it does, ironically, become dated- it's the climax involving Z-man (ahem, Super Woman) and Meyers's outrageous take on the Charles Manson massacre.
All in Fun. Russ Meyer's movies are strictly x-rated, but there's an innocence about them that makes them stand the test of time extremely well.
Seeing this movie (very much cut) on American Movie Classics a few years ago reminded me of just how much fun his movies are.Jeff Millar in the Houston Chronicle described watching Meyer's films as being like talking to your mom's older brother who's been in the Navy a long, long time.
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is a cult movie, not because it is a masterpiece waiting to be discovered, and not because it is garbage pea-brains drool over because they don't quite get the real thing.It is a cult film because Meyer and Ebert, in driving the clichés of the soap-opera genre to excess, clearly revealed what it was people actually wanted from this genre (and still want), but were afraid to ask (and are still, although less so, for better or worse).
Thus this film reveals the real "shadow" unconscious of American consciousness for a generation (and beyond, apparently): Utterly banal, superficial, sentimental, and potentially given to psychotic violence.The generation this film comments on boogied to the Grateful Dead, voted for Reagan, taught their kids to go to church but smoke dope after school, believed empty daydreams promised them like Star Trek and Garrieson Keillor's Woebegone, became obsessed with Oprah Winfrey's weight and Michael Jackson's nose, and is currently enjoying acid flashbacks to Vietnam by sending their grand kids to Iraq for more oil.What Meyer and Ebert revealed - quite by accident - was that (is that) America is a land of fake 'spirituality', cheap thrills, and puking up the morning after.If you can grok this level of cultural insanity, the images of this film will continue to amuse you - and haunt you - and upset you, for many years to come.Yes, it is a hunk'o'garbage; so's George Bush, and he's in the White House - get it?.
Whether it is the music, the clever dialog or the fact that Dolly Read is as cute as a buxom button, this film stands above the other Meyer's flicks and remains one of my all time favorites.The plot is simple, cute girl (Dolly Read) packs up her band (Cynthia Myers and Marcia McBroom) and her boyfriend (David Gurian) and heads to L.A to collect a share of an inheritance from her Aunt (Phyllis Davis).
Only Casey is allowed to actually find love in Erika Gavin's Roxanne) and Drugs which captures Harris and ruins his relationship with porn star Ashley St. Ives (Edy Williams).Film critic Roger Ebert made his screen writing debut with this ultra hip, very funny script.
His great writing combined with the fast moving shooting style of Russ Meyer to create one of the most purely entertaining X rated films ever.This film unfortunately is a target for people who do not like Roger Ebert and use his involvement as an excuse to rail against him.
The film seems to exist far from reality in a cartoonish world of bright colours and psychedelic music.I know this movie is not for everyone, its X rating clearly shows that, but for daring viewers this film should provide a fun evenings viewing..
Tons of ugly Fellini-like characters, beautiful naked people and Hollywood trash are featured in 1001 little vignettes crammed into about 10 minutes of film.While it might seem hard to believe, the editing and direction still were almost infinitely better than the god-awful script.
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is the fourth Russ Meyer film that I've seen, and it's also the odd one out.
The humour and goings on are not exactly subtle either, and like most of Russ Meyer's work - this film is great fun to watch!
They soon hit the big time, but they also discover the joys of sex and drugs and it doesn't take long for these formerly clean-cut girls to immerse themselves in a hive of sleaze as they all find themselves hooked on "uppers" and "downers" and getting in with some very strange and shady characters...When watching this film, it really is best to turn off your brain, forget what you know and just let Meyer take over!
And finally, Charles Napier - not trying to kill Rambo.This movie, written by Roger Ebert and directed by Russ Meyer, is the tale of a band (The Kelly Affair) trying to make it big.
There are drugs, sex, some really bad rock 'n' roll, and before the credits roll we're even treated to a take-off (yes, I said take-off) on the notorious Sharon Tate murder and some of the most ridiculous moralizing in celluloid history.As leader of the band, Dolly Read looks and acts like Barbie's friend Skipper after one course of hormone treatments too many.
Also, John LaZar delivers one of the best performances I've ever seen as "ZMan." The band sequences (the miming of Marcia McBroom on the drums is priceless) are campy but great, and the music definitely adds to the movie's surreal quality.
All you have to do is check out the "Memorable Quotes" section of this movie and you'll find a small sampling.Second, the film has one of my all time favorite characters, Ronnie "Z-Man" Barzell, played with a flourish and relish by John LaZar. He speaks beautifully and energetically with a penchant for speaking in old English, and he also throws some of the most interesting, not to mention fun looking, parties ever put on celluloid.
Couple this outrageous story with a script sparkling with the cliched "hip lingo of 1960's youth" (penned by a young Roger Ebert, who must have gotten a huge kick out of having his characters use phrases like `You're a groovy boy, I'd like to strap you on sometime' and utter words like `groovy' and `dig' with heart rending earnestness), a ridiculously fetching sound track (I happily own one of the very few surviving copies on CD - only 1000 were ever made), a bevy of buxom, big-haired, Playboy bunnies who can barely act, and the uniquely stylistic camera work of soft-core porn master Russ Meyer, and what we have is a film that is so intentionally bad that it defies fantastic.
After viewing this movie, i saw Russ Meyers movie "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls", which is full of nudity, sex, and violence (not exactly "Beaches" material).
It brings out more of the humour and subtle differences.It is easy to see that the movie was based on Valley of the Dolls, but with a classic Russ Meyers touch, a pornographic-like story line.
He got together with Russ to write this movie because he had given favourable reviews for Meyer's earlier porn films.
Since this movie, Ebert has co-written a couple of Meyers films, none of which i have seen.This probably makes me out to be a porn freak, right?
This is the only Russ Meyers film that i have seen, and the only one i want to see, but this movie does have something that others don't.
Roger Ebert and Russ Meyer are as compatible as orange juice and tooth paste, but they come out with one of the classics of camp in this movie.
Even stranger, the actors are so good-looking they'd make the pope drool, and still they really can act.I think the studio's restriction to be less explicit than in his self-financed work did Russ Meyer a lot of good, it's definitely not a very graphic but decidedly sexy movie, and as far as I can tell it's his best one.
You know maybe it's me but if I had to list all the essential ingredients of a good movie they would include, an unpredictable story, a great soundtrack, a few attractive cast members, the odd joke, some action and many other things that are included in Russ Meyers masterpiece.
While former manager Harris finds himself left behind by Kelly, all of them are sucked into the show business world of sex, drugs and partying.There are some films it is hard to review and those from Russ Meyer are some of them.
Released in 1970 and directed by Russ Meyer, "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" satirizes the previous film, scripted by none other than Roger Ebert.
So naturally this 1970 follow-up is a raunchy sex comedy directed by Russ Meyer and penned by the late film critic Roger Ebert.
The fact that this homicide forms the basis of Beyond's insane bloodbath ending tells you all you need to know about the approach Meyer and Ebert are taking with this remake/sequel.Dolly Read plays Kelly, the lead singer of an up-and-coming all-girl pop-rock band, which heads to LA to meet Kelly's aunt, Susan (Phyllis Davis), and hopefully meet with her $50k inheritance.
While this battle is waged, the girls live up to Porter's title, boozing and bonking their way through a series of parties, while their new svengali, Ronnie "Z-Man" Barzell (a lascivious John Lazar), sidelines their existing manager Harris (David Gurian), changes the band's name, and shamelessly promotes them for himself."All uptight about tomorrow and hanging onto yesterday," moans Randy Black (Jim Iglehart, channelling a low-rent Mohammed Ali); "all that matters is now." Combining counterculture energy with cheapo raunchiness, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls boldly and ruthlessly satirises the Love Generation.The story begins with a road trip promising boundless opportunity and free-spiritedness, but ultimately the girls' desires are parochial and shallow: sex and wealth.
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.
I am a firm believer that Russ Meyer's films were funnier and more unique before Roger Ebert's influence of self parody.
"It's my happening, baby, and it freaks me out!" There's just something about Russ Mayer's most popular and biggest film, 1969's "Beyond The Valley Of The dolls" that makes you watch it every time it's on IFC (Independent Film Channel).For one thing, it's uncut and that's always a treat.For another, it takes place in the hip, decadent, psychedelic, hippie heaven of Hollywood in 1969.Regarding the line, "It's my happening, baby, and it freaks me out!": Mike Meyers paid tribute to this film by including that line spoken by super-hip, super weird pop group manager Z-Man (John Lazar) in "Austin Powers: International Man OF Mystery." The sex, the drugs, the nudity, the excellent color, the cast (including Dolly Read-Martin ("Mrs. Dick Martin"), former KHJ-9 teen dance show host Michael Blodgett and Phyllis Davis)and yes, even the cheesy plot combine for a couple hours of weird yet alluring entertainment.And that wild, wacky, way-too-hip-for-the-room dialogue demands repeated viewing.
Campy, melodramatic, ridiculous and hilariously dated counterculture shock vehicle, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is a landmark Russ Meyers film.
AMC just showed an edited version the other night and it was missing 11 minutes of what makes Russ Meyer movies worth watching.The story here is nothing new.
Even the music in this movie is great and while the film is not fantastic, its good because its simple and fun.
A movie like this could only have been made when it was and by Russ Meyer.
This movie is what breast-loving director Russ Meyer and film critic Roger Ebert envisioned the swinging 60s LA scene to be like.
Ebert writes his story like someone with a heart but for most of the time, the film comes across as a horny teenager writing down his sexual fantasies; weather it was director Meyer's idea to include all the graphic content will never be known but it makes you think.
Filled with drugs, sex, rock n' roll, stereotypes, murder, fighting, and plenty of cheese, i would have to say that Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is probably the best bad movie ever made.
The movie is very hypnotic with it's music, style and delivery, although Russ Meyer's quick editing is very much like "Armageddon's" with every scene changing in about 5 seconds.The story is basically about an all-girl group called the Carrie Nations and it's run of sex, drugs and rock 'n roll as well as the horrible price it pays for success.