De Volta ao Vale das Bonecas

I don't know why I feel so compelled to write about this movie. I had seen "BVD" a couple of years back and recently rented it again. In one weekend, I watched it three times. I love the color, the music, the whiz-bang editing, the campy dramatics...it would be a true classic if not for one thing: the distasteful, disastrous ending. "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. Whereas "Valley of the Dolls" is unintentional camp, "BVD" is intentional camp. It lampoons the southern Californian "scene" in the late '60's by relating the adventures of the three members of a girl band who find fame and fortune in Hollywood. "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. The plot concerns the previously mentioned trio of female rockers and their escapades in La-La Land. Pet, Kelly, Casey, and Harris, the band's manager (and Kelly's boyfriend) make it to Los Angeles after a two-minute montage of them groovily singing their way across the country. Kelly is reunited with her long-lost aunt who takes the girls to a wild, swingin' party at the home of Ronnie Barzell, a rock promoter; Barzell enthusiastically signs the band to a contract after they do an impromptu performance for his guests. All of this miraculously occurs within six hours of their arrival in L.A. (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. As the three female leads, Dolly Read (Kelly), Cynthia Myers (Casey), and Marcia McBroom (Pet), are, if nothing else, energetic and certainly gorgeous to look at. No, they're not accomplished thespians, but then Russ Meyer chose his actresses more for their cup sizes than their emoting skills. The performances I particularly like are those of John LaZar as flamboyant Ronnie "Z-Man" Barzell, Phyllis Davis as Kelly's kindly Aunt Susan, and Edy Williams as, hilariously, oversexed porn star Ashley St. Ives. The music: some great, late-'60's style rock songs. Does anybody out there know if there is a soundtrack available? Meyer's visual flair: This is one of the most colorful, most visually frenetic films that I have ever seen. Meyer will perhaps be remembered more for his abilities as cinematographer and editor than as director. Almost every frame is jammed with vibrant, sharp color and the whole show zooms along at such a feverish pace that you're left breathless.

The Stuff I Didn't Like: As I said before, my problem with this movie is the ending. I won't give it away, except to say that it is repellent, gratuitously violent, and so dark and brutal as to be completely out of sync with the gaudy, campy scenes that precede it.

My suggestion - skip the last 15 minutes or so, and just enjoy the long, riotous bacchanal that comes before.

Venerable film critic and writer Roger Ebert, penned Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls. It's basically a spoof, of the 1967 film, Valley Of The Dolls. 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. They do have an old toothless women in the film, who hangs-out at a party with the beautiful people. She's the comic relief, in an already hilariously campy film.

There's lots of sleazy, over-the-top sex, ravenous opportunists, drug addicts, and overall flash-n-trash scenes. Ebert was obviously milking the satirical element of the film, to the hilt. The humor in all of this, works throughout most of the movie. But when the film veers towards bloody violence in the latter part of it, it's very jarring to the viewer. 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. But the violence in this film, winds-up deflating the wacky, tongue-in-cheek premise of the movie. This film would've worked much better, if the brutal, gory violence was left out of it.

This film is a necessity for anyone with a sense of humor.

Anyone who doesn't think it was intentionally funny needs to sit back and groove baby. Some of the dialog seems to have been influenced by Dragnet '69 (which by the way is a much dirtier sounding title than BVD), The only other example of such painfully "hip" dialog. The use of Wonder Woman, and Robin the Boy Wonder at the end was too cool for words.

See it now!!!

There are two kinds of bad movies: 1.) the kind so awful and bad that you wonder how it ever got approved to be filmed (i.e. '95 version of SCARLET LETTER, SPICE WORLD, SPEED 2, etc.) 2.) the kind that is trying to be serious but it winds up being hysterical (i.e. BATTLEFIELD EARTH, SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND, MYRA BRICKENRIDGE). 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. I recently saw his most acclaimed film in the cinema a few weeks ago, BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS. And seeing it with an audience made the film more enjoyable and entertaining than watching it at home alone. Not anything to do with the trashy Jacqulin Susan bestseller and the terrible 1967 film with Patty Duke, BEYOND is similar tale of three young female talents from Smallville U.S.A. who all go to Hollywood to make it big, and experience the cruel world of show business. There's leader red-head Kelly MacMamara (Dolly Read) on lead gituar, brunette Casey (Cynthia Myers) on rhythm and African-American Pet (Marcia McBroom) on drums. Their manager and Kelly's boyfriend is Harris Allsworth (David Gurian) a man who looks like a older version of Greg Brady. They get an offer to go to Hollywood and make it big, so they hop in their Volkswagon Bus and go on Route 66 to Hollywood (ah, the early seventies, it seemed so groovy). Once there, the four meet Ronnie "Z-Man" Barzell (John Lazar) who owns and runs pretty much all of the young talent in the city. Z-Man signs the group on a contract, which means less time and involvement for Harris and Kelly. Kelly then has an affair with movie stud Lance Rocke (Michael Blodgett) a golden hair actor who thinks he's gods gift to the world. Meanwhile, Harris has an affair with porno starlett Ashley St. Ives (a very buxom and sexy Edy Williams "former Mrs. Russ Meyers). Ashley loves sex, and only wants to have sex anywhere but in the bedroom, the backseat of a Jaguar, Rolls Royce, in a boat, on the beach, etc. While Casey becomes very close and falls in love with clothing desingner Roxanne (VIXEN star Erica Gavin). And Pet falls in love with struggling law student and good guy Emerson (Harrison Page). But, Emerson has to compete with Randy Black (James Inglehart) a boxer who uses philosphies like Mahummah Ali, yet their horrible. Finally, there's Kelly's rich and friendly aunt, Susan Lake (Phyllis Davis) who is giving thoughts on marrying nice gentleman Baxter Wolfe (Charles Napier) against her attorney's Porter Hall (Duncan McLeod) advice. And the plot thickens which includes Nazis, transexuals, abortions, drugs, Martin Borman, and sex sex sex! BVD is a film that appears to be dramatic, but it's actually a funny satire. It pokes fun of those cliched stories that has young Alice going into the world of the corrupt and bad. I know that Paul Verhoven was doing the same thing with SHOWGIRLS, however, the film going public was too stupid to realize that. With such corny but funny dialogue like "I want to strap you on!" and "Up yours Ratso!" One cannot help but laugh. Seeing it in a full theater, the audience was laughing at not only the dialogue but also the scenes. With an abortion doctor wearing far sighted glasses, it shows that this film shouldn't be taken seriously. People think that Meyers was trying to be serious with this film, and he wasn't. Co-writer Roger Ebert (the same film critic Roger Ebert) admitted that BVD is just a satire of the over dramatic films of that time. If Meyers was trying to make a serious film (and I can't see that) then the mood would have been different. Meyers is know for his satire, but he's more known for his big girls. And when I say big girls I mean Double D's. He casts his women (at least the important ones) by the size of their chest, than their talent. That is why none of the actresses are that good. And the actress are already use to baring it all like Playboy models Cynthis Myers and Edy Williams. This is a cult movie that was made before the midnight showcase of the overrated ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW. With the ROCKY HORROR, the audience has to yell out dialogue to make the corny dialogue in the film to be more funnier. But with BVD, all the audience has to do is just to sit back and laugh. And it's fun to watch it more than once. After laughing at the bad dialogue and hilarious events in the film, then one can oogle over the heaving beauties. I wouldn't call this Meyer's best film (that's for UP!) but I can see why Meyers picks this film as his favorite. It's because it's the first film that people don't take Meyers serious. If you're going to watch it, invite a group of people (at least five) both men and women, grab the popcorn and laugh your head off with this cult classic. **** (out of five)

Ever since I showed interest and sympathy for the more bizarre efforts in cult cinema, people have been recommending me to check out the oeuvre by director Russ Meyer. This peculiar director and scriptwriter is often named the maestro of American Cult cinema.Unfortunately, his movies are pretty hard to find (at least where I'm from) and they rarely ever receive a decent release on DVD. 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. Perhaps the weirdest thing about this film is that it was co-written by the respected and Pulitzer price-winning critic Roger Ebert! This - usually - very harsh critic joins the Meyer-madness here gladly.

I doubt Meyer's typical style will appeal to many people but for the more developed cult-fans, his colorful tale of 'Hollywood Vixens' is a true joy to observe! You might as well call it the definition of cult! It has everything: from bizarre and extremely eccentric characters over subtle (and less subtle) humor to explicit violence, sexual images and drug abuse. Wild parties are thrown in this film and offensive orgies are held.you can't imagine it yourself wild enough and Meyer adds it to his movie. Some of the biggest taboos are taken care of here shamelessly, like Nazis, drag queens, lesbians, unfaithful behavior and even abortion!! Keeping in mind this film was shot in 1970, this is a pretty remarkable achievement to say the least. BTVOTD also has a terrific soundtrack and pretty likeable acting performances. The leading girls do a pretty good job in making themselves believable, even though they're rather inexperienced. Needless to say they're stunning beauties in the first place.Especially Cynthia Meyers in the role of Casey! She's a true cult-Goddess and a wet dream for many men.yours truly included. BTVOTD ends with a truly absurd and explosive finale that easily can be considered as one of the weirdest twists in cinema history ever! Yet, I'm very careful in recommending this film to a large public. chances are that you'll be very disgusted by this movie or even loath it terrible. Therefore, I only recommend it if you're used to seeing quite an amount of weirdness already and you're not too quickly offended.