bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sponsorType

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

FROM THE VAULT: 1970

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls

Starring: Dolly Read, Cynthia Myers, Erica Gavin

Director: Russ Meyer

The film: Former wartime cameraman and Playboy photographer Russ Meyer  is best known to audiences for his fascination with extravagantly buxom women, but within the film industry he long ago built a reputation as a director who could turn a huge profit from a low-budget grindhouse B-movie. Although an independent auteur, writing, filming, editing, directing, producing and distributing his own films, his Midas touch led to a short-lived relationship with 20th Century Fox.

Meyer and film critic-turned-temporary screenwriter Roger Ebert were given the sequel to the dreadful but popular (and now cult classic) Valley of the Dolls (1967) to play with, but rather than make a second instalment they instead decided to produce a parody.

Hence we have three young women arriving in Hollywood with their all-girl band, whereupon each succumbs to the evils of pills (or 'dolls') and booze against a backdrop of psychedelic mayhem, way-over-the-top kitsch and break-neck editing in the classic Meyer style. Beyond the Valley of the Dolls influenced the Austin Powers movies just as much as James Bond, or any of the 'swinging sixties' films more readily associated with that series, and is just as much fun to watch.

Anyone familiar with earlier films by Meyer, such as Vixen (1968), Mudhoney (1965) or the infamous drive-in classic Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965) will recognise several faces brought in by the director to share in the fruits of his first big-budget splurge. The gamble paid off for Fox, with its initial bankroll of less than US$1 million eventually returning around US$40 million, and counting.

Time film critic Richard Corliss later selected Beyond as one of the top 10 films of the 1970s, but Meyer quickly went back to independent filmmaking after shooting one more movie, The Seven Minutes, for the studio the following year.

He only made a half dozen more films before his death in 2004, but with retrospectives and tributes having been screened at the New York Museum of Modern Art and other heavyweight cultural centres, Meyer is now seen, along with John Cassavetes, as one of the most instrumental and original figures in  US independent cinema. Ironically, he is also a darling of the American feminist movement, since he is the only US filmmaker to have consistently cast women in dominant leading roles.

The extras: Fox Studios has recently put out both The Valley of the Dolls and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls in double-disc special editions that are  the talk of the DVD review circuit. Extras on Beyond include two great audio commentaries - one with Ebert, originally recorded for an aborted Criterion Collection disc, and one with five original cast members - and a couple of hours of new documentary and interview material.

There's an unusually substantial photo gallery that contains more than 300 images, and the widescreen-enhanced transfer, filled with vivid 70s colour, is superb. An exemplary package from Fox, and a worthy tribute to a true auteur. Pick up both films for the full Dolls experience.



Beyond the Valley of the Dolls