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Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
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Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970) More at IMDbPro »

Photos (see all 14 | slideshow) Videos (see all 4)
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970) -- Ashley St. Ives gets her sandy hands all over Harris Allsworth.
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970) -- Kelly teaches Porter how to smoke pot.
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970) -- Lance Rock punches Z-Man Barzell in the face.
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970) -- Emerson catches Petronalla in bed with Randy Black.

Overview

User Rating:
5.7/10   4,051 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
No change in popularity this week. See rank & trends on IMDbPro.
Director:
Russ Meyer
Writers:
Roger Ebert (screenplay)
Roger Ebert (story) ...
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Contact:
View company contact information for Beyond the Valley of the Dolls on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
17 June 1970 (USA) more
Tagline:
This time... they've really gone more
Plot:
Three girls come to Hollywood to make it big, but find only sex, drugs and sleaze. full summary | full synopsis
Plot Keywords:
more
NewsDesk:
(3 articles)
Movie Reviews: Step Brothers
 (From Studio Briefing - Film News. 25 July 2008, 10:27 AM, PDT)

Soft Porn King Meyer Dead at 82
 (From Studio Briefing - Film News. 22 September 2004)

User Comments:
Russ Meyer's first studio film is his most easily accessible more

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)
Dolly Read ... Kelly Mac Namara
Cynthia Myers ... Casey Anderson
Marcia McBroom ... Petronella Danforth
John Lazar ... Ronnie 'Z-Man' Barzell (as John LaZar)
Michael Blodgett ... Lance Rocke
David Gurian ... Harris Allsworth

Edy Williams ... Ashley St. Ives
Erica Gavin ... Roxanne
Phyllis Davis ... Susan Lake

Harrison Page ... Emerson Thorne
Duncan McLeod ... Porter Hall
James Inglehart ... Randy Black (as Jim Iglehart)
Charles Napier ... Baxter Wolfe
Henry Rowland ... Otto
Princess Livingston ... Matron
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Create a character page for: ?

Additional Details

Runtime:
109 min
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Color:
Color
Aspect Ratio:
2.35 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono (Westrex Recording System)
Certification:
Canada:R (Nova Scotia/Ontario) | UK:18 (2003 re-rating, uncut) | UK:X (cut) | France:-16 | Singapore:R21 | West Germany:18 | Australia:R | Canada:PA (Manitoba) | Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:R18 | USA:NC-17 (re-rating) (1990) | USA:X | Canada:18+ (Quebec) | Finland:K-18 (2004)

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
The outfit that Kelly borrows from her Aunt Susan to wear to the party at the beginning of the film is the one-piece pants suit that Sharon Tate wore in Valley of the Dolls (1967). Sharon wears it in the scene where she is watching Neely on television and Tony comes home to tell her (and sister Miriam) that the studio has dropped his option. Sharon is also wearing it (sans the metal link belt Kelly will add) in the photo on the cover of the Valley of the Dolls soundtrack LP. more
Goofs:
Continuity: When Ronnie shoots Roxanne, blood clearly gushes all over the gun. In the very next scene when he lays the gun down next to the phone it is spotlessly clean. more
Quotes:
Kelly MacNamara: In a scene like this you get a contact-high! more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in Lovedolls Superstar (1986) more
Soundtrack:
A Girl From The City more

FAQ

What did Mike Royko say went wrong with this film?
What's going on with Z-Man and his big reveal at the end?
What does this have to do with the original "Valley of the Dolls"?
more
23 out of 32 people found the following comment useful:-
Russ Meyer's first studio film is his most easily accessible, 5 November 2000
10/10
Author: Casey-52 from DVD Drive-In

After the huge success of director Russ Meyer's VIXEN!, 20th Century-Fox knew that he was a talent to reckon with and hired him for a two-picture deal in 1970. His first film (his only good studio film) was written by Roger Ebert and was titled as a sequel to Fox's VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, an embarrassment to the studio. When this was released, it was almost as big an embarrassment. But it's an awesome film with something to please everyone. 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. The story is filled with soap opera contrivances, such as various love affairs, lesbianism, drug addiction, suicide attempts, and money scandals. 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! star Erica Gavin plays the lesbian dress designer Roxanne; John Lazar (later in SUPERVIXENS) steals the show as Z-Man, the psychotic gay manager who speaks in Shakespearean prose and goes crazy at the end, pretending he's Superwoman!; 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. Pam Grier's supposed to be here, too, but I couldn't ID her in the big crowded party scenes. But I think my favorite thing about BVD is the musical soundtrack. Fabulous performances by The Carrie Nations make me wish a soundtrack CD was readily available! While there were 2 good songs in VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, BVD has around 9! 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. The performances are great by all (how does Meyer get such great-looking women who can act to boot?!), the music fabulous, and the pace of the film is brisk and doesn't sag. The one sequence that went on forever was the lesbian sequence between Erica Gavin and Cynthia Meyers, which was unerotic and just dumb. I don't know how this got an NC-17 rating (there isn't very much sex). BVD is highly recommended to anyone making their first dive into the cinema of Russ Meyer or anyone who was ever in a rock band that wanted to make it. Pure fun, all 112 minutes of it!

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filming locations lebiedzinskii
Has Roger Ebert ever apologized for the homophobia? Screen-7
Good place to start with Meyer? kakihara83
Worcester? saburns1
A piece of tripe tody711
Was BVD Originally 'R' Rated? FILMCZY
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