Beyond the Valley of the Dolls

Let us get this out of the way:

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is not Russ Meyer’s best movie. But if you really enjoy Meyer’s work then it is a must see. And I’m very grateful to Fox for putting the handsome remastered DVD reissue so that I could finally watch the movie without having to resort to an old, pirated VHS tape.

While I really like Beyond the Valley of the Dolls I’m going to write about it in terms of what as I see as the film’s failures.

Russ Meyer generally did soap operas and comedies and naturally often mixed the two.

We are either caught up in our adoration of the amazing women he cast or rooting for the good guys.

In Beyond the Valley of the Dolls it isn’t easy to care much about the people who are supposed to be the protagonists. The heroine seems merely stupidly selfish. There is no glamour or power in her. The first Hollywood pretty boy who meets her, wins her.

Her boyfriend is just a wimp. Not that many of us haven’t been there but he never he never does anything that makes you give a damn. My own response would be to slap him in the face and say, “Wake up asshole!”

The story sort of wanders about as young women deal with success in Hollywood. Never very well but a couple find true love (it seems).

Now, what did I like you might wonder.

It is impossible to not lust after Edy Williams. Not quite Raquel Welch but the body and hair are close enough: your glands just sort of drag you after her. Good sex seems to be all she wants and what man wouldn’t want to give it to her?

And John La Zar as Ronnie “Z-Man” Barzell. I don’t care much for sideburns but I’ve seen few male actors I wanted to screw more. He was bisexual, androgynous and very hot.

In the early part of the movie La Zar functioned as the narrator: setting the scene, giving us the layout. Usually - harking back to Meyer’s days as a documentary film maker probably - this is usually done by some anonymous announcer (usually Meyer himself).

Since Edy Williams and John La Zar are the most erotically enlivening members of the cast they were the people on whom I mostly focused. Unlike the boring bland blond hunk I’d have been happy to go to bed with “Superwoman.”

There are strong subtexts about bisexuality - all of the male leads appeared to be wearing makeup - and even gay (or at least) lesbian sexuality. Either Meyer or script writer Roger Ebert didn’t know what to do with this ( - the movie was made in unenlightened times - ) so it just sort of explodes.

There was a scene of lesbian lovemaking that from anybody else would’ve seemed cheap. Then La Zar after being rejected by a prefab hunk goes berserk and starts killing people. That didn’t follow with any particular aesthetic logic. More like it was time to end the movie and why not go out with a “bang.”

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls had some typical Russ Meyer touches: excellent editing, meaningless references to Nazis.

To properly deconstruct some of what was going on in Beyond the Valley of the Dolls I’m going to have to replay the DVD with the commentary turned on: of which there is plenty.

This has been - as it should be - about my personal response to the film.

It is certainly a movie to watch and the DVD reissue is impeccable. I’m happy to be able to shed myself of the old video tape.