BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS
A film review by D. Brumfie
Copyright 1993 D. Brumfie
I rented BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS over the weekend. It was *great*. A real trip!
Due to the many things I have heard about this Russ Meyers film, I thought I'd post my own comments, because it was nothing like what I had been led to assume.
Often I had heard that BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS was a steamy soft core porn flick--but it is not. What it is is a parody of gigantic and sumptuous proportions. Let me put it this way, if you've ever passed an inappropriate giggle while watching things like FALCON CREST or DYNASTY or (especially :-) any of the afternoon soap operas on tv, then you'll bust a gut laughing at BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS. It's *too* exquisite!
This film is also "known" by virtue of the fact that tv movie critic Gene Siskel gave a thumbs down to the screenplay--which was written, interestingly, by sidekick Roger Ebert. I think Gene must have been a little less than objective in this summation, for the screenplay is an ingenious work of art! Unlike many other parady movies, which are usually stitched together by binding bits of non-parody for the sake of keeping some semblance to a plot, BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS is ALL parody. There is nothing in it that's normal. If you like movies like DR. STRANGELOVE, etc, then BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS is definitely for you.
A send-up of the Sixties Hollywood culture scene, BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS starts out light and loud, introducing the main characters and setting the mood via a LAUGH-IN-type party, where various people and comments are variously zoomed in upon. But after the doctor appears (you'll love this scene :-), the parody becomes intense, quiet and focussed on the dilemmas of the individual sub-plots.
BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS is an incredibly splendid and artful parody on the order of Poe's FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER, a short horror story so skillfully executed that many people who should know better still think it is meant to be serious. The verbose and prolixitous voice over summing up at the end is priceless.
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