Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls (1970)

A hip and happenin' all girl rock group head to LA to claim lead-singer Kelly's inheritance and make it (and make it) in LA. They immediately fall under the spell of rock'n'roll Svengali, the 'Teen Tycoon' of rock Ronnie 'Z-Man' Barzell, and other rapacious Hollywood party types as lustful porno actress Ashley St Ives, ravenous lesbian Roxanne and shady lawyer Porter Hall. Soon the girls fall into a morass of drugs and deceit as their recording success soars and hilarity ensues. It takes several tragedies to make them stop and think...but is it too late?

Trivia: Director Russ Meyer once said he considers this film to be his "most important". Budgeted at a modest $900,000 (approximately $4.5 million in 2005 dollars), the film grossed ten times the amount in the US market, qualifying it as a hit for the beleaguered 20th Century-Fox. Though tame by modern standards, "Dolls" was slapped with an "X" rating, and there was much negative publicity generated by the fact a major studio had allowed a "pornographer", Russ Meyer (labeled "King Leer" by the mainstream press at the time) to make a Hollywood film under its aegis. Grace Kelly, who was a member of the board of directors of Fox, was outraged and lobbied to have the studio's contract with Meyer terminated. After his next Fox film, The Seven Minutes (1971) flopped at the box office (possibly due to its LACK of nudity and titillation), the studio terminated its relationship with Meyer. He never made another film for a studio. Two women wear costumes in the film inspired by another hit production of 20th-Century-Fox, "Batman" (1966). The character of Ronnie "Z-Man" Barzell was based loosely on legendary record producer Phil Spector. While neither Russ Meyer nor Roger Ebert had ever met Spector, they were told by acquaintances of his that they'd caught his essence very well. Hmm...Phil Spektor as a homicidal maniac who kills two women with gunshots to the head (as well as killing two men with a sword)? I thought this was fiction.

Even if you have never heard of this movie, you have probably heard of the screenwriter, Roger Ebert, movie critic for the Chicago Sun Times and his TV show. I watched this now because over at FilmWise.com we have a little game that we play where we recast movies and replace the real actors with FilmWise Forum regulars and I was cast in this one as Otto. Since I had not seen it I was curious (by the way, Otto is the Z-Man's bartender for private parties). This is what I would consider a good example of an early seventies sexploitation film. It is probably the best known example, I mean, I had heard about it a long time ago, way before I was this much into movies. The plot was pretty straight forward in its convoluted hook-ups and gratuitous nudity (very tame by today's standards, no way this movie gets an X rating today) and it had some nice music too.