BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS

USA | 1970 | COLOR | DCP | 119’ | ENGLISH

An independent exploitation director and a totally inexperienced screenwriter (later beloved film critic Roger Ebert!) were approached in 1970 by a major studio to deliver a satire of Hollywood dramas, acting as an informal follow-up to the box-office success of “The Valley of the Dolls”. The result was one of the most outrageous cult creations of all time. Moralistic melodrama, musical, violent soap opera and rabid parody, the film sees a girl band enter a showbiz world of corruption and decadence. Meyer bombards his sex, drugs & rock 'n' roll odyssey with flashy colors and dizzying editing, fueling the plot with outrageous developments, and culminating in an unforgettable psychedelic orgy starring sexy females, demented crossdressers, scheming porn stars, crazed hippies and neo-Nazis!

DIRECTOR: Russ Meyer
SCREENWRITERS: Roger Ebert, Russ Meyer
DoP: Fred J. Koenekamp
MUSIC: Stu Phillips
EDITORS: Dann Cahn, Dick Wormel
PRINCIPAL CAST: Dolly Read, Cynthia Myers, Marcia McBroom, Phyllis Davis, Erica Gavin, John LaZar, Michael Blodgett, David Gurian

RUSS MEYER (1922-2004)
American self-taught filmmaker, who served in the WW2 as cameraman of newsreels. Many of those wartime experiences can be seen famously in “Patton” (1970). He made history with a series of fiercely independent, heavily satirical sexploitation movies.

FILMOGRAPHY (SELECTED)
1979 Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens
1975 Supervixens
1970 Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
1968 Vixen!
1965 Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!
1965 Mudhoney
1959 The Immoral Mr. Teas