Thursday, November 12, 2009
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
For years, I've been under the delusion that I had already seen Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. Truth is until last night, I'd seen most of Valley of the Dolls (which I need to revisit soon) and about two minutes of Beyond and my mind had melded them together with a false memory of seeing the film. For reasons I only now understand, I recorded the flick on the DVR when IFC played it a few days ago and just started watching it after dinner last night. Well, it only took me about two seconds before I realized: "HOLY SHIT! I have never seen THIS before!"
If you haven't seen this movie yet and you have even a passing interest in trashy nonsense, then do yourself a favor and experience Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. The editing is like a lightning-powered blender stuck on purée. Many instances of dialogue are trimmed so tight that they almost don't make any sense. The script and the plot are so contrived, convoluted and campy that my brain exploded. There's sleaze to spare and a surprising amount of violence wrapped in a comically dated late 60s package that is still offensive after all these years. I consider this a life-changing experience that I cannot recommend highly enough.
Behind the scenes promo:
Labels:
cult,
Russ Meyer,
trash
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Good to see some love for Russ here as well! I'm 2/3 through watching that nice Arrow UK box set of (almost) all of his films (Beyond...not incl., but I got that one, too on that 2on1 with Valley) and I'll be damned if it isn't a rewarding experience!
ReplyDeleteCheers,
MLP
@MLP - Nice. Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is just so magnificent.
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