Beyond the Valley of the Dolls

If I ever die, I want to come back as a lesbian in 1969.

Russ Meyer makes the late 60's look fucking amazing in this flick. It's a total send-up of the original Valley of the Dolls (which I haven't seen yet). Meyers and Ebert's satirical take on Hollywood stereotypes. And good god, do they fill the film with boobs! Glorious breasts in every scene.

I'd recommend seeing this flick on boobs and costume alone. The soundtrack is great, too. It's a fun film that's sort of like Scooby-Doo on acid. It follows a female power-trio who move to Hollywood and hang out with rich Hollywood folk. They do a lot of drugs, get naked a lot, fuck porn stars in Rolls's, party every night, make good music, and get murdered from time to time. It just sort of goes with the territory.

I imagine this is the kind of film that rustled a lot of freakin insider feathers upon its release. Most of the characters are spoofing actual people, like Phil Spector and Muhammad Ali. There's even a whole Sharon Tait murder tie-in at the end. The film was written in 6 weeks and the cast didn't even know if it was serious or not. They weren't sure how to play the parts and didn't want to ask Meyer if it was a comedy or a drama. He played it real straight because he wanted them to deliver the lines in earnest, even though the film was a total parody.

"Z-Man" is particularly good in the film. Most of the actors do a good job, but some are total crap. It doesn't really matter because even if they're total crap they're bound to be involved in a lesbian scene sooner or later and that negates any past errors.

I dug the editing, too. All the chicks are way hot. It's a fun film and it makes me want to live in Russ Meyer's world circa 1970.

Groovy.