BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS (1970)

Kelly, Casey and Pet make up an all-girl rock band who are less into feel-good rock & roll and more into somewhat artsy, gloomy music--the chorus of one song refers to "Lunatic skies of red destruction." Their manager Harris is Kelly's boyfriend, in that loose, free-love Sixties way, and in search of fame and fortune, the four head out to Los Angeles where Kelly's rich, eccentric Aunt Susan takes them in and changes her will to give Kelly a big share of her inheritance--against the advice of her square lawyer Porter. Susan takes them to a huge party (which is shot like the "Laugh-In" party sequence) thrown by record producer Z-Man, a flamboyant, neurotic fellow who signs them to a contract and gets them some hits under the name the Carrie Nations. This pushes Harris out of the picture; he becomes estranged and bitter, especially when Kelly starts dating a pretty-boy gigolo named Lance, so Harris has a desultory affair with porn star Ashley. Pet couples up with Emerson, a law student, who gets jealous when he walks in on Pet having a one-night stand with a famous boxer. Harris becomes drug-addled to the point where he can't get it up with Ashley who implies that he must be gay. Casey, in the meantime, has a one-night stand with Harris which leads to pregnancy, which leads to her getting involved in a lesbian relationship in which she seems to find happiness. When the band performs on national television, a distraught Harris tries to kill himself by jumping from a catwalk above the stage. He survives but is confined to a wheelchair for life, and Kelly decides to devote herself to him. When Pet and Emerson get back together, everyone seems to be settled until Z-Man invites the gang to another more private party. The drugged-out Z-Man tries to seduce Lance (pictured below); when he is spurned, he rapes Lance and reveals that he is halfway to becoming a transgender woman, then goes on a rampage which threatens everyone in the house.

I'm not going to rehash the complex history of this non-sequel to Valley of the Dolls, written by Roger Ebert and directed by hard-R filmmaker Russ Meyer--you can find that on Wikipedia or IMDb. Suffice to say that this film has a reputation as king of the bad camp movies, and the first time I saw it, probably 20 years ago, I could barely finish it, I thought it was such a piece of junk. But time has been kind to it and on this watching, I found it to be more interesting and fun than bad, though potentially offensive to viewers on a number of levels. There is still a lot wrong with it. For starters, the music of the Carrie Nations is not catchy enough for commercial success, except for one song, "Come With the Gentle People" which has a nice Mamas and Papas sound. The acting generally feels amateurish, though in some cases, that adds to the effect--in particular, John Lazar as Z-Man is all over the map (is he gay? Straight? Asexual? Friendly? Boorish? Psychotic?) to the point where the character loses any center, so when he flashes his boobs at the end, you just kind of shrug and say, OK. He also has to contend with lines like, "This is my happening and it freaks me out!" and "You will drink the black sperm of my vengeance!" The central women are all fine, with Dolly Read coming off the best as Kelly (she was married to comedian Dick Martin and retired from the screen by the early 80s). David Gurian is quite appealing as Harris, though he never made another movie. Edy Williams, wife of Russ Meyer, is appropriately sexy as Ashley, and she gives a delicious reading to the line, "You're a groovy boy--I'd like to strap you on sometime"; Michael Blodgett is appropriately sleazy as Lance. 

Random observations: During Z-Man’s first party, we overhear someone say, "Plastics, Benjamin," a reference to The Graduate, and later there's a Midnight Cowboy reference ("Up yours, Ratso!"). During a funny sex scene in a Rolls-Royce, Ashley climaxes screaming the name of another luxury car, "Bentley! Bentley!!" Z-Man's butler wears a Nazi uniform. The character of the lawyer is named Porter Hall, after a ubiquitous 1940s supporting actor. Pet tells someone, "Don’t bogart that joint!" (apparently a steal from Easy Rider).The song "Stranger in Paradise," based on a classical tune by Borodin, plays while Z-Man is trying to give Lance a handjob. In the over-the-top violence of the climax, the 20th Century Fox fanfare theme plays during a decapitation. This is a crazy-ass movie that manages just barely to work, mostly on a camp level. And honestly, even though it has no direct connection to the original Valley of the Dolls, and Jacqueline Susann was well within her rights to sue Fox for pushing it as a sequel (the movie begins with a note that it is not a sequel, but with that title, the damage was already done), it does almost work as a Dolls update set in the music industry. Pictured at top left are two random partygoers. [Criterion streaming]