835-836 Valley of the Dolls & Beyond the Valley of the Dolls

[swo17]

Valley of the Dolls



Cutthroat careerism, wild sex, and fierce female protagonists are all on offer in this adaptation of Jacqueline Susann's sensational and wildly popular novel. Patty Duke, Barbara Parkins, and Sharon Tate star as three friends attempting to navigate the glamorous, pressurized world of big-time show business—the "valley" is not a place but a narcotized state of mind, and the "dolls" are the pills that rouse them in the morning and knock them out at night. Blending old-fashioned gloss with Madison Avenue grooviness, this slick look by director Mark Robson at the early days of sexual liberation and an entertainment industry coming apart was a giant box-office hit and has become an unforgettably campy time capsule of the 1960s.

SPECIAL FEATURES

• New 2K digital restoration, with 3.0 LCR DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Audio commentary from 2006 featuring actor Barbara Parkins and journalist Ted Casablanca
• New interview with author Amy Fine Collins about author Jacqueline Susann and the film
• New video essay by critic Kim Morgan
• Footage of Marc Huestis Presents Sparkle Patty Sparkle!, a 2009 gala tribute to actor Patty Duke at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco
• A World Premiere Voyage and Jacqueline Susann and "Valley of the Dolls," two promotional films from 1967
• Archival interviews
• Trailers and TV spots
• PLUS: An essay by film critic Glenn Kenny


Beyond the Valley of the Dolls



In 1970, 20th Century-Fox, impressed by the visual zing "King of the Nudies" Russ Meyer brought to bargain-basement exploitation fare, handed the director a studio budget and the title to one of its biggest hits, Valley of the Dolls. With a satirical screenplay by Roger Ebert, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls follows three young female rockers going Hollywood in hell-bent sixties style under the spell of a flamboyant producer—whose decadent bashes showcase Meyer's trademark libidinal exuberance. Transgressive and outrageous, this big-studio version of a debaucherous midnight movie is an addictively entertaining romp from one of the movies' great outsider artists.

SPECIAL FEATURES

• High-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Audio commentary from 2003 featuring screenwriter Roger Ebert
• Audio commentary from 2006 featuring actors Dolly Read, Cynthia Myers, Harrison Page, John La Zar, and Erica Gavin
• New interview with filmmaker John Waters
• Archival interviews with writer, director, and producer Russ Meyer
• Q&A about the film from 1992 featuring Meyer, Ebert, La Zar, Read, and actors David Gurian, Charles Napier, Michael Blodgett, and Edy Williams
• Above, Beneath, and Beyond the Valley; Look On Up at the Bottom; The Best of Beyond; Sex, Drugs, Music and Murder; and Casey & Roxanne, five documentaries from 2006 about the making of the film, featuring the cast and crew
• Trailers and TV spots
• PLUS: An essay by film critic Glenn Kenny

[Werewolf by Night]

Interesting that these are separate releases. Good for those who don't like one or the other, I suppose, but they'd make a lot more sense paired together. I wonder if they're licensed as a package.

[domino harvey]

I'm glad because I already have the Arrow of Beyond

[Feego]

This is very good as I'll be able to buy Valley of the Dolls for my mom and keep Beyond for myself. She loves the original and takes it dead serious. She's never gotten the "camp" following it has acquired.

[katzelmacher]

Valley of the Dolls is a lot of fun (haven't seen Beyond yet) - and wow, I can't wait to see that footage of Patty Duke at the Castro theater. There's been, and still is, a big gay following of this film, so I bet she gets a hero's welcome.

[domino harvey]

Time to break out the Patty Duke Fanzine double 7" comp (there's a Valley of the Dolls word find inside too!)

[R0lf]

Interesting that these are separate releases. Good for those who don't like one or the other, I suppose, but they'd make a lot more sense paired together. I wonder if they're licensed as a package.

Is it a myth that Jacqueline Susann threatened legal action over the sequel and these movies are not allowed to be packaged together?

(This also extending to the studio putting the "not a sequel" disclaimer at the start of the movie.)

[MichaelB]

She actually took legal action and won hefty damages ($2 million) from Fox. But that was a few years after the release - although she'd been making enough threatening noises during production for Fox to be spooked into including that opening disclaimer.

[Feego]

I haven't looked at the specs side by side, but it appears a few supplements from the Fox DVDs for both films may not be included on the Criterion releases. Fox's Beyond ... includes some screen test footage, and amusingly, the script the actors read from uses the names of Jaqueline Susann's original characters, so this was before the studio opted not to do a direct sequel.

[knives]

Interesting that these are separate releases. Good for those who don't like one or the other, I suppose, but they'd make a lot more sense paired together. I wonder if they're licensed as a package.

Is it a myth that Jacqueline Susann threatened legal action over the sequel and these movies are not allowed to be packaged together?

(This also extending to the studio putting the "not a sequel" disclaimer at the start of the movie.)

The films have been packaged together before as part of one of those Fox four packs.

[Westwood]

Wow I'm so excited by these releases, hopefully all that was released in the previous special edition of Dolls is replicated, like the Judy Garland costume test for example.
I never thought I'd see Criterion tacking this movie.
Now, does that mean that Clueless is on the cards? I hope so!

[dwk]

Special features for these have changed (bold items are new/updated)
Valley of the Dolls:
• New 2K digital restoration, with 3.0 LCR DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Audio commentary from 2006 featuring actor Barbara Parkins and journalist Ted Casablanca
• New interviews with writer Amy Fine Collins about author Jacqueline Susann and the costumes in the film
• New video essay by critic Kim Morgan
• Footage from Sparkle Patty Sparkle!, a 2009 gala tribute to actor Patty Duke at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco
• A World Premiere Voyage and Jacqueline Susann and “Valley of the Dolls,” two promotional films from 1967
• Episode of the television program Hollywood Backstories from 2001 on the film
• Screen tests
• Trailers
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Glenn Kenny

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls:
• High-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Audio commentary from 2003 featuring screenwriter Roger Ebert
• Audio commentary from 2006 featuring actors Dolly Read, Cynthia Myers, Harrison Page, John LaZar, and Erica Gavin
• New interview with filmmaker John Waters
• Episode from 1988 of The Incredibly Strange Film Show on director Russ Meyer
• Q&A about the film from 1992 featuring Meyer, Ebert, LaZar, and Read; and actors David Gurian, Charles Napier, Michael Blodgett, and Edy Williams, with host Michael Dare
• Interview with cast members from 2005
• Above, Beneath, and Beyond the Valley; Look On Up at the Bottom; The Best of Beyond; Sex, Drugs, Music & Murder; and Casey & Roxanne, five documentaries from 2006 about the making of the film, featuring the cast and crew
• Screen tests
• Trailers
• PLUS: PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Glenn Kenny and excerpts from a 1970 account in the UCLA Daily Bruin of a visit to the film’s set

[FrauBlucher]

Beaver. Valley of the Dolls.

[Minkin]

Blu-ray.com. Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. Svet forgot to list the John Waters interview.

Interesting that it includes trailers for Vixen + Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!. Perhaps the Meyer estate will license films out again.

[FrauBlucher]

Beaver. It seems much brighter than Arrow's edition.

[cdnchris]

I remember, way back in the day when Fox first started licensing titles to Criterion, that both of these titles were stated as definitely coming from Criterion at the time only for them to never materialize, Fox releasing them both themselves years later. I don't remember it ever being confirmed this was the case and why Fox handled the films themselves (though I would assume they saw decent sales with the titles) but I got some confirmation from this Blu-ray that they did intend to release it at one point: the notes for Ebert's commentary state that it was recorded for The Criterion Collection in 2003 (the other states it was recorded for Fox in 2006).

At any rate the John Waters interview is great. It's not only the funniest and most energetic director appreciation interviews I've ever watched, but it's incredibly insightful on Meyers and sexploitation. It was 30-minutes and felt way too short.

[Feego]

but I got some confirmation from this Blu-ray that they did intend to release it at one point: the notes for Ebert's commentary state that it was recorded for The Criterion Collection in 2003 (the other states it was recorded for Fox in 2006).

Yes, Ebert actually mentions in the commentary itself that it was recorded for the Criterion Collection (he says something along the lines of "this Criterion edition"). I noticed that when I listened to the DVD commentary and was a little surprised that Fox didn't remove that line.

This post from 2005 offers a little info as well. I was kind of under the impression (through no actual knowledge and just my own speculation) that Criterion was only interested in Beyond and not the original film. I had always assumed Fox decided to release Beyond themselves for the sole purpose of promoting the films together as a kind of camp classic double feature. When the speculation began last year that Criterion would release both films, I figured it was a similar situation -- Fox would only license them as a package deal. But that's just me starting unfounded rumors.

[cdnchris]

Thanks! I remember other posts back in 2003/2004 (when I still lived in Canada) referring to the release as well and there was a bit of a big deal about it, though couldn't find them (might be archived away). It might have been the comments Ebert had made that had everyone so sure it was coming. I was also sure the rumour was that both were coming from them but that probably wasn't the case and maybe just speculation. I had rented Beyond on DVD previously but hadn't listened to the commentary (I don't even remember it being there). I'm guessing Fox figured there was money in releasing it themselves since it would have easily been the bigger seller of the early Fox titles Criterion released.

The Trainspotting DVD and Blu-ray use the Criterion commentary as well and left mention of that in the track. I recall another DVD for another film doing the same but am not sure which one it was. I honestly don't think the people that put these releases together actually listen to the tracks, and if they did I doubt they'd put in the effort to remove any mention of Criterion anyways.

[MichaelB]

The Trainspotting DVD and Blu-ray use the Criterion commentary as well and left mention of that in the track. I recall another DVD for another film doing the same but am not sure which one it was. I honestly don't think the people that put these releases together actually listen to the tracks, and if they did I doubt they'd put in the effort to remove any mention of Criterion anyways.

I flagged up mentions of Anchor Bay in Tim Lucas's commentaries when I QCed some of Arrow's Mario Bava discs, but they decided to leave them intact.

[colinr0380]

The other one that comes to mind is the Blu-ray edition of Taxi Driver, which directly credits Criterion for the 1986 Scorsese and Schrader commentary in the extra features list.

[Moe Dickstein]

I remember, way back in the day when Fox first started licensing titles to Criterion, that both of these titles were stated as definitely coming from Criterion at the time only for them to never materialize, Fox releasing them both themselves years later. I don't remember it ever being confirmed this was the case and why Fox handled the films themselves (though I would assume they saw decent sales with the titles) but I got some confirmation from this Blu-ray that they did intend to release it at one point: the notes for Ebert's commentary state that it was recorded for The Criterion Collection in 2003 (the other states it was recorded for Fox in 2006).

At any rate the John Waters interview is great. It's not only the funniest and most energetic director appreciation interviews I've ever watched, but it's incredibly insightful on Meyers and sexploitation. It was 30-minutes and felt way too short.

Not only that but Beyond was meant to be a Laserdisc release - that 1992 Q&A was filmed for that abandoned project.

[cdnchris]

Just got through everything (except the commentaries) and Ebert mentions in the QA (from 1990) that Criterion will be releasing the film "in widescreen!" so it appears that maybe that video was made for that possible laserdisc like you said. Interesting how they've obviously had such a hard time getting this from Fox with so many stops and goes. And here it is 26 years later.

[Minkin]

Blu-ray.com on Valley of the Dolls

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

I haven't bought a Criterion on it's first day in about a year, but Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is one of my pantheon films. I'm not sure if it's a popular opinion, but this treads on too ten territory for me. I love, love Russ Meyer, but this is one of those strange Hollywood oddities that's strange to think a studio gave it the okay. The colors, the character actors, the chesty women, the beautifully assembled montages, the choices made in bad taste, the constant sense of unpredictability and the stellar dialogue by Roger Ebert move so fast and combine in ways that I feel like I need to constantly catch my breath.

The box mentions "Trailers", but makes no mention of the two trailers for Russ Meyer's Faster Pussycay and Vixen!. They must have been licensed by RM Films and their inclusion feels a little strange. Is RM Films finally going to stop self-releasing DVDs and finally license their films out? Criterion releases of Meyer's works would help ensure Meyer's legacy endures.

[R0lf]

The box mentions "Trailers", but makes no mention of the two trailers for Russ Meyer's Faster Pussycay and Vixen!. They must have been licensed by RM Films and their inclusion feels a little strange. Is RM Films finally going to stop self-releasing DVDs and finally license their films out? Criterion releases of Meyer's works would help ensure Meyer's legacy endures.

No. RM Films have already released FASTER PUSSYCAT on blu ray with the others to follow.