Beyond the Valley of the Dolls

Director: Russ Meyer

1967 / 109min / DCP

A cash-in follow-up to the 1967 screen adaptation of Jacqueline Susann’s dishy bestseller about the dark side of Hollywood, bosom enthusiast Meyer’s first mainstream studio production, from a script by a young Roger Ebert, follows the galpal besties of Valley of the Dolls—played here by Dolly Read, Cynthia Myers, and Marcia McBroom—on their rocky ride to unexpected stardom after forming a rock group, the Carrie Nations. A pseudo-sequel, the film is also a satirical send-up of its immensely popular predecessor, mocking the American public’s unusual appetite for a combination of prurience and sanctimony, and mainstream mass media’s leering obsession with hippie hedonism.