Valley of the Dolls (Special Edition)
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Barbara Parkins, Patty Duke, Paul Burke, Sharon Tate, Tony ScottiBrand: Fox
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 1.0; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Special Edition
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 123 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-06-13
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Movie Reviews of Valley of the Dolls (Special Edition)
Movie Review: Fabulous Trash: The Queen Of Cult Movies In A Special DVD Edition
Summary: 5 Stars
Jacqueline Susann had little literary style--but she did have first-hand knowledge of both Hollywood and Broadway, and she based her 1966 novel on the lives of several highly regarded performers, including Judy Garland, Ethel Merman, and Betty Hutton. Her plot points were melodramatic, but they were unexpectedly brutal for the time, and the sordid, puerile, and gritty details with which she endowed the book struck a nerve with readers who had never really believed all those press releases about how stars were "just folks." The critics despised it, but VALLEY OF THE DOLLS rocketed to the top of the best seller lists, an international publishing phenomena and the single best selling novel of the 20th century. The highly anticipated 1967 film version was expected to be equally groundbreaking.
It wasn't, and the reviews were justly savage. The book's fame carried it to undeserved financial success, but when the theatrical run ended it went into the vault. There it stayed until the 1970s when--possibly prompted by Sharon Tate's horrific death--CBS picked it up to fill an empty late-night-movie slot. Having acquired the rights, the network ran it repeatedly over the next few years. Little by little, audiences began to tune in... and their jaws dropped with a "What were they thinking?" incredulity. This revival was not necessarily welcomed by those associated with the film. Oscar-winner Patti Duke had conquered television and even become something of a teen idol, releasing several successful pop recordings, but by the mid-1960s she was in need of a role to blow off the trappings of her juvenile years. The part of alcoholic, pill-popping Neely O'Hara seemed ideal, but the film was a critical nightmare and Duke bore the brunt of the attack. Although she continued to work on stage and television, she strongly felt the film ended her bid for major movie stardom and was quite vocal in her rejection of it.
The basic story concerns three young women in New York who, either by accident or design, work in show business. Anne Wells (Barbara Parkins) is a prim and proper young lady from New England who takes a secretarial job with a talent agent; she soon falls in love with boss Lyon Burke (a horrifically miscast Paul Burke) and is later launched to fame as a television commercial model. Neely O'Hara (Patti Duke) is a "born in a trunk" type show-biz kid whose first shot at stardom is yanked from under her by vicious star Helen Lawson (Susan Hayward)--but her talent wins through, and she becomes Hollywood's hottest star. Jennifer North (Sharon Tate) is a show girl whose talent is her body, and who falls in love with lounge singer Tony Polar (the truly dire Tony Scotti) against his sister Miriam's (Lee Grant) wishes. Along the way there are also womanizing husbands, possibly gay husbands, mysterious genetic diseases, asylums, abortions, cat fights, skinflicks, cancer, suicide, and enough booze and dope to float a battleship. There is also a lot of bad dialogue, bizarre musical numbers, treacherous necklaces, wayward shoe buckles, montage sequences that look like cheap Vogue layouts, peculiar fashions, atrocious hairstyles, and performances that alternate between bland understatement and operatic hysteria.
As in most cases, the fundamental disaster begins with the script. The novel was what you might call honestly trashy and consequently quite compelling, but the screenwriters were afraid of the material. They are willing to mention abortion, but there aren't actually any scenes that pertain to it. They will talk about gay men--always using such terms as "fag" and "queer"--but they draw the line at having gay characters on screen. When Anne succumbs to her lover's supposed carnal charms she enters the room discreetly wrapped in a big bath towel and there is fade out at the kiss. The porno film that Jennifer makes to pay her husband's hospital bills is tame even by 1967 standards. And then there are the lines, so wildly ridiculous that you wonder how any actor could say them and keep a straight face. But it really director Mark Robson who stamps the whole thing with a cult-film kiss.
Mark Robson was best known for the film PEYTON PLACE, and his success with that film in 1957 would be a major factor in the failure of VALLEY OF THE DOLLS in 1967. For this is not really a 1960s film. Oh yes, the performers, the clothing, the sets, even the references to everything from abortion to suicide are distinctly 1960s, but it is all done with a 1950s sensibility. From kisses to pill-popping, the attitudes are naive and the approach is incredibly chaste, and there is a tremendous clash between the material and the way in which it is presented; seen today, it can only be described as double-retro.
If Robson had no real feel for the material, he also lacked empathy for his cast. By most accounts Robson was determinedly combative in dealing with Patti Duke. Some feel this was actually a directorial maneuver, an orchestrated ill-will designed to bring Duke to the emotional boil the role required--but whatever the case the result was not so much emotional boil as a boiler explosion. Duke plays at a white-hot level from start to finish; everything goes from very big to even bigger, and she looks ridiculous as a result. But Duke is not alone in her one-note performance, for Robson seems to have inflicted this upon every one in the cast.
Barbara Parkins, a remarkably beautiful woman with a memorable speaking voice, spends most of the film giving doe-eyed gazes to Paul Burke, and since Burke is only mildly attractive and utterly uncharismatic the effect is ludicrous. Parkins is also saddled with all the "good girl" lines, most of which begin with "But Lyon," or "Oh, Neely," and when she at last succumbs to drugs the best Robson can come up with for her is a stumble down the beach and a wallow at the shore. Sharon Tate was a memorable beauty but not a gifted actress; it is therefore odd that of the three leads she is most successful--but this is really only comparative. Like every one else, she is saddled with atrocious dialogue and ridiculous scenes, and she has the added liability of Tony Scotti as a leading man; even so, her natural warmth somehow manages to read through. Of the entire cast, only two emerge relatively unscathed: Susan Hayward and Lee Grant. It is perhaps significant that both built careers on playing "tough broads," and their roles here are essentially repetitions of well-worn paths expertly traveled. Even so, Hayward has the film's single most ludicrous musical number, and Grant gets blindsided by the film's single worst plot device.
Who could ask for anything more? Well, a really good print, really good sound, and lots of extras would be nice--and this double DVD "Special Edition" release provides them all. It restores all the scenes that were usually clipped for television; it also offers a pristine print and the sound quality is excellent. Unfortunately, Garland's screen tests and film work has still not surfaced, and while Patti Duke says she has come to terms with and even embraces the film's popularity it would seem that embrace does not extend to significant interviews on the subject. But this aside, the bonus material is quite good.
Barbara Parkins and E! commentator Ted Casablanca (not to be confused with the character of the same name in the film) share duties on the commentary track, and while Casablanca is a bit wearing, Parkins is charming and often wickedly subtle: throughout the commentary she puts Casablanca in his place more than once, demonstrates remarkable cleverness in dodging things she clearly has no wish to discuss, and often allows her silence to speak louder than words. This is particularly true concerning her personal relationships with Lee Grant and Patti Duke; the former is dismissed in a phrase and, while she backs Duke in her claims of Robson's abuse, she also avoids comment on Duke as a personality--at least until the very end, when a certain ire breaks through. At the same time, she is remarkably forthcoming on the subjects of Judy Garland and Sharon Tate, and lends considerable insight into both.
There are a number of archival bits, some specifically pertaining to author Jacqueline Susann, some concerning the "nautical" premier of the film. These are interesting, but they show their age. More interesting are the contemporary documentaries, most of which address the cult appeal of the film and which include numerous interviews with a wide range of individuals. It may not be the perfect bonus package, but it comes close enough.
Clearly VALLEY OF THE DOLLS is a film that has a limited appeal, but if you are a fan, and lots of people are, throw out your old VHS and spring for the DVD. It may be trash, but it's fabulous trash, and it's worth it.
GFT, Amazon Reviewer
Summary of Valley of the Dolls (Special Edition)
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