Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
According to Roger Ebert's audio commentary on the DVD, Russ Meyer was unaware that this film would get an "X" rating. Fox executives had intended for the film to be a hard "R," and Meyer omitted significant amounts of nudity and sex from the final edit. Ebert says that Meyer wanted to add much of the excised footage back into the edit following the MPAA's "X" rating, but there wasn't enough time to do so.,Ronnie picks up an extension phone when Casey is in the middle of dialing her friends for help. The phones used are 500 series Western Electric business phones. Because of the way rotary dial phones work, picking up an extension would prevent any phone on the same circuit from being able to dial.,Ronnie (Z-Man) Barzell: This is my happening and it freaks me out!,Opening credits prologue: Disclaimer: THE FILM YOU ARE ABOUT TO SEE IS NOT A SEQUEL TO "VALLEY OF THE DOLLS." IT IS WHOLLY ORIGINAL AND BEARS NO RELATIONSHIP TO REAL PERSONS, LIVING OR DEAD. IT DOES, LIKE "VALLEY OF THE DOLLS" DEAL WITH THE OFT-TIMES NIGHTMARE WORLD OF SHOW BUSINESS BUT IN A DIFFERENT TIME AND CONTEXT.,The British Board of Film Classification have cut the UK video release by 53 seconds. New opening credits were required for this release, as the BBFC would not allow a montage shot of a gun being pushed into the mouth of a sleeping woman, a scene that also reappears in full at the end of the movie (and was also cut). Ironically, the film has been broadcast uncut several times on UK network TV, by Channel 4.,Featured in Willie & Phil (1980),In The Long Run
by Bob Stone and Stu Phillips,One of the all-time great cult films, BVD is an energetic, imaginative parody of Valley of the Dolls and other such dippy Hollywood melodramas. Our three lusty, busty heroines are the members of an all-girl pop group. From one trailer: "Dolly Read is Kelly, the singer. Cynthia Myers is Casey, the swinger. Marcia McBroom is Pet, the soul sister." Whoa! Anyway, our trio of sexy supervixens move out to Hollywood, get discovered immediately, and are thrown into a whirlpool of pill addiction, alcoholism, lesbianism, abortions, depression, double crosses, crippling injuries, lots of violence, and lots of sex. All of this is played with a deceptively straight face, with the wild comedy arising from the ludicrousness of the soap-opera situations. One particularly sudsy moment is even accompanied by swelling daytime-TV organ music! There are obvious jokes, which are spirited and very funny, and even some sly references to Valley of the Dolls (a character named Miriam, the Warwick Court Apartments). The ending has to be seen to be believed, and even then....

The acting is very good (though Dolly Read's natural British and fake American accents are openly battling throughout), with top prizes taken by John LaZar as freaked-out record mogul Z-Man and Edy Williams as voracious porno queen Ashley St. Ives. The women, sporting big hair and thick false eyelashes, are all incredibly beautiful, and Russ Meyer lovingly captures them in neon-bright color. The editing and camerawork are fast-paced and super-stylish, as usual with Meyer. The soundtrack is excellent.

A groovy, sexy, X-rated look at L.A. back when it was cool!

Trivia: The reason this X seems so mild is because it was intended for an R! Meyer did prepare a more explicit version, but when this tamer cut was X'd, Fox elected to distribute it instead of the racier print. The video box says NC-17 because Fox has a policy against never releasing an X-rated tape. Of course, an X in 1970 did mean 17 and over, whereas it now means 18 and over. HUGE chasm there!,