Beyond the Valley of the Dolls | |
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theatrical release poster
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Directed by | Russ Meyer |
Produced by | Russ Meyer |
Screenplay by | Roger Ebert |
Story by | Roger Ebert Russ Meyer |
Starring |
Dolly Read Cynthia Myers Marcia McBroom Phyllis Davis Erica Gavin John LaZar Michael Blodgett David Gurian |
Music by |
Stu Phillips William Loose (add'l music) For songs, see Music and soundtrack section below |
Cinematography | Fred J. Koenekamp |
Edited by |
Dann Cahn Dick Wormel |
Production
company |
20th Century Fox
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Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release date
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Running time
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109 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $900,000 or $2.09 million |
Box office | $40 million |
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is a 1970 American satiricalmusical melodrama film starring Dolly Read, Cynthia Myers, Marcia McBroom, Phyllis Davis, John LaZar, Michael Blodgett and David Gurian. The film was directed by Russ Meyer and co-written by Meyer and Roger Ebert.
Originally intended as a sequel to the 1967 film Valley of the Dolls—"dolls" being a slang term for depressant pills or "downers"—Beyond the Valley of the Dolls was instead revised as a parody of the commercially successful but critically reviled original.
Three young women—Kelly MacNamara (Dolly Read), Casey Anderson (Cynthia Myers), and Petronella "Pet" Danforth (Marcia McBroom)—perform in a rock band, The Kelly Affair, managed by Harris Allsworth (David Gurian), Kelly's boyfriend. The four travel to Los Angeles to find Kelly's estranged aunt, Susan Lake (Phyllis Davis), heiress to a family fortune.
Susan welcomes Kelly and her friends, even promising a third of her inheritance to her niece, but Susan's sleazy financial advisor Porter Hall (Duncan McLeod) discredits them as "hippies" in an attempt to embezzle her fortune himself. Undeterred, Susan introduces The Kelly Affair to a flamboyant, well-connected rock producer, Ronnie "Z-Man" Barzell (John LaZar), who coaxes them into an impromptu performance at one of his outrageous parties (after a set by real-life band Strawberry Alarm Clock). The band is so well-received that Z-Man becomes their Svengali-style manager, changing their name to The Carrie Nations and starting a long-simmering feud with Harris.