Ebert and Meyer revel in their exaggerations as the rise of The Carrie Nations is told via fast-cut montages. Meyer's editing enforces a brisk pace nothing is allowed to linger. His favored actress Haji (real name: Barbara Catton) wanders nude through the party scene, painted solid black. The level of sex is R-rated, featuring Meyer's concentration on topless females.
BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS SERIES
An innocent student, a pretty boy gigolo (Michael Blodgett) and other oversexed characters bring the soap opera intrigues and jealousies to a boil, until drug-induced madness drives Z-Man to commit a series of murders on a Manson-esque level of grotesquery.
The party scenes are jammed with oddly-dressed older people and curious cross dressers. One newcomer enters into a lesbian love affair, and the band's manager pairs up with a porn star (Edy Williams, Russ Meyer's wife). The women find new lovers at a series of wild parties thrown by the bizarre rock promoter Ronnie Barzell, who calls himself 'Z-Man' (John LaZar). Ebert's story brings an all-female rock band called The Carrie Nations (Dolly Read, Cynthia Myers & Marcia McBroom) to the bedrooms of Hollywood. Screenwriter Roger Ebert would later say, "The only way to judge good smut, is by its ability to get the job done."īeyond the Valley of the Dolls is a self-conscious satire of trashy filmmaking, a noisy, outrageous assault on good taste. Interview magazine responded with a warning, "Don't kid yourself, 20th has entered into the porno business." Susann sued, but the only change made was the addition of a disclaimer title card. Their Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970) hijacks the title of Jacqueline Susann's 1967 Fox hit but is not a sequel. At 48 years old, Meyer was hardly part of the youth rebellion, but his adults-only feature Vixen!, (1968) had recently become a breakout college hit that was promoted by young critic Roger Ebert.Ī radical choice by any estimation, Russ Meyer hired his critic/fan Roger Ebert to help him write the wildest possible screenplay about Hollywood excess. A WWII combat cameraman, Meyer had pioneered nude girlie photography in the 1950s, before first making waves with the softcore 'nudie cutie' film The Immoral Mr. The first was an adaptation of Myra Breckinridge, Gore Vidal's satire about a sex-change operation, while the second project was made by nudie film director Russ Meyer, an outsider to the studio system.
As observer William Bayer noted, the panic to connect with the youth audience was so great that picture deals were being handed out to 'longhairs wearing sandals.' Twentieth Century-Fox put two X-rated movies into the works. Drowning in red ink, studios fired executives, sold their back lots and put their props and costumes up for auction.
The shrinking movie-going audience rejected expensive musicals yet made the tiny counterculture film Easy Rider into a major hit. The Hollywood studio system all but imploded in 1969. In a triple wedding ceremony, Kelly and Harris, Pet and Emerson, and Aunt Susan and an old love are united. During the fray, however, the crippled Harris is miraculously cured. As Emerson and Kelly attempt to subdue Ronnie, the gun discharges, killing the transvestite. Terrified, Casey phones her friends, who rush to her rescue but arrive too late. She then plunges a gun into the sleeping Roxanne's mouth and fires. After revealing that he is, in fact, a woman, Ronnie bears her breasts, brandishes a sword, and chops off Lance's head. Dressed as Superwoman, Ronnie attempts to seduce Lance, who is attired in a loin cloth. Ronnie invites Lance, Roxanne, and Casey to a private party, at which costumes are distributed.
Touched by Casey's plight, Roxanne arranges an abortion. Realizing that Harris is her true love, Kelly devotes herself to his care. Scholl informs Kelly that Harris can look forward to life as a paraplegic. As the celebrated trio perform on national television, Harris, distraught by Kelly's infidelity and Casey's impregnation by him, hurls himself from the catwalk. At an orgy the band is discovered by the effeminate entrepreneur host, Ronnie "Z-Man" Barzell, who rechristens them "The Carrie Nations." Among lovers quickly acquired at Ronnie's party are Lance, a boorish gigolo, who enters into a liaison with Kelly Emerson, a law student who wins Pet's love and Roxanne, a lesbian designer who captures Casey's heart. There they are befriended by Kelly's Aunt Susan, an advertising executive, who, despite the misgivings of her lawyer, Porter Hall, decides to share with Kelly the family fortune. Tired of playing to high school audiences, Kelly, Casey, and Pet, members of a rock trio, travel to Hollywood, accompanied by Harris Allsworth, the band's manager and Kelly's lover.