Valley of the Dolls, The Musical

A "Dancing Dolls Dream Ballet" (with chorus girls dressed as giant amphetemenes) for Neeley is a must.

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I've watched that movie on Oxygen twice in the past month. The thing is, I hated it when I rented it the first time I saw it years ago. And now it's really grown on me. I still can't stand the looped dialogue, almost every line of Martin Milner's seemed to have been re-recorded later. On the other hand, hearing Margaret Whiting sing for Susan Heyward is a pleasure of the highest order. No matter how bad Broadway musicals get, there's nothing as gawdawful as "I'll Plant My Own Tree." Not even in Wicked!

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Oh, the song itself. It's like the idea of somebody who has never seen a Broadway musical writing a Broadway musical song. I also love the way Hayward acknowledges the applause of the audience. It's like the director kind of thought it was more like a concert than a show.

And, of course, the inexplicable mobile.

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Anyone remember Russ Myers' Beyond the Valley of the Dolls? Now *that* would be a hell of a movie to adapt for stage. There was a thread a couple of weeks ago about favorite bad movies. It was a glaring oversight on my part to neglect mentioning this fine film.

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I saw Beyond the Vally of the Dolls (screenplay written by Roger Ebert!) last year at the Castro Theater here in San Francisco. What a crazy movie! It's a parody, but it's so bizarre and funny.

This would make a great camp musical. Hell, the main characters are in an all girls' rock band. Wow, I would love to get my hands on that property to adapt. Now that would be one crazy show!

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Get out! Ebert did the screenplay?? I haven't seen it in a long time, but it used to have a bit of a cult following amongst some people I know.

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I am fairly certain that Patty did her own singing.

As for BEYOND VotD it was supposed to be campy, so it does not merit campy stauts no matter how bad it is. Now, VotD is true camp because it took itself seriously.

By the way, everyone assumes that Neely was based on Judy, but I have another theory...see picture at left.

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According to an obsessive fan's Valley of the Dolls website, Gail Heideman sang Patty's songs for her. One clue is that they didn't double track her vocals the way they did when they tried to make Patty a pop star during the run of The Patty Duke Show.

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Maybe you need a new collection of friends?

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No one remembers, but there was to be a stage show back in the 70s, Alexis Smith was talked up as Helen Lawson. (singing "The Story of Bushes and Trees?") Then, there was a new MOW, setting it in the world of rock music. Ooooh. Cut-ting Edddddge.

The novel remains lurid and laughable on every page, but actually, not a bad portrait of the b'way theater in the 40s and early 50s. The sense of Helen-really-is-Merman makes all that stuff work, whereas Hayward, God Bless her, neve really seemed Merman-esque. Updating it to the 60s, and putting Helen on stage in a drag queen costume and hairdo, standing 'neath her plexi-glass mobile destroyed any sense of versimilitude. And of course, we all turned to Ms Susann for versimilitude.

My favorite thing in the movie can only be appreciated on a 100th viewing: all the scenes that end with a question to Barbara Parkins' Anne, to which she simply stares at the camera, Stepford like. She's the most sullen, monosyllabic heroine to ever inhabit a major film. Like Geraldine Chaplin in ZHIVAGO, she barely even speaks.

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Updated On: 1/18/04 at 02:33 PM