Valley of the Dolls

Valley of the Dolls (1967)

Directed by Mark Robson

Screenplay by Helen Deutsch & Dorothy Kingsley 

Based on the novel by Jacqueline Susann

Stars: Barbara Parkins, Patty Duke, Paul Burke, Sharon Tate, Tony Scotti, Alexander Davio, Lee Grant and Susan Hayward

I have never read a Jacqueline Susann novel, but I have heard of this movie for the longest time. This movie left me hollow like an empty pill bottle.

The story is about three women tries to navigate show business in different ways. There is Anne (Parkins) that leaves her small town for the Big Apple. She falls for the playboy agent, Lyon (Burke). There is Jennifer (Tate), a chorus girl that falls for a teen idol, Tony (Scotti) who has a secret. Lastly, there is the extremely talented, Neely (Duke) who squander her talents with a daily dose of booze and pills.

The movie is not for the faint of heat. I was surprised that this movie had a PG-13 rating. You can see Sharon Tate's tits, full nipple shown. Okay, sure. I was taken back by the homophobic slurs here directed toward the character of Ted Casablanca (Davio).

The thing I did not get was, What was the timeline from when Anne left home to the end of the movie in that alley? I had sense of what was happening. I felt that the screenwriters butchered chunks of book. There were weird jumps in the story that left me confused.

The movie is campy, but it is not a good movie.

Rating: 6/10