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Final Thoughts:

While age hasn't been so kind to the film, Valley Of The Dolls is almost better because of that fact. The melodrama is so completely over the top and the performances so surreal in spots that the movie is one of those 'fabulous disaster' films that can't be planned but instead just sort of seem to happen. Fox has done a fantastic job on this release, it looks and sounds great and comes with a wealth of fun supplements making this two disc collector's edition highly recommended.

Q. I read today that Fox is releasing a special edition of "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" on June 13th, featuring a commentary by you [Ebert co-wrote the screenplay] and some docs, etc. I'd read that "BVD" was due for a fully packed Criterion release at some point. Has the Criterion release been canceled and replaced by this new Fox special edition?

Greg Vickers, Hamilton, Ontario

A. Yes, but through cooperation between the two companies the commentary track I recorded for Criterion is the one used on the Fox disc. I've received a copy of the two-disc Fox special edition, and (warning: conflict of interest!) was very impressed by it, especially by how many of the original cast members and other artists they got to collaborate on a series of docs on Disc 2. What comes across is nostalgia for the experience of making the movie, and a genuine love for Russ Meyer.

There are also several critics, from such as Newsweek, the Village Voice and the Onion, saying the movie is actually very good, broke new ground, invented the MTV editing style, etc., and a surprising amount of admiration for the songs. Also a sweet conversation between Cynthia Myers and Erica Gavin about their love scene.

Michael wrote:Michael, have you seen it? This is an absolute must!

Well Myra Breckinridge was on TV a long ago and I watched the first quarter of it. I gave up since it didn't maintain my attention..

Overall

This is a superb set with the quality of the transfer and the extras all being of a spectacularly high quality. Interestingly, though, as good as the extras are, they don't appear to have been worked on to any great extent, being more about selecting a set of contributors who complement one another's knowledge of the film and simply letting them get on with it. As such, this makes for a breezy, informal setting in which to present the film, leaving it as a genuinely great Special Edition, clearly in love with the movie but tempered by acknowledging its more temperamental moments. Never great cinema, this has, with its sequel, become a cult classic and Fox has done a sterling job with this release. With Beyond the Valley of the Dolls to follow, these camp classics are finally making good on DVD and Fox, though it may be a late showing, is proving itself capable of looking after its archive releases as well as any other studio.

The film experience, is akin to other Myer films in which he compels you to be infected by his curious brand of visuals including gratuitous female beauty. It is not great cinema, nor even good, but I think it has its place for curious and nostalgic viewing. Certainly the DVD is absolute perfection and for the price - possibly the deal of the year - shame it wasn't for a better received film.

Matango wrote:The Mini Series isn't included on VoD. Must have been cancelled. Still, I can't think of another double-disc package with so much extra stuff. Beyond is pretty stacked too, and both transfers looks very nice.

Even after a quarter of a century, this remains an odd film but a classic of trash cinema. Fox have, after a long time preparing for it, really started to deliver on their archive DVDs and, surprisingly, they've done just as fine a job on Beyond the Valley of the Dolls as they did on their big-earners like The Poseidon Adventure. So leftfield even when it was made and with a skewed sense of being hip - the delivery is often right but the language falls over into parody - Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is a film to have a good time with, being funny, sexy and with a cool soundtrack of psychedelic pop. Buy the DVD and argue, on any mention of Easy Rider, that the actual finest movie of the counterculture can be reduced to Nazis, drag queens, rock girls and big tits.

What you will hear in this superb collection has been hailed as 'the excited voice of Patty Duke,' which is not, as it sounds, a misnomer, but which is a deliberate way of suggesting that Patty Duke's lustrous, range-rich and expressive voice displays the very essence of excitement itself. Of course, Patty is an exciting singer, but precisely because her voice is excited and emotional and full of action.

The songs themselves are diversified, in keeping with Patty Duke's own wide and considerable talents. The numbers demonstrate the subtle nuances of character, of mood and of motivation, of deep human understanding of the troubled soul who sings them. This is the personality of 'Neely O'Hara' in "Valley Of The Dolls", the destroying and self destructive, self-centered and eruptive singer which Patty Duke portrays with such power and verisimilitude.

The combination of singer and actress is a rarity in show business, as the long history of the musical stage has so often attested. Patty Duke combines both talents in a stirring and striking blend of rare accomplishment. Her achievements as a stage and motion picture actress, crowned with a coveted and much deserved Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Oscar Award for her unforgettable performance as young Helen Keller in 'The Miracle Worker' are well known. If it were at all possible, Patty Duke surpasses herself as Neely O'Hara in "Dolls", and one detects the magic of her talents in the warm modulations of her voice, in the heart-touching airs, the nostalgic themes, and above all, the deeply moving arias which come through.

What impresses above all is the diversity and range of Patty Duke's performance. Here gathered together are different songs which express the gamut of emotions which charge through vibrant and dynamic Neely O'Hara. And different they are, for they exhibit the changing moods of a woman alternately in ecstasy and anguish‹self-pity and romance, bitter cynicism and bright hope, yielding softness and brassy harshness. There are few performers who can offer this gamut of human emotions with such clarity and with such controlled power. Patty Duke has added to her laurels, and added to your entertainment pleasure.