Beyond the Valley of the Dolls

PLEASE NOTE: No one under 18 will be admitted.

Part of Loft Staff Selects, a monthly series showcasing film favorites chosen by our amazing Loft Cinema staff!  This month’s film was chosen by Phoebe-Marie Brown, Assistant Manager!

What is Beyond the Valley of the Dolls?  Why, it’s only the greatest rock musical, counterculture satire, skin flick, wacky comedy, overblown melodrama, crazed horror movie, sex and drug extravaganza ever made!   Originally conceived by 20th Century Fox as a straight sequel to their 1967 hit, Valley of the Dolls, under the guidance of infamous “adults only” filmmaker Russ Meyer (Faster Pussycat, Kill! Kill!), here making his first major studio picture, and young screenwriter/film critic Roger Ebert, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls instead emerged as something far better – a whacked-out skewering of the psychedelic ‘60s generation (and a hilarious parody of the original film) so far-out and outrageously scandalous that the studio could only look on in horror at what the self-proclaimed “King of the Nudies” has wrought. In Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, a small town, all-girl rock band called The Kelly Affair hits the highway to Los Angeles in search of fame, fortune and whatever else they can find. Along the way, the naïve Kelly, Casey and Petronella hook up with a kinky music promoter named “Z-Man” who turns them on to a whole new scene. Soon, the newly-dubbed “Carrie Nations” are navigating the ups and downs of big bad Hollywood in the Swinging Sixties, leading to an avalanche of sex, drugs, wild parties, Top 40 records, bad relationships, busted friendships, freak accidents and homicide!  Whether viewed as the ultimate Sixties’ cinema trip, a soapy satire, the first major studio skin flick, or a campy cult classic, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is truly a film unlike any other. (Dir. by Russ Meyer, 1970, USA, 109 mins., Rated NC-17)