Jacqueline Susann’s 1966 novel Valley of the Dolls is one of the bestselling books of all time, with more than 30 million copies sold. But even that couldn’t save the 1967 cinematic adaptation — starring Susan Hayward, Sharon Tate and Patty Duke — from being a total failure among critics. So when it came time to cash in on a sequel — V of the D may have sucked, but did well at the box office — the studio wisely got weird, enlisting sexploitation director Russ Meyer and then-new screenwriter (and later eminent critic) Roger Ebert to create the 1970 film Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, which was less a continuation and more a satirical look at the original film and its on-screen peers — part dramatic musical, part drug-fueled orgy, part bloodbath. Over the years, the sequel has achieved a better reputation than the original: At press time, Rotten Tomatoes shows it with a 73 percent rating among critics, compared to Valley of the Dolls’ 31 percent. Before you head to the Belcourt, be sure to read Ebert’s thoughts on the production, written 10 years after the film’s release. It’s a fascinating look at how the flick came to exist in a time when it maybe didn’t need to exist at all. MEGAN SELING
Midnight Movies: Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
