Russ Meyer

Playboy photographer who became director of silly soft core porn (specializing in big boobs) who directed such cult favorites as Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970) -- Except for the title and the subject matter of girls who get in over their heads in the show biz world, this film has nothing to do with the movie Valley of the Dolls. (There's even a disclaimer at the beginning that says it's not a sequel.) This is Russ Meyers' first studio film (after a lot of independent soft core porn) with a screenplay by movie critic Roger Ebert. It's certainly memorable. The girl group The Carrie Nations were The Go-Go's before there were Go-Go's. The character Z-Man was meant to be a Phil Spector type and seemed like the inspiration for Frank in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. He spoke like William Shakespeare wrote and was the most entertaining part of the movie (including his didn't-see-that-coming ending). Lots of the movie, however, is just late 1960s nonsense--and not always in a good way. But bits of the movie will keep coming back to convince you otherwise, like the L.A.: Pro and Con opening or the blow job on the barrel of a murder weapon. It's certainly worth seeing at least once.