Rating: PG13
Genre:
Drama
Release Date: 06/13/2006
SubTitles: English/French/Espanol
Dubbed: English/Espanol
Sound: DD1/DD2
Run Time: 123 Minutes
Flags: Adult Situations, Not For Children, Adult Language
Distributor/Studio: 20th Century Fox
A cinematic take on a 1960s best-seller,
Valley of the Dolls traces the ups and downs of three young women as fame, booze, pills, and men consume their lives. Well-bred, small-town
Anne Welles (
Peyton Place star
Barbara Parkins) arrives in New York eager for fame but settles for a job assisting theatrical attorney
Henry Bellamy (
Robert H. Harris). The job leads her to cross paths with
Helen Lawson (Hollywood veteran
Susan Hayward), the grand dame of Broadway musicals, and
Neely O'Hara (sitcom star
Patty Duke), an up-and-coming performer whom
Lawson unceremoniously boots from her latest show.
Neely lands on her feet thanks to a series of nightclub gigs, and soon she and
Anne befriend
Jennifer North (
Sharon Tate), a buxom starlet. As
Neely becomes a huge star of stage and screen and
Jennifer appears topless in a string of European "art" films,
Anne becomes a wealthy cosmetics spokeswoman and suffers though a passionate but failed affair with aspiring writer
Lyon Burke (
Paul Burke). As the pressures of fame and failed romance take their toll on all three women, they take refuge in food, sex, liquor, and pills -- especially
Neely, who becomes downright monstrous (the titular "dolls" are the uppers and downers to which she becomes hopelessly addicted). Although the film's characters are fictitious composites,
Neely most closely resembles
Judy Garland;
Garland herself was originally cast as
Lawson, but she was replaced after only a few days by
Hayward. Although the film's trailer played up the story's titillating subject matter, the script for
Valley of the Dolls actually toned down
Jacqueline Susann's novel. And despite the fact that
Dionne Warwick can be heard singing
"(Theme From) The Valley of the Dolls" twice during the film, contractual snags kept her from releasing the soundtrack version; a different arrangement later became a number two
pop hit in 1968.
~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
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