Dan's Retro Reviews: Valley of the Dolls

I found out about this movie, believe it or not, on Courtney Love's MySpace page. She posted a blog that featured some footage from the movie and it intrigued me a bit. Of course, that was over a year ago; I never thought I'd actually see this movie. Surprise, surprise, it's not half bad.

Valley of the Dolls is a 1967 film further emphasizing how fame and drugs go hand in hand. It focuses on three girls whose stories have now become cliches. First, there's Neely O'Hara (a brilliant Patty Duke), the girl who rises to fame due to enormous talent and falls from it due to an enormous drug habit. Second is Jennifer North (Sharon Tate), a girl low on money and talent who decides to sell her body. Lastly is Anne Welles (Barbara Parkins), the small-town girl who goes to the big city to fulfill her hopes and dreams, only to find out that it's not all it's cracked up to be.

The only good thing I can comment on in this movie is the acting. Every actor and actress in this movie is great (except one, but she's only in the movie for a few seconds). Barbara Perkins has a special elegance that I haven't seen in very many movies, and Patty Duke is the polar opposite; as the movie progresses, she becomes as trashy and drugged-up as anyone can get, at which point she's very compelling. Sharon Tate is a very pretty girl, and she does a great job portraying an ambitious girl trying to survive and gain fame at the same time. (It's really sad and sick what happened to her.)

As good as the acting is, everything else is a bit dull. As I stated before, the stories behind the girls are now cliched and stale, in movies and in reality, and ultimately, it makes the movie somewhat predictable. What makes this worse is that the movie is just over two hours long, and there are some points where the story drags on and you wish it would just get to the point. Another thing is that, while the story is interesting at times, there's not enough depth in it to make you feel for any of the characters. It's as if the movie was simply made to tell this story and nothing more. I've not read the book this movie is based off of, but now I wonder if it is better than this.


OVERALL: It's a movie with a weak story and an overall dated feel, but is redeemed by the acting. I say go check it out.


RATING: 3.5 out of 5