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Valley of the Dolls


VALLEY OF THE DOLLS
(1967, Robson)



"Honey, listen, it's a rotten business."
"I know. But I love it!"

That's the entertainment business they're talking about in the above quote. A business that one can say is equally plagued by the "highs" of success and the glory of fame, as well as the bitterness, the jealousy, the resentment, the backstabbings, and the overall pressures of keeping a certain status. Those are waters that a lot of wannabe artists crave, but not everybody can navigate, which serves as the backdrop of these 1960s titillating drama.

Valley of the Dolls follows three young women that find themselves dipping their toes in these waters and then end up being washed away by it. Most of the plot follows Anne Welles (Barbara Parkins), a recent graduate that starts as a secretary at a theatrical agency but ends up unwittingly sucked deeper into the business. She is joined by Neely O'Hara (Patty Duke), a rising star in Broadway, and Jennifer North (Sharon Tate), a chorus girl with low self-esteem.

The film chronicles the rise and fall of the three friends as they struggle with newfound fame, failing relationships, and addiction to alcohol and barbiturates (i.e. the titular "dolls") in the midst of this "rotten business". Generally speaking, I feel like there is a strong story here about the burdens and pressures of fame. Unfortunately, it is buried under mediocre craftmanship and bad acting.

The film has some serious issues with its pacing, and the way the events unfold. Maybe it's the editing or the direction, or a mixture of both, but there is an unnevenness in how the film moves from one sequence to the other. Certain relationships, interactions, and plot developments feel like coming out of nowhere, as if there was a scene or two missing in between.

Some of these plot developments either "half work" or should work, but it's all so shoddily assembled that it ends up hindering the overall effect. Add to that the poor performances and the excessive melodrama, and you end up with all the ingredients for a disaster... and still, just like the "rotten business" the characters are sucked into, there is something captivating about it. Not enough for me to "love it", but enough to not turn it off.

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