"You have to climb Mount Everest to reach the Valley of the Dolls..."
38 years have not deminished the appeal of this amazing camp masterpiece. Directed by Mark Robson, who had worked with Orson Welles and Val Lewton, it features over-the-top, scenery-chewing performances by Susan Hayward and Patty Duke ("I'm Neely O'Hara, damn it!"), a ludicrous plot, garish colors, and enough great lines to fill three films. Anyone can make a bad, low budget film, but it takes a true visionary to make a big budget, major studio disaster.
We could go on and on singing the praises of Dolls, but you'll have to see it for yourself. Until then, here are a few select songs from the soundtrack. The composers were Andre and Dory Previn, and a young John Williams, before he hitched his wagon to Spielberg's star.
There's a terrific essay on the film (as well as the book and soundtrack) at Doll Soup.
Theme From 'Valley Of The Dolls Jennifer's French MovieJennifer's Recollection
3 Comments:
Just lovely, these songs. Merc!
by the way, speaking of French Movie Themes, do you know French Movie Theme by Smashing Pumpkins? It's great, hear Billy Corgan do his best filles sourires impression ;-)
Thanks for posting. Most excellent. I'd never heard that version before [only the Dionne Warwick one].
By 10:16 PM
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