The film covers the story of Kelly McNamara (Dolly Reed), Cassie Anderson (Cynthia Myers), and Petronella Danforth (Marcia Macbroom). They are three college girls who join a Hollywood scene of immorality and drugs while fighting the worst battle of their lives.
Any movie that Jacqueline Susann thinks would damage her reputation as a writer cannot be all bad. Beyond the Valley of the Dolls isn't -- which is not to say it is any good.
Russ Meyer's ultra-lurid 1970 magnum opus, infamously penned by a young Roger Ebert, remains a towering achievement. What it achieves, however, is difficult to define.
Besides being an addictively entertaining guilty pleasure from beginning to end, it's that rare movie that transcends its opportunistic origins to become a true singularity; a movie like no other.
