Valley of the Dolls: Tragic, Real, and Sometimes Confusing

Valley of the Dolls? Really? Out of all the movies out there, how did I pick this one? Well, I played a little game Wheel of Fortune. First, using an internet tool called the Random Thing Picker (yes, this is actually a legitimate tool), I randomly picked a decade of cinema, from the 1950s to the 2010s. I landed on the 1960's. Next, I searched on IMDB and found a list of the top grossing drama movies of the 1960's.

Let me explain a little background information before I dive into this 1967 box office hit. I decided to explore the biggest box office dramas because I want to try to understand why certain movies swim in the millions. It's very difficult to make millions of dollars doing anything, so why do some movies experience so much fame, or infamy? After finding the top five box office dramas of the 1960s, I chose one of the five randomly. Lo and behold, I landed on Valley of the Dolls.

I specifically chose dramas because of their intense focus on realistic issues of the world. Drama movies allow the audience to experience a more raw, emotional capture of life problems without the consistent jokes of comedies, and the often unrealistic plots of some action and adventure movies. So let's take a look at Valley of the Dolls. What kind of social issue did the film capture?

 

 

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Barbara Parkins plays Anne, a young film agent from New England who meets fresh-faced, aspiring singer and actress, Neely O'Hara (Patty Durke). Meanwhile, Anne's beautiful but untalented friend Jennifer (Sharon Tate) wants to become a star. As O'Hara begins to taste the Hollywood dream and Jennifer continues to struggle for fame, the story transforms into a dark tragedy, loaded with sex, drugs, and heartbreak.

Director, Mark Robson makes sure to depict an obvious change in the way the film looks to reflect the conflicts that Neely and Jennifer are facing. The movie opens with a scenic winter view of New England, taking time to show the peaceful, frosty woods, and icy ponds. A slow and whimsical song begins, one that will reappear throughout the movie. The first half of the movie especially takes advantage of stylish, slow-motion and fast-forward shots, creating an artsy and expensive feel.  Besides the aesthetic visuals of Valley, the movie provides that extra hint of polished and shiny Hollywood charisma with John Williams composing the score.

 

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Also, the entire first act and part of the second act are filled with full length songs. By the third song, I was beginning to question whether the film was more of a musical than a drama. By the second half of the second act, however, the musical performances are juristically cut down. The fancy special effects are used with much more conservatively. The movie then narrows down its spotlight on Neely and Jennifer's tragic downfall.

When I first read the title of the movie, I figured the word, Dolls was referring to pretty women. Wow, was I wrong. Dolls are sleeping pills that Neely becomes addicted to. The crashing and burning of Neely and Jennifer's lives are quite believable, and the movie tells the modern and often real tale of how rotten and unforgiving the world of showbiz can be.

 

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The special effects used in the first half of Valley create the faux perfection and glamour that Hollywood boasts about. The second half contradicts this, providing more serious dialogue between characters, and less cutesy, clichéd romance and music.

While Valley is at heart a drama movie, and spends most of its time and effort creating luring emotional scenes, this does not excuse the rather lackluster first act. There are several subplots to this movie that begin to fade away more and more as Neely and Jennifer face their downwards spiral. Within the first ten minutes of the movie, I was introduced to a romance between Anne and another agent named Lyon Burke. About five minutes later, I was watching them have sex. Yeah, the writing is not exactly the most believable when it comes to the romantic elements. Their relationship is very rushed, and I was not quite sure why Anne and Lyon fell so quickly and madly in love with each other in the first place.

Besides the Anne and Lyon subplot, Jennifer gets an abortion while her husband, Tony endures serious health decline. Later, Jennifer is diagnosed with breast cancer. While this depressing sequence of events makes more sense by the end of the movie, I was a bit confused for the majority of the film as to why any of this was going on.

With the psychedelic era of sixties culture blossoming, it is no wonder Valley of the Dolls was such a financial success. It highlights the issue of drug addiction and overexposure that was amplified in the psychedelic era, but still remains relevant today. Valley did a decent job of filming the dangers of overwhelming fame mixed with drugs. This is a concept that was especially prevalent in the sixties with the overdose deaths of famous figures like Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin. After sitting through the monotonous songs in the beginning, and tolerating the hurried romance of Anne and Lyon, uncovered an idea that is still significant. Fame has the power to influence greatness as well as self-destruction.