In the wonderful book, THE FIFTY WORST FILMS OF ALL TIME (Harry Medved),this movie amazingly missed out being included, though the earlier film THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS did. Now it must be understood at the onset that this film was definitely NOT a sequel but was slapped with this title in a sleazy attempt to cash in on the success of the previous film. Now please understand, both were absolutely wretched films but on a scale from 1 to 1000, the first film might achieve a 10 or 15, while BTVOTD would be lucky to have achieved a score above -57!! It's that bad, but how it manages to have a score of 5.5 on IMDb is beyond me, as in just about every single way the film is wretched and gross...TO THE MAX!!!

Originally, this film received an X rating and by today's standards it would be an R-rated film, though definitely a very hard R--with lots of nudity, attempted suicide, bisexuality, an abortion scene, a beheading and Nazis!! In fact, it has just about everything that could offend you except for full frontal nudity and bestiality. Had they ever bothered making a pseudo-sequel to this film, I assume it WOULD have featured these!! After all, you can't lower the bar much more!

The film is actually similar to THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS in that it's a bizarre and stupid morality tale that purports to have a deep message about losing yourself to fame, but it's all lost in all the vulgarity on screen. In every way but one, BTVOTD is a worse film. That one way it isn't as bad is the music. Some of the tunes in this film are actually very good and catchy, but because they are so loud and in your face", after a while you just long for quiet. But, even though eventually I felt overwhelmed by the blaring soundtrack, at least it wasn't as bad as Patty Duke's bellowing in VALLEY OF THE DOLLS! Now THAT was painful.

So how is BTVOTD worse? Well, the direction and editing would make even a person with ADHD scream in frustration, as the film has so many abrupt cuts and action occurs so quickly that you soon face sensory overload. A good example was the "hip" party towards the beginning. In many ways, it was like a sped up version of the party sequences from "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-in"--but without the jokes! Tons of ugly Fellini-like characters, beautiful naked people and Hollywood trash are featured in 1001 little vignettes crammed into about 10 minutes of film.

While it might seem hard to believe, the editing and direction still were almost infinitely better than the god-awful script. To put it bluntly, it was trash--loud, vulgar, painful trash--complete with lots of nudity, sex, homosexuality, drug references and a final conclusion that is both ultra-violent yet also ultra-cheesy. You just have to see it all to believe it.

For bad movie fans and lovers of cult trash, this is your film. Because it is so gross, so excessive and so tacky, it is very funny (more so than MOMMY DEAREST) and you and your friends might love laughing at the ineptness of the film. For most anyone else, my advice is run--run for your life from this huge pile of bilge.

Russ Meyer, king of sexploitation got a reasonably decent buget and went on from the Hollywood C list of players to collaborate with his cast in Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls.

Rule of thumb, never try to make a camp film. Either it will be or it won't be andquite on its own. Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls is way too self conscious for its own good.

Some real actors like John Lazar overact outrageously to make up for a cast of playboy bunny types who look great, but can't act on a junior high level.

Lazar who is an early openly gay character does gay iberation no favors when cast as someone who turns homicidal maniac. when he can't get whom he wants. That would be Michael Blodgett who before he turned to writing was a love object for many a gay male in his career.

Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls is crass, exploitive and badly acted with a mostly no talent cast.

I started off hating this film. An exploration of male/female relationships set during the 1960s party scene, I found it alternating between bouts of cheesy singing and dull conversation. The characters irritated me and the script (by none other than film critic Roger Ebert) felt outlandish.

But nonetheless I kept watching. Or rather, something kept me watching. I started getting to know the intriguing characters, and then I realised I was hooked. It's barely reminiscent of a Russ Meyer movie - despite focusing on sexual relationships there's little smut or nudity - but it has style to spare. The ending is both shocking and hilarious and comes totally out of left field. Odd, yes, but compelling with it.