valley of the dolls (1967)
director: Mark Robson
story by: Jacqueline Susann (based on the novel)
Starring: Barbara Parkins, Patty Duke, and Sharon Tate
Genre: melodrama
length: 2h 3m
release date: december 15, 1967
watched: January 4, 2025 (1st time)
“You've got to climb Mount Everest to reach the Valley of the Dolls. It's a brutal climb to reach that peak. You stand there. Waiting for the rush of exhilaration; but, it doesn't come.”
I’ve been wanting to watch Valley of the Dolls ever since it was referenced in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood six years ago. After putting it off for so long, I finally decided it was time to set aside some time to watch it.
I read the novel a few years back and had some hostile reactions to it. Now that I’ve watched the film and given the story more thought, I’ve been reassessing my initial take.
Valley of the Dolls centers on three young women trying to make their way in the entertainment industry: Anne Welles, Neely O'Hara, and Jennifer North. To cope with the pressures and dramas of show business, they take ‘dolls’ (the colloquial term for pills) and eventually become addicted to them.
This isn’t the most critically acclaimed movie. Valley of the Dolls scored just 32% on Rotten Tomatoes and was included in a book called The Fifty Worst Films of All Time.
On the other hand, it grossed $44,432,255 at the box office and became Fox’s highest-grossing film during its release. It was a commercial success and still has a passionate cult following to this day.
Madonna once said that if you want to know about the world, look at the top of the charts. This is true not only in music but in movies as well. There’s a reason why culture is dialed into the film. It’s the kind of story that’s so bad it’s good.
Rarely do film adaptations hold up to the original novel, and Valley of the Dolls is no exception. The book was trashier, juicier, and more fun to read.
However, it’s not to say that the film isn’t worth discussing. Rather than analyzing everything that’s wrong with the picture, I’m more interested in exploring its underlying messages. In this essay, we’ll be doing just that.
Hollywood: A Cautionary Tale
When I first read the book, I found the three main characters vapid and insufferable. Watching the film two years later, I still find them vapid and insufferable.
I do think this is justified and not a criticism of the characters. I mean, we’re talking about Hollywood people here. Even in real life, it’s hard to be sympathetic toward celebrities and movie stars.
And if you’re a woman? God bless your soul because it doesn’t seem like he did with these ladies.
Each woman has her own arc, distinct from one another, and they all started strong with promising futures. Somewhere along the way, show business got the best of them.
I wish the movie explored the characters with more complexity like the book did, but it gets its point across. There’s nothing more tragic than three women making their way to the top, only to fall back down once they’ve reached it.
If there’s any purpose this story serves, it’s a cautionary tale about women in the industry.
Hollywood is a brutal business. You may have strong moral boundaries like Anne, but that doesn’t mean you won’t compromise your integrity for the price of success. You may be the hottest star in Hollywood like Neely, but you’re not immune to going off the rails—you’re more susceptible to it. You may be the most beautiful chorus girl man has ever seen, like Jennifer, but be careful when you assign your worth to your appearance—you might just kill yourself when it fades.
It’s no news today that there’s a dark side to fame. Decades before the film’s release, it was mostly concealed from the public. Only in the 1960s did mass media start to unravel the toxicity of celebrity culture. Critically, the film could’ve been better. However, you can’t deny the huge role it played in exposing what’s behind the glitzy façade of Hollywood.
On Selling Out
Valley of the Dolls is a stark contrast to Rocky—the last film I reviewed. Although they both tell tales of the American Dream, one explores darker themes than the other. While Rocky was more inspiring and hopeful, Valley of the Dolls takes a more insidious route. There’s a price that comes with getting everything you want—perhaps even selling your soul to the devil.
Which makes you wonder, do you absolutely have to sell out to reach the top?
Each character operates at a different level of consciousness. Neely was so laser-focused on being the best in the business that when she reached her goal, she could no longer recognize herself. She’s become an egomaniac stuck in a loop of self-destruction.
Jennifer is constantly reminded by everyone—including her mother—that her biggest asset is her looks. She experiences many misfortunes, but the tipping point had to be losing one of her breasts after her lumpectomy. Because who was she without it? If her body wasn’t perfect anymore, was she worth anything? To her, she was worthless, and so she offed herself.
Anne may have her fair share of selling out, but she was the most grounded of the three. She had big dreams but quickly became disillusioned by the bullshit of Hollywood and the men in it. If there’s anything Anne symbolizes in the film, it’s wisdom—something she wouldn’t have gained had she stayed in her small town. She wants to live a fulfilling life and realizes, in the end, that showbiz couldn’t give that to her.
So, the answer is no. You don’t have to sell out. However, the false promises of fame can still put a spell on those who don’t know any better. You either learn from other people’s mistakes or run into the fire yourself.
The Murder of Sharon Tate
Nobody could have predicted that a hippie cult would be responsible for Sharon Tate’s murder. She died in August of 1969—two years after Valley of the Dolls was released. Her death paints a different picture for the film; shit just got real, real fast.
When it comes to fiction, we’re not afraid to push boundaries to get our point across. We are bold with our visions because, ultimately, we know they’re not real; they’re figments of our imagination.
But what happens when real life is more tragic than the stories we come up with in our minds?
We can maintain a healthy distance from Jennifer and her suicide because she’s a fictional character. However, Sharon Tate was a real person. She was murdered by the Manson Family and selected as their victim because of her association with Hollywood, among other things.
We may know the facts of Tate’s murder, but 50+ years later, we’re still confused as to why it had to happen.
It makes me think about God as the ultimate tell taler. He knows everything in this world is not real, and therefore, he creates all kinds of possibilities for us—even murder, suicide, and death.
Still, it doesn’t answer the age-old question: If God is real, why does evil exist in this world? If God is all-loving, why do tragedies happen to those who don’t deserve them?
Well… what if, like a skilled storyteller, he has a point and hasn’t gotten to it yet? The lengths he’ll go to tell a good story are quite savage, but shit, it’s pretty damn creative. If there is a noble reason why bad things happen—such as the murder of Sharon Tate—we’re too immersed as characters in his story to know what it is. I guess the only one who knows is the one who is writing.
Conclusion
I couldn’t understand the appeal of Valley of the Dolls when I read the novel two years ago (see my Goodreads review). I felt the author was sending the wrong message and glamorizing the problematic aspects of the entertainment industry.
I later realized that I was reading the story too literally. If you’re taking Valley of the Dolls at face value, you’ll miss the point, like I did.
The film had some strong aspects. It was visually stunning, with all the color, costume, hair, and makeup. Other than that, there’s not much substance to it.
I recommend reading the book first if you want to fully appreciate the story. I’m not even sure it’s necessary to watch the movie.
if anything, I recommend it for those who have a fascination for vintage Hollywood, campy performances, and the darker side of the entertainment business.
My goodreads review, nov 2022
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