Valley of the Dolls *** (1967, Barbara Parkins, Patty Duke, Paul Burke, Sharon Tate, Susan Hayward, Tony Scotti, Martin Milner) – Classic Movie Review 6316

Valley of the Dolls charts the rise and fall in show business of three young hopefuls – Anne Welles (Barbara Parkins), Jennifer North (Sharon Tate) and Neely O’Hara (Patty Duke).

Director Mark Robson’s high camp 1967 showbiz soap opera is trashy but enjoyable and compelling in its so-bad-it’s-good kind of way, with Sharon Tate starring as a Marilyn Monroe-style porno star with cancer, Patty Duke as a singer with a drug habit, Barbara Parkins as New England college graduate who becomes a star on TV adverts, and Susan Hayward as a bitchy Bette Davis-style old-time star, Helen Lawson.

The actors perform valiantly but there is especially good work from Tate and Hayward (replacing Judy Garland, who was dismissed after refusing to go on set) in a movie that does full entertaining justice to the tawdry sleaze in Jacqueline Susann’s gossipy junk bestseller.

Susann has a cameo as a newswoman, the first reporter. There is an early glimpse of Richard Dreyfuss, in his debut, as Assistant Stage Manager, who in 1999 called it ‘the worst film ever made’.

Also in the cast are Paul Burke as Lyon Burke, Tony Scotti as Tony Polar, Martin Milner as Mel Anderson, Charles Drake as Kevin Gillmore, Alexander [Alex] Davion, Lee Grant as Miriam Polar, Naomi Stevens, Robert H Harris, Robert Viharo (Director), Joey Bishop (MC at Telethon), George Jessel (MC Grammy Awards), Sherry Alberoni, Margaret Whiting, Richard Angarola, Marvin Hamlisch, Judith Lowry, Jeanne Gerson, Robert Street, Robert Gibbons, Leona Powers, Barry O’Hara, Norman Burton and Jonathan Hawke.

Valley of the Dolls is written by Helen Deutsch and Dorothy Kingsley, produced by Mark Robson and David Weisbart, shot by William H Daniels and scored by John Williams (conductor and music adaptor). Dionne Warwick sings the theme song.

There is upfront Sixties-style handling of its drugs theme.

It is remade as the four-hour 1981 TV movie Jacqueline Susann’s Valley of the Dolls, with Catherine Hicks, Lisa Hartman, and Veronica Hamel.

Sharon Tate plays Jennifer North in Valley of the Dolls (1967).

Roman Polanski’s wife Tate became a real-life Hollywood casualty of the Manson Murders, killed on 9 August 1969, aged 26. Charles Manson’s followers committed nine murders at four locations in July and August 1969. In 1971 Manson was found guilty of the first-degree murders of seven people, including Sharon Tate, carried out on his instructions by members of his cult, the Manson Family.

Manson was also convicted of two other first-degree murders. He served his life sentence at California State Prison in Corcoran and died there of natural causes on 19 November 2017, aged 83.

Martin [Marty] Milner (1931–2015) also played in Life with Father (1947), Sands of Iwo Jima (1949), Halls of Montezuma (1951), Gunfight at the OK Corral (1957), Marjorie Morningstar (1958), Sweet Smell of Success (1957) Compulsion, 13 Ghosts (1960) and Sex Kittens Go to College.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6316

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