09.10.09 | John Tartaglia | Staff NotesPrint this Post
Valley Of The Dolls was first a best-selling novel, then it became a box office smash, but the film version of Jacqueline Susann’s show-biz saga might be most famous for its dialogue being delivered with such unknowing campiness. Not since The Oscar with Stephen Boyd had so much emoting gone into something so deliciously bad. Barbara Parkins got top billing in the film after becoming famous on the nighttime soap Peyton Place. She wanted the meaty part of the doomed megastar Neely O'Hara (the role went to Patty Duke) and Parkins ended up as Anne Welles, the “good” girl from New England. Check out the extras on the DVD and you can see her Neely screen test. It’s god-awful and so much fun to watch! Dolls also starred the beautiful Sharon Tate as Jennifer, the girl with no talent, “just a body”. Susan Hayward replaced Judy Garland as Helen Lawson, a grande dame of the theater. Garland was supposedly fired for missing rehearsals and maybe this was one time the old adage "better late than never" does not apply. Parkins reveals on the DVD extras that she felt Garland was scared the Lawson role (fading star, growing older) was going to somehow mirror her own career. It was rumored that Susann based the Neely O'Hara character on Garland.
Since its premiere in 1967, Valley Of The Dolls has spawned an abysmal 1981 TV re-make starring Lisa Hartman, Veronica Hamel, and Catherine Hicks, and a 1996 off-Broadway version with drag performer Jackie Beat playing Helen Lawson and singing her signature song with a mobile dangling over her head. (Fans who know the film will get the joke). But my favorite Dolls parody was on The Carol Burnett Show when Burnett, Vicki Lawrence and singer Gloria Loring spoofed the camp classic. It was genius. And I guess in its own way so is Valley of The Dolls, it's over 40 years old and still being talked about.
What your favorite Valley Of The Dolls lines say about your personality ….
1. Neely: I'll leave this stinkin' show...WITH DIGNITY! (You always have an exit strategy)
2. Neely: It’s hot, it’s hot, it’s too damn hot, the cameraman is frying me! (You have a persecution complex)
3. Jennifer: Mother, I know I don’t have any talent and I know all I have is a body…(You are a realist)
4. Neely: Ted Casablanca is not a fag! And I'm the dame that can prove it! (You're a closet case)
5. Mel: I’m not the butler, Neely.
Neely: You’re not the breadwinner either (or eeth-ah, as Patty Duke says it)
(You like to establish boundaries) (Jump to 7:00 in the below video)
6. Neely: Sure, I take dolls…I gotta get some sleep…I gotta get up at 5 AM in the morning and sparkle, Neely, sparkle (You are punctual)
7. Ted Casablanca: That little whore makes me feel nine feet tall. (You have a Napoleon complex)
8. Neely: I am merely traveling incognito. (You suffer from high self-esteem)
9. Helen Lawson: Look...they drummed you right out of Hollywood...so you come crawling back to Broadway...well Broadway doesn't go for booze and dope. (You know location is important when trying to score)
10. Neely: Then I heard she went to Paris to make art films...art films? Nudies! That's all they are...Nudies! (You majored in film criticism)
This is quite funny and I can't wait to see the film again now. Thanks for reminding us of the
cheesiest moments of a classic bad movie!
Or:
1, 9,and 10. Narcissist
2. Antisocial (blaming others)
3. depressive (the falacy of "All or None")
4. Grandiose!
5. this is a hard one... may be little bit antisocial
6. looking in the mirror? Narcissist
7. Avoidant (wanting support from others to feel right)
8. somewhat Paranoid
Dr. Love
The best part of the movie is Neely's stage act, with the necklace. If you've seen it, you'll know what I mean.
The most incredibly over the edge moments occur in the ladies room confrontation between Neely and Helen. It is a scene of truly high camp. Patty Duke is way over the edge as she tears Susan Hayward's red wig off and flushes it in the toilet. Hayward is supposed to look awful with white hair, but she manages to look absolutely fine. It would have been so much more interesting if Garland, a woman of true wit, had been able to play the scene.
Truly craptastic cinema. "This is my happening and it's freaking me out." Was the word "freaking"? I can't remember. Or was that VOD2?
Hard to believe that something was going to over-the-top THE OSCAR, but
"You've got to climb Mt. Everest to reach the Valley of the Dolls..."
I've heard that the Helen Lawson character was based mostly on Ethel Merman.
Judy Garland was originally cast for the Helen Lawson part
but was released for personal problems.
Although the story line revolved around Patty Duke's character, Neely O'Hara, Ms. Susan Hayward upstaged everyone playing Helen Lawson. She had drive, dignity, sophistication, confidence, and class. Neely could have never walked out of that restroom, head held high, after having her wig thrown in the toilet. Only a great veteran actress like Susan Hayward or Bette Davis could pull something off like that. Each time I watch that movie, I look forward to Helen Lawson telling the attendant that she would walk out the same way she came in.