Seconded. This made Danny Peary’s book Cult Movies, so it must have once had a following, but you certainly don’t hear much about it now.
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Interesting.
I never thought of this as a cult-type move.
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I think the definition has shifted somewhat over time. Nowadays, it brings to mind a certain kind of outré cinema, something obviously outlandish or weird, the kind of film that was (or could have been) a midnight movie. In Peary’s 1981 book, he simply applies it to films with cult followings. Casablanca, for example, used to have a strong cult following, and consequently merits an entry in the book.
I suspect cable and VHS (and other later formats) were largely responsible for this shift. What used to be a film that you had to get up at 3 a.m. to see became something you could easily find at the video store down the street. Blockbuster and TCM (and AMC) mainstreamed Casablanca.
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I think I read that book when I was in high school - is “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls” in it? Because if it is, that’s where I first found out about BTVOTD, and just this year have I actually seen it.
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Yep, BTVOTD is in there. What did you think of it?
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I am reminded I need to see more Russ Meyer films… I have only seen Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!
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Well, when I read the entry on it, I thought…ew. (Remember, I was only 15 or 16). I don’t think I’d even read “The Valley of the Dolls” at that point.
Now, after I’ve read all the books that Jackie Susann wrote, and watched the movies based on the books, and read her biography and watched the TV-movie of that…
Bloody great, man! I’m even friends with Dolly Read-Martin and John LaZar on Facebook (Dolly’s great at responding to posts; John, not so much). Jackie hated it, but she must had her sense of humor blunted by cancer by that time.
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My only experience with Susann is seeing the movie version of Valley of the Dolls. (Which I recall enjoying immensely, but I suspect I was laughing at rather than with.) Interesting that greater knowledge of her canon may help one appreciate BTVOTD. So, she’s kinda like Tolkien?
It was a lot of bad actors rolling around on top of each other.
I hope I didn’t spoil any major plot points.
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And the internet… In the days before youtube the wife and were part of the select few that managed to see a screening of Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story which was totally unavailable other than screenings from someone who had one of the ultra rare copies of it.
Of course now anyone can find it on YouTube as it gets uploaded as often as it gets taken down.
It is wonderful that all this stuff is so much more accessable, but I am sad that there isn’t the effort needed to find these kinds of movies or the excitement of knowing it will be on late night TV this weekend or you scored a ticket to the rare screening at the art house theater.
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Now that’s a cult movie!
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That was just one scene. And which movie are you talking about?
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Wellll…kind of. She pretty much wrote anthropology in a style influenced by Damon Runyan and Clare Boothe Luce; unfortunately, she wrote about show business, LOL! But she spent a lot of time eavesdropping and overhearing a lot of stuff, so her dialogue is good. The people she wrote about, however, were pretty crappy, though. But that’s show biz!
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Roger Ebert’s grandest creation, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.
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If all you saw was bad actors rolling around, you ought to watch the DVD with the actors’ commentary - too funny!
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I can imagine.
I’m actually a bit surprised any of them remember the experience.
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Why? None of them did drugs on set. Russ wouldn’t allow it; he wouldn’t allow sex during a shoot.
And how could one not remember such colorful nuttiness?
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I was thinking about with some directors, pretty much all of their work is under-rated, as a result of one incredibly hyped (often over-rated) movie. Welles was one I had in mind, where so many film buffs only know Citizen Kane, proclaim him the Best Director Ever - and then proceed to disregard all of his more mature subsequent work. CK is an important work for historical reasons, because there are so many technical and artistic milestones. But I rarely encounter any argument for how this makes it Welles’ best film.
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I’m always amazed that Shane Carruth doesn’t get more love. Primer and Upstream Color are two of my favourite movies but it’s very rare that I meet someone who has seen either of them.
Hyper-realistic dialogue, intensely nerdy arguments about engineering and philosophy, soundtracks that could be called “sparse” if you were being generous, plotlines that play around with the idea of chronological stories and eschew all exposition; why is this man not more famous than Michael Bay?? 
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