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Dolls, Dolls, Dolls: Deep Inside ‘Valley of the Dolls’

By George Pelletier - Milford Bureau Chief | Jun 27, 2020

“Valley of the Dolls” has left its lipstick marks all over pop culture.

Film critic Roger Ebert called the 1967 flick a “dirty soap opera.” (Ironically, he would write the screenplay for the horrifically bad sequel, “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.”) The critical consensus of the flick was “trashy, campy, soapy and melodramatic.” The book itself, written by Jacqueline Susann, was a taboo phenom in 1966, selling 31 million copies worldwide and has long reigned as one the most influential, and campy novels of all time. Smutty and risqué, the novel (and the film) focus on three young women-Neely O’Hara (Patty Duke), Jennifer North (Sharon Tate), and Anne Welles (Barbara Parkins)-who navigate the entertainment industry in both NYC and L.A. but end up getting addicted to barbiturates – or “dolls,” Susann-speak for pills. The film was a box office stinker earning scalding reviews. In “Dolls, Dolls, Dolls: Deep Inside Valley of the Dolls,” author Rebello digs deep into the creation of the movie and uncovers how the film has become such a so-bad-it’s-good classic.

Most of the book, which is memorable reading for die-hard devotees, is ripe with breathless histrionics. Like an avant-garde game of Trivial Pursuit, the book reveals much of the back story to the making of the film. Mark Robson directed the flick and he notoriously fired a boozy, drug-addled Judy Garland, who was cast to play aging actress Helen Lawson, who was supposedly based on Garland. Susan Hayward took over. Garland died on June 22, 1969 from a barbiturate overdose. Two months after Garland’s sudden demise, the Manson Family murdered Tate in August 1969.

Strangely enough, Susann relinquished all control over how the film was produced, written, cast and publicized, meaning that Twentieth Century Fox could slice and dice her novel however it chose. Also, surprising: Sci-fi author Harlan Ellison was hired to write the first screen treatment, but his script had a psychedelic twist and he was canned. The studio then looked for a writer who was “solid, dependable, and female” and got two – Helen Deutsch and Dorothy Kingsley.

Director Robson hated the idea of casting goody-goody Patty Duke (“a preposterous candidate” to play the hard-nosed Neely. And at one point Barbra Streisand, Candice Bergen, Julie Christie, Natalie Wood, Debbie Reynolds and Bette Davis showed interest in the film.

Although everyone in Hollywood knew the picture would be female driven, Susann thought that big-name stars would line up to play the male characters. And though Susann envisioned Sean Connery, Paul Newman or Steve McQueen playing the male lead, and the studio tested Christopher Plummer, (Capt. Von Trapp?), for the part, “second string” actor Paul Burke landed the role. According to Rebello, Parkins prepared for her love scenes with Burke by staring at a photograph of Cat Stevens. Another surprising fact concerns Parkins: Though beautiful and ambitious, after doing “Dolls,” her career stalled, and her agents advised her to turn down “Love Story.” Schmuck agent.

Susann stumped for Elvis Presley to play the role of Polar. But by ’66, thanks to the singer’s mercenary manager Col. Tom Parker, the ship on Presley’s acting career had sailed. (A few years later, Presley’s name would be bandied about for the lead role in the Streisand version of “A Star is Born, which would go on to star Kris Kristofferson.)

Months before the production start, the songwriting team of composer Andre Previn and lyricist Dory Previn was asked to write a theme song and other tunes. They did. They stunk.

Then there are the feuds behind the camera that incinerated “Dolls.” Duke called the director, “the meanest son of a bitch I ever met in my life.” And although Duke’s character Neely was set to sing several of the film’s flaky songs, they were all dubbed which disappointed Duke. “I knew I couldn’t sing like a trained singer,” she said. “But I thought it was important for Neely maybe to be pretty good in the beginning, but the deterioration should be that raw, nerve-ending kind of the thing.” Their clashes became the stuff of legend.

When the time came for the three stars of “Dolls” to interact, the absence of significant scenes together might have blunted the movie’s impact but also might have been a blessing. A supporting actor on the film observed, “Duke, Tate and Parkins – those girls came out of their corners with their dukes up (no pun intended) because they all wanted to be major stars. (Duke had already won an Oscar for 1963’s “The Miracle Worker.“) And a Hollywood columnist predicted that Duke would become the next Bette Davis and Parkins the new Joan Crawford (a jab at the 1962 flick “What Ever Happened To Baby Jane?, which was ripe with scuffles.)

Robson was also notorious for using a stopwatch when he was directing in order to keep “everybody moving.”

When Fox held a preview screening of the film at San Francisco’s Orpheum Theatre, the marquee only read “The Biggest Book of the Year.” “And the film was so campy, everyone roared with laughter,” producer David Brown told Vanity Fair. “One patron was so irate he poured his Coke all over Fox president Dick Zanuck in the lobby. The soda. Not the nose candy.

In 2000, Duke, Parkins and Lee Grant (who played Miriam Polar), reunited on “The View.” “It’s the best, funniest, worst movie ever made,” Grant stated. She then mentioned how she and Duke made a movie about killer bees called “The Swarm.” “‘Valley of the Dolls’ was like genius compared to it,” Grant said.

And despite spirited disagreement over whether it was pro- or anti-feminist, women flocked to it, with the exception of Susann herself, who told director Mark Robson it was “a piece of” excrement. She hated the film. And Gloria Steinem wrote that it was “for the reader who has put away comic books but isn’t yet ready for editorials in the Daily News.”

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