Valley of the Dolls (1967)
There was a time in secondary school when everybody was trying to lay their hands on this book in the library. Even though, it was not in 'red spot section' of the library, it sure was a hit. Nobody could reserve it as it was passed among librarians and after some it was considered lost!
This 1967 film was based on this book by Jacqueline Susann. Dolls here refer to sleeping pills (dolophines) and illustrates the dog eat dog world of showbiz. It revolves around the story of three young girls (Anne, Neely and Jennifer) and the involvement with people of the show business. Barbara Perkins acts as Anne, a green country girl who finds a job as a secretary in an attorney's office who deals with performing artiste in Broadway. People who lived through the 70s would remember her as Betty in Peyton Place on Malaysian TV. Neely is a small time actress who gets fired from her job with a mega-star, Helen Lawson. She manages to make it on her own but she gets into lots of trouble with substance abuse. The third girl, Jennifer, is played by Sharon Tate, Roman Polanski's young pregnant wife who was killed by the Charles Manson cult.
Anne gets into and out of relationship with her boss and finally returns home to New England to start life anew, disillusioned with the bright lights of the performing lights and her two timing partner.
Neely gets dragged into the spiral world of destruction, gets rehabilitation and gets into it again when the demand of performance got to her.
Jennifer, forever trying to keep her broke mother happy, fails to secure any stable jobs. She falls in love and marries a struggling singer who is diagnosed with Huntington's disease and is placed in a sanatorium. Jennifer acts in French pornographic films but gets shortchanged in the end. She returns home just to be diagnosed to have breast cancer. Frustrated, with no one to confide and the bottomless pit mother with her demands for money, commits suicide with overdose of sleeping pills.
A soapy story which excite those filled with romance or fancy a good evening with a copy of 'Mills and Boons' or like me who try to discover the things that I missed in the past, while I was trying hard to run away from RRF...
There was a time in secondary school when everybody was trying to lay their hands on this book in the library. Even though, it was not in 'red spot section' of the library, it sure was a hit. Nobody could reserve it as it was passed among librarians and after some it was considered lost!This 1967 film was based on this book by Jacqueline Susann. Dolls here refer to sleeping pills (dolophines) and illustrates the dog eat dog world of showbiz. It revolves around the story of three young girls (Anne, Neely and Jennifer) and the involvement with people of the show business. Barbara Perkins acts as Anne, a green country girl who finds a job as a secretary in an attorney's office who deals with performing artiste in Broadway. People who lived through the 70s would remember her as Betty in Peyton Place on Malaysian TV. Neely is a small time actress who gets fired from her job with a mega-star, Helen Lawson. She manages to make it on her own but she gets into lots of trouble with substance abuse. The third girl, Jennifer, is played by Sharon Tate, Roman Polanski's young pregnant wife who was killed by the Charles Manson cult.
Anne gets into and out of relationship with her boss and finally returns home to New England to start life anew, disillusioned with the bright lights of the performing lights and her two timing partner.
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| R to L: Barbara Parkins, Sharon Tate, Patty Duke. |
Jennifer, forever trying to keep her broke mother happy, fails to secure any stable jobs. She falls in love and marries a struggling singer who is diagnosed with Huntington's disease and is placed in a sanatorium. Jennifer acts in French pornographic films but gets shortchanged in the end. She returns home just to be diagnosed to have breast cancer. Frustrated, with no one to confide and the bottomless pit mother with her demands for money, commits suicide with overdose of sleeping pills.
A soapy story which excite those filled with romance or fancy a good evening with a copy of 'Mills and Boons' or like me who try to discover the things that I missed in the past, while I was trying hard to run away from RRF...
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