Showbiz Sickies
The story is about girls who take all sorts of pills, but Valley of theDolls offers only bromides. There is a bottleful to choose from, mostnotably: "For many years I prayed for this moment. Now that it's come,I don't feel a thing."
Viewers are also likely not to feel anything—except numbness—afteringesting this filmed version of Jacqueline Susann's wide screen novel,loose ly based on the troubles of some semi-recognizable showbizsickies. Among them are a platinum blonde who makesnudies to pay for her husband's stay in a sanatorium; a young singer who later turns to bedding down with strangers; and abrassy voiced Broadway zircon in the rough .
Watching them with innocent eyes is a theatrical amanuensis who soon learns that the room at the top has no exit. Patty isboffo at the box office, but perpetually drunk on booze and zonked by"dolls"—drugs that pep her up in the morning and put her to sleep atnight. Susan gets sharp lines in her face and dull ones in her plays.Sharon, a cancer victim, commits suicide by downing a mouthful ofsleeping pills. Barbara has an affair with an agent, gets only 10% ofhis affection and starts playing with dolls herself. She eventuallyflees back to her New England home town, where a Christmas-cardsnowfall makes everything pure and clean again, just like in themovies.
The cliche of show business as a dream world may have been wide-eyed andsaccharine. But Novelist Susann's view of Hollywood as nightmare Valleymerely adds up to the old naivete in reverse. The show's mostappropriate line is uttered by Sharon Tate as she does some bustexercises in front of a mirror. "The hell with it," she says, summingup what seems to be the film's atlitude toward its stars, "let 'emdroop."
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