Valley of the Dolls
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Release date: December 15, 1967
Studio: Twentieth Century-Fox
Running time: 123 minutes
Director: Mark Robson
Cast: Barbara Parkins, Patty Duke, Paul Burke, Sharon Tate, Tony Scotti, Martin Milner, Charles Drake, Alexander Davion, Lee Grant, Naomi Stevens, Robert H. Harris, Jacqueline Susann, Robert Viharo, Mikel Angel, Barry Cahill, Richard Angarola, Joey Bishop, George Jessel, Susan Hayward, Judith Lowry, Jeanne Gerson, Linda Peck, Pat Becker, Corinna Tsopei, Robert Street, Robert Gibbons, Leona Powers, Barry O'Hara, Norman Burton, Margot Stevenson, Jonathan Hawke, Marvin Hamlisch, Billy Beck, Dorothy Neumann, Charlotte Knight, Robert McCord, Peggy Rea, Gertrude Flynn
Technical information: Panavision (2.35:1), DeLuxe Color
Mark Robson's trashy adaptation of Jacqueline Susann's trashy novel has become something of a camp classic.
Most of the film is told through the eyes of Anne Welles (Parkins), a young woman from the sleepy New England town of Lawrenceville who takes a job in New York City. Through her work she meets Neely O'Hara (Duke), a talented singer, and Jennifer North (Tate), a would-be actress with good looks but not much else. Assisted by Anne's boss/boyfriend Lyon Burke (Burke), Neely hits the big time after being fired from a show by the legendary Helen Lawson (Hayward, in a role originally meant for Judy Garland). A film career in Hollywood leads her to an addiction to pills (the "dolls" of the title) and booze, she ruins two marriages and ends up in a sanitarium. Jennifer marries a singer (Scotti) whose acting career is cut short by a fatal disease; she is forced to make "art" films in Paris to pay for his care. Eventually she finds she has cancer and commits suicide. Anne chances into a career as a model and reunites with Lyon, until he runs off with Neely and she returns home to Lawrenceville.
At the time some of this may have been shocking; nowadays, it seems tame compared to TV fare such as Melrose Place. Other than the beautiful widescreen photography of New England in the opening an closing scenes, there is little to recommend in the film aside from its unintentional humor.
A Variety reviewer called the film "a slick, undistinguished, high-budget potboiler" while the New York Times wrote: "Bad as Jacqueline Susann's Valley of the Dolls is as a book, the movie Mark Robson has made from it is that bad or worse." Despite the near-universal criticism, the film went on to become a phenomenal box office success.
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Songs: Lyrics by Dory Previn, Music by Andre Previn
Music Adapted and Conducted by: John Williams
Orchestration: Herbert Spencer
Music Editor: Kenneth Wannberg
By 1967, André Previn had pretty much abandoned his career as a film composer to become a full-time conductor. At the same time, his marriage to Dory Previn was failing, largely due to drug addiction. It is rather surprising he would make an exception to write pop songs for such a trashy, albeit high-profile, film. In their biography of the composer/conductor/pianist, Martin Bookspan and Ross Yockey wrote:
André does not talk about [Valley of the Dolls] or say why he chose to work on it in 1967, considering his commitment to leave Hollywood behind him and devote all his energies to serious music. One may reasonably conjecture that the collaboration grew out of a husbandly urge to help Dory any way he could. Her grip on reality was growing weaker. The theme from Valley of the Dolls has a halting, stumbling, lyric which, Dory writes, is taken directly from her own experience as a woman hooked on pills. That is also the main concern of the film. André's melody is strangely, hauntingly fitted to the words, as though he knew from his closeness to the situation in his own household just what was going on in Dory's mind and in the minds of the women in the film.The "strange, haunting" quality of Previn's theme come from its unusual — for pop music — use of shifting meters. It is a lovely tune, probably the best and most memorable element of the entire film. The other four songs he and Dory provided were sung by the characters in the film who played singers. Among these, "It's Impossible" also stands out for its use of shifting meters and accents in what is largely an up-tempo jazz waltz. "Give Me a Little More" and "I'll Plant My Own Tree" are typical Broadway-style showstoppers, while "Come Live With Me" sounds like a lounge singer ballad (not surprising since it is featured in the film as part of a lounge act!).
John Williams had been a friend of Previn for a decade or more; Williams had conducted and assisted with arrangements on two of Previn's jazz albums, so it is not surprising to find him adapting and conducting Previn's music here (especially since Previn had little or no inclination to actually score the film himself). Although it was not Williams' most distinguished scoring assignment, it was an A-list production and served as an important turning point in his career. With this film he moved from being typecast as a composer of comedy scores (Fitzwilly was the last of these, released at virtually the same time) to a shorter period as a sort of music director (adapting scores for the musicals Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Fiddler on the Roof and Tom Sawyer would take up a great deal of his time over the next few years). This is also the first time he appears as "John Williams" rather than "Johnny" in the credits, and marks his first collaboration with music editor Kenneth Wannberg (who continues to work with Williams in that capacity to this day) and his second with orchestrator Herbert Spencer (who worked on most of Williams' films from this point until his death).
The Patty Duke, Susan Hayward and Tony Scotti characters were singers in the film and each was required to sing a song (three, in the case of Duke). Scotti was himself a singer in real life and sang his own number, "Come Live with Me", both in a nightclub setting early in the film , and in a sanitarium with Duke late in the picture. Duke was not a singer, and an uncredited vocalist dubbed her songs both in the film and on the album. Her character performs "Give Me a Little More" and "It's Impossible" towards the beginning of the film and recordings of these songs are heard later in the picture. Hayward's character sings "I'll Plant My Own Tree" in the out of town tryout of a Broadway musical; like Duke, her singing voice was dubbed in the film and on the LP. Originally, Judy Garland was slated to play the Hayward role (and would have sung the song herself) but Garland was fired after three days' work.
According to Bookspan and Yockey, Garland was also supposed to sing "Theme from Valley of the Dolls" in the film, even though the song plays a narrative role relaying the thoughts of Barbara Parkins' character. After Garland was let go, Lionel Newman (head of the Fox music department) signed Dionnne Warwick to sing the tune in the film. It appears not only over the main and end titles, but elsewhere in the middle of the film, providing musical commentary on Anne Welles' situation and emotions. The song appears on the LP much as it does in the title sequences, but not with Warwick's voice; she was under contract to a different record label and was replaced on the soundtrack album by yet another uncredited singer. (Warwick did go on to record a non-Williams arrangement of the song, which reached No. 2 on the singles charts in 1968.)
Much of the music in the film is source music — either recorded or performed on screen. In addition to the songs heard as source music and the theme song, Williams adapted the melodies of the Previn compositions for several of the underscore cues. Williams also provided other source music and a number of commentative cues that did not rely on the Previn material. At the beginning of the film, his scoring relies heavily on celesta, harp, glockenspiel, harpsichord, and other instruments to create a dream-like musical setting for the young women embarking on their careers. As problems arise in their personal lives, the music becomes more traditionally supportive of the melodrama, without calling too much attention to itself; one of the best examples is Jennifer's Recollection, which precedes that character's suicide. By the final reels, the music for Neely O'Hara has devolved into a single, disembodied, sustained tone. Throughout, the "Theme from Valley of the Dolls" is associated exclusively with Anne Welles.
Variety wrote that "John (ex-Johnny) Williams' music adaptation is good. Five songs, including title theme, by Andre and Dory Previn are interpolated nicely, and logically, into the plot. Dionne Warwick regularly warbles title tune."
Williams received his first Academy Award nomination for this score (Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment). He would go on to work with director Mark Robson on Daddy's Gone A-Hunting (taking a similar musical approach) and Earthquake.
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A soundtrack LP (Twentieth Century-Fox Records 4196) was issued at the time of the film's release. It includes the songs as sung in the film (Dionne Warwick's voice being replaced by an uncredited vocalist), as well as a couple of Williams' underscore cues ("Ann at Lawrenceville", "Jennifer's Recollection") and several source cues ("Chance Meeting", "Jennifer's French Movie", "The Gillian Girl Commercial"). This soundtrack album was released on CD by Polygram on February 3, 1998 (Philips 314 536 876 — purchase).
Warwick released her own recording of the title song (absent Williams'
glorious arrangement) and it achieved hit status.
The film is available on Laserdisc in a widescreen transfer. It is not yet available on DVD in the United States.
The Film | The Music
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"Movie Call Sheet," Betty Martin
Los Angeles Times, August 7 1967, D28
"Film Reviews: Valley of the Dolls," A.D. Murphy
Variety, December 20 1967
"Screen: Valley of the Dolls," Bosley Crowther
New York Times, December 16 1967, 51:1
André Previn: A Biography, Martin Bookspan and Ross Yockey
Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1981. 398 pp.
The Film | The Music
Audio | Video
References | Links
Internet Movie Database entry for Valley of the Dolls
Cinebooks Database entry for Valley of the Dolls
All Movie Guide entry for Valley of the Dolls
Page last modified
June 05, 2006
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