One of the all-time great cult films, BVD is an energetic, imaginative parody of Valley of the Dolls and other such dippy Hollywood melodramas. Our three lusty, busty heroines are the members of an all-girl pop group. From one trailer: "Dolly Read is Kelly, the singer. Cynthia Myers is Casey, the swinger. Marcia McBroom is Pet, the soul sister." Whoa! Anyway, our trio of sexy supervixens move out to Hollywood, get discovered immediately, and are thrown into a whirlpool of pill addiction, alcoholism, lesbianism, abortions, depression, double crosses, crippling injuries, lots of violence, and lots of sex. All of this is played with a deceptively straight face, with the wild comedy arising from the ludicrousness of the soap-opera situations. One particularly sudsy moment is even accompanied by swelling daytime-TV organ music! There are obvious jokes, which are spirited and very funny, and even some sly references to Valley of the Dolls (a character named Miriam, the Warwick Court Apartments). The ending has to be seen to be believed, and even then....
The acting is very good (though Dolly Read's natural British and fake American accents are openly battling throughout), with top prizes taken by John LaZar as freaked-out record mogul Z-Man and Edy Williams as voracious porno queen Ashley St. Ives. The women, sporting big hair and thick false eyelashes, are all incredibly beautiful, and Russ Meyer lovingly captures them in neon-bright color. The editing and camerawork are fast-paced and super-stylish, as usual with Meyer. The soundtrack is excellent.
A groovy, sexy, X-rated look at L.A. back when it was cool!
Trivia: The reason this X seems so mild is because it was intended for an R! Meyer did prepare a more explicit version, but when this tamer cut was X'd, Fox elected to distribute it instead of the racier print. The video box says NC-17 because Fox has a policy against never releasing an X-rated tape. Of course, an X in 1970 did mean 17 and over, whereas it now means 18 and over. HUGE chasm there!
