The movie John Carpenter called “an absolute masterpiece”
The contributions that John Carpenter has made to the action, horror and science fiction genres, with the likes of Escape From New York, The Thing and Halloween under his directorial belt, have been nothing short of magnificent, and the cinema world will be forever indebted to his artistic presence.
There’s certainly an element of the tongue in cheek when it comes to many of Carpenter’s movies, though, and the director himself once explained that he is no stranger to a guilty pleasure or two, going one further and naming the 17 movies that he considers to be his favourite “trashy” films.
“Let’s talk about flops and trash,” Carpenter began. “The Poor, The Awful, The Stupid – movies I dearly love and would much rather watch than classics. As a kid, I knew a lot of the movies I saw were hideous, but I didn’t care, I loved them anyway. I forgave everything. Now when I see these same films, I still love and forgive.”
And within those words, we see that Carpenter truly loves his guilty pleasures, rather than just admiring them as B-movies. One moment actually saw Carpenter call one of his selections “a masterpiece”, indeed the highest term of praise in the artistic lexicon.
Of Russ Meyer’s Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, Carpenter said, “An absolute masterpiece. Rock and roll. Beautiful naked babes. Gratuitous sex and violence. Dolly Read leads the Carrie Nations, and all-girl band, to top Hollywood Babylon. The fun never stops.”
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is the 1970 satirical musical melodrama starring Dolly Read, Cynthia Myers, Marcia McBroom, Phyliss Davis and many others, written by Roger Ebert for the screen from a story written by both Meyers and Ebert. The film was initially meant to be a prequel to the 1967 movie Valley of the Dolls.
However, the screenplay was revised to be something of a parody of the original movie, which has been poorly received by critics but had performed well at the box office. The satirical elements of the film, though, were missed by many, which is something John Carpenter notes.
Signing off with his praise for the film, Carpenter wrote, “The songs are great. The women are beautiful. The violence is outrageous. Total Russ Meyer satire that apparently went right over the heads of the audience and critics. Edy Williams in a Bentley is a sight to behold. As a 22-year-old, I fell deeply in love with Cynthia Meyers. I’m still in love.”
Check out the trailer for Beyond the Valley of the Dolls below.
