Sunday rolled in & The Stinkys were off to a special early afternoon screening of the incomparably crazed Beyond the Valley of the Dolls at Albuquerque's rough little gem, The Guild Cinema. MrStinky & Lu converged with Inez & Beth Love for the BVD screening to benefit Albuqueerque's LGBT Film Fest.
If you haven't seen it, BVD defies simple summary. Directed by Russ Meyer, and scripted by Roger Ebert -- yes, THAT Roger Ebert, BVD has next to nothing at all directly to do with Jacqueline Susann, Neely O'Hara, Sharon Tate or any part of MrStinky's favorite film, The Valley of the Dolls. Rather, BVD has much more in common with one of StinkyLulu's all time favorite movies, Myra Breckenridge, another big budget 20th Century Fox production released in 1970 that aimed to cash in on the emergent sexploitation/midnight movie market & instead, in tandem, nearly bankrupted the studio altogether. (StinkyLulu loves both BVD & Myra -- both with their terrorizing trannies & frenzied narrative/editing style, ala an acid-washed Laugh-In. It's just that BVD's freaky violent climax sorta reallyreally scares StinkyLu &, well, Myra has a trashtastic Hollywood aspect what with Mr.Howell, Farrah & Mae West all in small parts. Honestly, StinkyLu could watch Myra every day, while BVD obliges a respite of several years between screenings.)
It sorta makes sense that BVD would have the loyal hipster following that it does: it's just awful. And yet, while it's got the big boobies & potsmoking=promiscuity & vicious violence that earned its x-rating, it's also oddly innocent -- like the Partridge Family or Josie & The Pussycats actually showed up in LA one day...only to be met by Z-Man, a "mysterious host" whose innate perversity makes both Count Dracula & Frank N. Furter seem frilly & innocent by comparison. Zowie. It really is quite a mooovie.
Possibly fascinating side note: During StinkyLulu's NYC days on the chacha circuit, a favorite co-worker was a beautiful black woman named "Petrenella" who was named for the character in BVD. She said her mother was pregnant with her when she saw BVD & loved the movie & loved the name. Imagine that...
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