"Valley of the Dolls" vs "Mommie Dearest" vs "Dynasty"

[Snarky Oracle!]

Btw, think of me as your editor, not your enemy. I'm here to protect you.

Yeah, right. You just roll over and refuse to cuddle.

... And about that ginger.

It's not possible to make what happened in season 9 retroactively relevant for season 5 and make those episodes look better than they really were.

But yes, there is -- there's always a way!

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Patty Duke was a terrific actress, but was she the key casting problem which made VALLEY OF THE DOLLS so problematic?

It was never going to be "good" movie, but, aside from her total lack of believability of Duke as a singing-dancing sensation (she doesn't sing and is stiff as a board), all her scenes have her screaming unrelentingly. (Her choice, or the lousy director's?)

A lot of DOLLS docs have been popping up on my YT feed, for whatever reason, and they're all more entertaining than the movie itself.

 

[Ked]

Patty Duke was a terrific actress, but was she the key casting problem which made VALLEY OF THE DOLLS so problematic?

It was never going to be "good" movie, but, aside from her total lack of believability of Duke as a singing-dancing sensation (she doesn't sing and is stiff as a board), all her scenes have her screaming unrelentingly. (Her choice, or the lousy director's?)

A lot of DOLLS docs have been popping up on my YT feed, for whatever reason, and they're all more entertaining than the movie itself.

From a documentary I watched, it looked like it was all the director's fault. He just didn't seem like he was interested at all in how the movie was made, leaving the three leads to flounder.

 

[Willie Oleson]

She sang


But, yeah, ideally they should have convinced Helen Shapiro to play the part of Neely. That would have been a real shocker which is what this film needed to be (and miserably failed at).

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

She sang
View attachment 59103View attachment 59104View attachment 59105

But, yeah, ideally they should have convinced Helen Shapiro to play the part of Neely. That would have been a real shocker which is what this film needed to be (and miserably failed at).

I should have said "she doesn't sing well enough to play that kind of star."

Some people prefer Duke's LP singing to her voice-over double in the movie (I haven't heard it, and it's probably true) but she's supposed to be a Streisandian phenomenon in the script,

Duke might even rhumba, too, but we never saw a convincing manifestation expression of that in DOLLS.

From a documentary I watched, it looked like it was all the director's fault. He just didn't seem like he was interested at all in how the movie was made, leaving the three leads to flounder.

He was apparently mean to Sharon Tate, too. I'm guessing he knew Manson.

 

[Willie Oleson]

Duke might even rhumba, too, but we never saw a convincing manifestation expression of that in DOLLS.

Let's say that Barbara Parkins did it better in Peyton Place.

 

[Ked]

He was apparently mean to Sharon Tate, too. I'm guessing he knew Manson.

Anyone who ever knew Sharon Tate always goes on about how gentle and sweet and "good" she was, and the fact that she was willing to die so that her unborn child could live is a huge testament to her character. So anyone who could possibly be mean to her is bad in my book.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Anyone who ever knew Sharon Tate always goes on about how gentle and sweet and "good" she was, and the fact that she was willing to die so that her unborn child could live is a huge testament to her character. So anyone who could possibly be mean to her is bad in my book.

People are often meaner to nice folks because they think they can get away with it, and that the victim will feel it more than somebody else.

Of course, four other people were slaughtered on Cielo Drive that night, so the killers probably weren't being terribly discriminating.

Polanski wasn't terribly nice to Sharon either, objectifying and demeaning her. (She was probably too old for him). Joanna Pettet, a buddy of Sharon's who had to be hospitalized after she heard about the murders, hated Roman Polanski and called him "evil".

Good director though; those Leos always are.

 

[Ked]

Something interesting I couldn't help but notice is how Sharon Tate became friends with two Peyton Place stars: Mia Farrow and Barbara Parkins. Yet, despite the latter two being former costars, I never heard about the three women ever interacting at once.

 

[Toni]

Something interesting I couldn't help but notice is how Sharon Tate became friends with two Peyton Place stars: Mia Farrow and Barbara Parkins. Yet, despite the latter two being former costars, I never heard about the three women ever interacting at once.

Mia only acts with people she´s adopted. And suits everybody else. Look what she had to say about Joannie Crawford, the nerve!
https://people.com/mia-farrow-says-joan-crawford-was-scary-in-person-11750028

"As Escola shared their admiration for Crawford’s film Our Dancing Daughters, the 80-year-old didn’t hold back. “She’s scary,” Farrow revealed. “And she was scary in person as well.” (Look who´s talking!)

​

During her teenage years, while filming the TV version of Peyton Place on the Fox lot in California, the actress described a strange encounter with Crawford.
At the time, the Academy Award winner – nearly four decades Farrow’s senior – was married to Alfred Steele, the then-president of Pepsi-Cola.
According to Farrow, she began behaving in ways that struck the young actress as deeply odd – leaving a lasting impression that clearly lingers to this day.
“For whatever reason, she started sending a whole refrigerator of Pepsi Cola for my trailer ’cause I was in a TV series called Peyton Place,” she explained.
“I don’t particularly like Pepsi Cola, but a lot of Pepsi Cola kept coming to my trailer, more than anyone would ever want,” Farrow added. “And then she came over to see me, and I got a strange vibe from her.”

So, PEPSI = SAPPHIC LOVE​

Away from the set, Farrow also had a few weird moments with the legendary actress in New York at her mother, Maureen O'Sullivan’s, house.
“I hung up people’s coats for my mom when they came into the house. And I hung her coat and out falls a flask of alcohol,” she recalls. “She grabbed it like that, and she put it in her handbag. She drank quite a lot.”

Yes, but she smoked too!​

Following that, 17-year-old Farrow was invited to Crawford’s apartment in the city. Thinking it was a party, she agreed to go. “But I arrived, and I was the only one there,” she told Escola.
Everything in the apartment was green, bathed in low, moody lighting. There were no other guests.

Again, PEPSI = SAPPHIC LOVE
​

Feeling extremely uncomfortable, young Farrow made up an on-the-spot excuse to leave. “I just made up a lie that I wasn’t feeling very well and I didn’t want to give her any diseases,” she shared. “I think I said the word ‘diseases’ as I walked out of the room. I was scared of Ms. Crawford.”

I think Michelle Phillips was part of their (Polanski´s) circle. She even talked about it on a video.

"Oh sure, little thing Mia thought she was the Queen of England!"
​