Valley of the Dolls (1967)

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Valley of the Dolls (1967)

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Valley of the Dolls is a 1967 American drama film based on the 1966 novel of the same name by Jacqueline Susann. ('Dolls' was a slang term for downers, mood-altering drugs.) It was produced by David Weisbart and directed by Mark Robson. The film stars Barbara Parkins, Patty Duke, Sharon Tate, Paul Burke, Martin Milner and Susan Hayward.

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Valley of the Dolls (1967)

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Plot: Three young women meet when they embark on their careers. Neely O'Hara (Duke) is a plucky kid with undeniable talent who sings in a Broadway show, the legendary actress Helen Lawson (Hayward) is the star of the play, and Jennifer North (Tate), a beautiful blonde with limited talent, is in the chorus. Anne Welles (Parkins) is a New England ingenue who recently arrived in New York City and works for a theatrical agency that represents Helen Lawson. The three women become fast friends, sharing the bonds of ambition and the tendency to fall in love with the wrong men. O'Hara is fired because the arrogant Lawson considers her a threat. She nevertheless becomes an overnight success and moves to Hollywood to pursue a lucrative film career. Once she's a star, though, Neely not only duplicates the egotistical behavior of Lawson, she also falls victim to the eponymous "dolls": prescription drugs, particularly the barbiturates Seconal and Nembutal and various stimulants. She betrays her husband (Milner), her career is shattered by erratic behavior and she is committed to a sanitarium.
Jennifer has followed Neely's path to Hollywood, where she marries nightclub singer Tony Polar (Tony Scotti) and becomes pregnant. When she learns that he has the hereditary condition Huntington's chorea, a fact his domineering half-sister and manager Miriam (Lee Grant) had been concealing, Jennifer has an abortion. Faced with Tony's mounting medical expenses, Jennifer finds herself working in French "art films" (extremely tame soft-core pornography) to pay the bills. Anne, having become a highly successful model, also falls under the allure of "dolls" to escape her doomed relationship with cad Lyon Burke (Burke), who has an affair with Neely.

–from wikipedia

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Valley of the Dolls (1967)

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Valley of the Dolls (1967)

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Valley of the Dolls (1967)

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Valley of the Dolls (1967)

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Valley of the Dolls (1967)

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