1967 Valley of the Dolls film

It's an excellent film, it's one that makes you think, particularly around the fantastical element in this film. There are no easy answers.

Pedro Almodovor films are morally complex films. Much better than the straight-forward moralising you get in Hollywood and British films.

No, he made the kidnapped man look like his deceased wife, and that is why he wanted a relationship with the person.

His wife burned to death in a car accident? And he invented a burn-proof skin that he tested on the kidnapped man.

Written by a man.

When I saw the film, I was pleased that I realised that the patient and the rapist were the same person due to the ripped fabric. Both the patient and the rapist would rip clothes and then create things from the ripped pieces. I had not heard about AGP at that time. The story makes a lot more sense now.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11367816-tarantula?fromsearch=true&fromsrp=true&qid=xLdAzKCy7P&rank=7

ETA - I can't imagine what a transwidow would make of it, but I suspect that many of the themes would feel very familiar in the worst ways.

Fgs. So somebody first wrote this crap. Then some other idiot published it and then an even worse idiot made a bloody film of it?

I am now ready to resign from the human race. 🙄

It was Antonio's dead wife that the rapist was transformed into. Antonio's brother (in the film) was dressed a tiger and thought that the transwoman actually was the dead wife, which confused him, because IIRC he had something to do with the wife's death. Sex still happened, of course. I think the transwoman ended up happy because the woman he had been in love with before being captured was a lesbian and now they could be together.

Of course, pre (forced) transition the rapist is played by a man, and afterwords by a woman.

The book (Tarantula) is meant to be even more depraved, but I have not read it.

Love Valley of the Dolls - Patty Duke-Austin.

That's the one. I could remember Almodovar, but wasn't 100% sure it was one of his. Banderas i completely blanked on.

Is that The Skin I live In? An Almodovar film? It's pretty weird...

I am intrigued by the large breastfed women in the op though. I really can't tell just by sight.

Antonio Banderas. He did a few weird kinky films but I haven't heard of this one.

I love Valley Of The Dolls, have it in DVD and one of guilty pleasures when I’m home alone on a rainy day. Love Sharon Tate movies (RIP)

You started an interesting and fun chat about films and books, and gave us the memorable typo 'large breastfed women'😀 so 'you're grand' as we say in Ireland, and come back any time with more things for us to talk about
BTW I'm laughing with you and not at you about the 'breastfed' typo, we all do typos, but that one is brill!

Isn't there a film where the guy...you know that bloke?...he was the voice of Puss in Boots! That guy! Anyway he kidnapped the man who'd sexually assaulted his daughter leading to her suicide and turned him into his daughter, he was a skilled plastic surgeon. Imagine if he'd been an accountant! They became lovers. It was fucked up. I think she/he bided her time and killed him.

I see what you mean about ladettes: but otoh why shouldn't a woman watch football? Or play it? As a GC, that doesn't make her a man!

Drinking and too much shagging are bad for both sexes, tho they tend to hit women harder due to pregnancy potential & less alcohol restitance.

It's a real mess. Very much of its time. But there are fun moments. Raquel had a talent for comedy that was rarely used, and there is the jaw dropping spectacle of an 80 year old Mae West running a casting couch for male actors.

I like the idea of "large, breastfed women" 😂

O.G I had forgotten Myra Beckenridge. Thanks for reminding me. I was blown away by the book when I was in my 20s. I never saw the film.

I love the theme song from Valley of the Dolls, sung by Dionne Warwick.

I think people in general want things both ways. Heterosexuals, at least, are often very attracted to the specific differences between the sexes, the things that most differentiate them. oth physically and otherwise.

At the same time, the sentiment, why can't they be more like us, seems really common. Why can't they care about the things we care about, enjoy the things we enjoy, want the kinds of lives we want? You can hear groups of men talk this way about their female partners and groups of women about their male partners.

I only found out a few years ago that The Valley of the Dolls was a film (I'm a 54 year old stripling...) I just thought it was the Generation X song.

Yes, I'm probably a Philistine!

Some of the trashy movies of the time have become so camp with age that they're lots of fun now, if you're in a silly enough mood.

I'm always amazed that nobody has tried to cancel Myra Breckinridge yet. Maybe it's too old, too weird and too obscure. You can tell it's a male fantasy though, by the fact a guy gets on the operating table and wakes up as Raquel Welch. Almost no women look like Raquel Welch.

Though I've heard a story that Raquel wanted to play the male part too, which could have been hilarious.

Love My Fair Lady. Haven't seen it in years though. Long overdue a rewatch.

Hey now, I'm in the US, I got a one day suspension for skipping school to go see Valley of the Dolls. I loved that movie.

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls isn't really anything to do with the original Valley of the Dolls. Best to read the original Jacqueline Susann book, I love it.

Valley of the Dolls is a really good book.

THTRMO!

That's immediately what I thought.