Page "Russ Meyer" Paragraph 7

After the unexpected success of Easy Rider, and impressed by Meyer's frugality and profitability, 20th Century Fox signed him to produce and direct a proposed sequel to Valley of the Dolls in 1969, fulfilling his longstanding ambition to direct for a major Hollywood studio.

What eventually appeared was Beyond the Valley of the Dolls ( 1970 ), scripted by film critic ( and Meyer devotee ) Roger Ebert and bearing no relation to the novel or film's continuity ( a development necessitated after Jacqueline Susann sued the studio ).

Many critics perceive the film as perhaps the greatest expression of his intentionally vapid surrealism — Meyer went so far as to refer to it as his definitive work in several interviews.

Others, such as Variety, saw " B. V. D .," " as funny as a burning orphanage and a treat for the emotionally retarded.

" Contractually stipulated to produce an R-rated film, the brutally violent climax ( depicting a decapitation ) ensured an X rating ( eventually reclassified to NC-17 in 1990 ).

Though disowned by the studio for decades to come and amid gripes from the director after he attempted to recut the film to include more titillating scenes after the ratings debacle, it still earned $ 9 million domestically in the United States on a budget of $ 900, 000.