Equal parts Hollywood and exploitation film, with not enough of either to ever really gel. It's a story about the rise and fall of three different women, in different aspects of show business. I presume it follows three different characters because they wanted to fit every Hollywood cliche (which, to be fair, probably weren't as cliche back then) and taboo (which, to be fair, were more taboo back then) and thought that the audience wouldn't buy madness, drug addiction, alcoholism, dabbling in pornography, mastectomies, suicide, abortion, and rape all happening in the same lifetime. As it is, though, it makes it hard to invest too much into any of the characters, but that's not what this movie is about anyway, really. It's about lurid subject matter and tittilation.
The tittilation, to be fair, is there. All three women (Barbara Parkins, Patty Duke, and Sharon Tate) are exceedingly pleasant to look at and all appear in various teasing states of undress, the most teasing of all being the clips from Sharon Tate's character's "Nudie Cuties"*, which feature her topless but obscured through a lace curtain. This is the kind of movie where you crane your neck in vain, hoping a better angle will allow you to see everything. I'd never been angry at a lace curtain before seeing this movie.
It'd be a camp classic, for sure, if it weren't for Russ Meyer and Roger Ebert. Their film, "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" features women just as beautiful, a lot more naked, with an even campier tone. It's even better paced and just as well-directed. Like it's name implies, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls renders this film irrelevant.
Or does it? I do find it fascinating when Hollywood tried to make their own exploitation films way back when. The results always felt a little schizophrenic. I think this is a special film that's worth seeing for historical purposes. And unlike most films that are worth seeing primarily for historical purposes, you get to see Sharon Tate's tits. Just make sure to see Beyond afterwards, as a reward.
*Before you go googling Sharon Tate's scenes from this scene, be warned that most google images of her have the words "Helter Skelter" written in blood on her walls.
