'Beyond The Valley of the Dolls' is a terrible excuse for a film. its pretty much a soft core porno with some soap opera esq elements thrown in. i'm much more interested in the opinion of fellow fans that Ebert. maybe thats just me.
Well yeah, it's a pretty lame movie, but I don't think that's reason enough to believe Ebert has no credibility. What about the fact that he's been writing film reviews for 44 years, seen thousands of movies, won a Pulitzer Prize for his writing (the first film critic to do so), has taught courses on film, and done many set visits and interviews with film makers to discuss and better understand/appreciate the craft of film making?
Over the years he's made his fair share of bad calls (in fact, he gave three stars to what I consider the second worst film I've ever seen), but I always respect his opinion and I think it's really unfair to dismiss his opinion based on his screenwriting history.
The flicks he wrote were
supposed to be silly B-pictures. He wasn't aiming for high art. And while I agree that a lot of
"Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" is stupid and tedious, I did think the final sequence (with the LSD party) was pure cinema brilliance. Transcendently hilarious camp. On purpose!