Casablanca, a fan of the film, obviously only loves it on the camp level, with Parkins appreciating it more for what it is (she defends it), but in between some of the games Casablanca likes to play throughout (like “what’s the quote” and “who would you cast in a remake,” the idea of which horrifies Parkins) the actress does talk about Robson and his directing style, talks about Judy Garland (who was supposed to play Helen Lawson) coming on set, and actually shares some interesting anecdotes about the studio contract system. Featuring actress Barbara Parkins and entertainment journalist Ted Casablanca (not to be confused with the Ted Casablanca in the film) it’s more of a fan track I would say and not a very in-depth look at the film itself, other than some behind-the-scenes tidbits. The audio commentary from the original DVD has made it, though, and take that for what you will. Unlike their edition of Beyond the Valley of the Dolls Criterion isn’t as dependent on supplements that were previously available on the Fox DVD, only bringing over a handful items from that edition. In all it’s a very sharp looking presentation, much better than I was expecting. The restoration work has also been thorough and I can’t say I recall a blemish popping up.

A few shots here and there may look a bit fuzzy but it appears to be more source related, or at the very least how it was filmed grain remains distinct. Film grain is a bit more distinct and rendered nicely, while details can be sharper, delivering stronger textures.

Past that, though, it’s a much cleaner looking transfer, and quite a bit more filmic than Beyond. A couple of the snowy landscape shots in Connecticut can also look blown out and overbearing, washing out parts of the image, though maybe it’s intentional. Colours are a bit questionable: beige seems to be the colour of choice, with some splatters of reds, oranges, and pinks scattered about (it’s heavier during one of the trippier montage sequences), but they can look a little weak, with flesh tones looking a little anemic. The presentation for this film is a fairly pleasant surprise despite not being as colourful or energetic looking as Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (thanks a lot to its heavy use of beige) the image here manages to look quite a bit better than its quasi-sequel. The new 1080p/24hz high-definition presentation comes from a 2K restoration taken from a 35mm interpositive made from the original negative. Mark Robson’s cult classic Valley of the Dolls gets a Criterion Blu-ray release, and presents the film in its original aspect ratio of about 2.40:1 on a dual-layer disc.

Novel valley of the dolls