Jacqueline Susann’s bestselling potboiler about the misadventures of three young women in the entertainment industry became a lavish big-screen melodrama under the direction of Mark Robson (Peyton Place). Barbara Parkins, Patty Duke, and Sharon Tate are the innocents who run afoul of men and “dolls” (pills), and Oscar-winner Susan Hayward plays Helen Lawson, a temperamental star modeled after Judy Garland (and almost played by Garland herself). André and Dory Previn wrote the film’s original songs, including the Dionne Warwick hit "Theme From Valley Of The Dolls," and John Williams received his first Oscar nomination for the film’s score, in the category Music (Scoring of Music—adaptation or treatment).  

DIRECTED BY: Mark Robson. WRITTEN BY: Helen Deutsch, Dorothy Kingsley. WITH: Barbara Parkins, Patty Duke, Sharon Tate, Susan Hayward. 1967. 123 min. USA. Color. Scope. English. Rated PG-13. 35mm. 

Academy Museum film programming generously funded by the Richard Roth Foundation.