Book to Movie Comparison: Valley of the Dolls, Part 1

Book to Movie Comparison is a brand-new feature on the blog comparing movies to their usually much better-written books. As always, I'll discuss the Continuity Issues and WTF Moments.

Anne, Neely, and Jennifer all meet in New York and share the next twenty years of their lives living and breathing show business. There's so many inconsistencies between the two, I don't know where to start. I'm going to have to do this in parts, hopefully only two, but more likely three.

Movie Anne leaves home in the winter. She said it was hard to leave Lawrenceville. She was pinned to Willie, her longtime boyfriend. Once Anne reaches New York, she stays at the Martha Washington Hotel for Women and before she can even unpack, she has an interview at Bellamy and Bellows. Henry Bellamy sends Anne (on a trial run) to get Helen Lawson's signature on some contracts. On the way to Helen's dressing room, Anne walks past a girl (Neely) rehearsing a song for the show "Hit the Sky." Helen's chewing out her press agent, who happens to be Neely's boyfriend (Mel Anderson), when Anne arrives with the contracts. Anne compliments Neely to Helen, and Helen refuses to sign the contracts until Henry "earns his oats." Anne returns to the office and hands over the scraps of the one contract Helen had managed to sign to Lyon Burke, who's lost his English accent, and his looks.

I had to stop there. All the sentences but one was a total inconsistency from the book. It was quite easy for Anne to leave Lawrenceville, and besides that, she left in August, shortly after the war ended. She was never pinned to Willie; they'd dated for a few years and it was expected that they'd get married, but they were never engaged. Arriving in New York, Anne rents a room in a rooming house, not a hotel. She meets Neely there, not at the theater. In fact, Anne gets Neely her part in the show, Neely didn't already have one. Anne's first duty at Bellamy and Bellows was to get Helen to sign some contracts, but Helen didn't tear anything up and Anne certainly didn't return the scraps to Lyon's hand. Lyon doesn't appear in the office until Anne's worked there for almost three months already. Mel Anderson Harris wasn't Helen's press agent, nor was he Neely's boyfriend yet.

Movie Henry earns his oats by getting Neely to quit the show in a moment of over-acted glory. By "walking out" of a Helen Lawson show, Neely quickly gets a gig singing for a televised telethon. After that performance, Neely, Mel, Anne, and Lyon go to a club to see Tony Polar do his singing act. As the champagne is being poured, Neely complains about her childhood in Pittsburgh. The beautiful Jennifer North comes in with her "rich boyfriend" and Neely remarks to Anne that "a hundred beads must pop off her dress when she moves." Tony comes out and starts to sing. The foursome discusses Miriam, Tony's manager sister, while Tony notices Jennifer and serenades her. Miriam doesn't like it, and Jennifer is a little embarrassed but decides she likes it.

Book Henry leaves the starlet-firing to the show's director, Gil Case. This is how Neely gets the part and takes the first step to super-stardom. There's no telethon in the book; Neely never did any television until way later in her career. Also, Neely grew up in Astoria, not Pittsburgh. At the club, Book Anne is at Tony's opening with her New-York boyfriend Allen Cooper, Allen's father Gino, and Gino's girlfriend Adele. Jennifer shows up with Lyon Burke and while everyone's out dancing, Lyon introduces Anne to Jennifer, and Jennifer says the line about the dress beads.

The movie jumps to the show's opening in New Haven. Anne and Lyon talk about Lyon's desire to write. They also do the dirty deed. Then Anne's mother dies, and Lyon comes out to help Anne. They sit in front of the fire roasting chestnuts and talking about marriage. Lyon wants to stay in Lawrenceville to write, but Anne won't live there in sin with him and Lyon doesn't want to get married. When they can't compromise, Lyon storms out and leaves Anne a Dear John letter the next morning.

Book Anne and Lyon do become lovers while in New Haven for the opening. However, it's been at least a month since they've talked about Lyon wanting to write a novel, because they had that conversation when Anne rented Allen's old apartment for Lyon. The scene in Lawrenceville happens after both Anne's mother and aunt die. Anne flat-out refuses to live there under any circumstances and Lyone leaves to move back to England. It also happens almost a year after Lyon and Anne get together-it ruins Anne's Christmas.

So far, characters omitted: Allen and Gino Cooper; Gino's girlfriend Adele; the original girl in the show, Terry King; Jennifer's first husband, Prince Mirallo.

Personal feelings of the movie:
*I don't like how the movie doesn't show how close the girls were to each other. I didn't see a connection between any of them. They all just seemed to show up in the right place at the right time.

*I have some issues with the characters themselves: Anne was the most condescending, patronizing character I've ever seen in a movie. Book Anne was reserved, yes, but Movie Anne just...I wanted to reach inside my TV and slap her repeatedly. I really didn't like her, which is too bad, because I love Book Anne. Biggest thing: Book Anne was BLOND. If Barbara Parkins didn't want to bleach her hair, they should've used a wig. Lord knows they didn't have a problem using hairpieces in this film.

*I know Neely was supposed to be uneducated and crass, and the performance showed that pretty well. But I think it was a shade over the top. On a scale of 1 to 10, it was about a 15.

*Jennifer, where do I begin? The lovely yet wooden Sharon Tate, bless her soul. She was sweet, but I don't think she gave the character the calculating cleverness Book Jennifer had.

Part Two coming up.