Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970)
Comedy, Drama, Music • 1h 49m
Director: Russ Meyer
Cast: Dolly Read, Cynthia Myers, Marcia McBroom, John Lazar, Michael Blodgett, David Gurian, Edy Williams, Erica Gavin, Phyllis Davis, Harrison Page, James Iglehart, Charles Napier, Henry Rowland, Princess Livingston, Stan Ross, Lavelle Roby, Angel Ray, Veronica Erickson, Haji, Karen Smith, Sebastian Brook, Bruce McBroom, Ian Sander, Koko Tani, Samantha Scott, Coleman Francis, Ashley Phillips, Pam Grier, Russ Meyer, Garth Pillsbury, Gordon Wescourt, Bebe Louie, Susan Reed, Jacqulin Cole
Best English-friendly release · updated 4 months ago
Overview
An all-girl rock band moves to Hollywood in the hope of achieving success, only to fall into a whirlpool of wickedness and decadence.
Best format: 1080p Blu-ray
Director: Russ Meyer
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Severin 4K Blu-ray scanned in 4K from the Original Camera Negative restored by MoMA
Director: Russ Meyer
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Directors: Benny Safdie & Josh Safdie
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
4K encode is low-pass filtered and noticeably so, which was unfortunately par for the course with Criterion 4Ks until sometime in 2024. Still better than the Criterion and Lionsgate Blu-Ray discs for the Dolby Vision grading alone.
Director: David Lynch
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray in December
Criterion 4K Blu-ray or Germany Plaion 4K Blu-ray - subtle difference in encoding to the Criterion in encoding, trading blows in different shots, with Plaion taking a slight edge with less highlight blocking
1993 MGM LaserDisc/2000 Region 1 MGM DVD
Criterion's 2.0 sounds muffled due to noise reduction and EQ.
Plaion's 2.0 lacks bass and has a very bright EQ, more resembling the 5.1 remix. Plaion’s 2.0 doesn't have any filtering unlike the Criterion, see https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=23831289&postcount=110
Director: Jūzō Itami
Best format: 1080p Blu-ray
Director: Carol Reed
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray or Lionsgate Limited 4K Blu-ray
StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray/Lionsgate Limited 4K Blu-ray (shared encode); slight improvement over the 2015 StudioCanal Blu-ray
StudioCanal/LG UHDs port the 1999 Criterion DVD, considered the best source
StudioCanal has a remastered Blu-ray, Lionsgate only a 4K Blu-ray
Director: Martin Scorsese
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
2024 Sony 4K Blu-ray Steelbook
Sources: blah-ray.blogspot.com (opens in a new tab)
2024 Sony 4K Blu-ray Steelbook fixes duplicate shot seen on the previous Columbia Classics release and has better encoding
Original mono mix: 1990 Criterion LaserDisc/1991 Columbia LaserDisc
The 4K Blu-ray mono is only minimally worse (see blah-ray).
5.1 remix: Sony 4K Blu-ray
Director: George Stevens
Best format: 1080p Blu-ray
Best format: 1080p Blu-ray
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Criterion 4K Blu-ray is slightly better than French 4K Blu-ray see caps
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Best format: 1080p Blu-ray
Director: David Lynch
Best format: 1080p Blu-ray
Censored US version: Shout! Factory or Twilight Time Blu-ray
Uncensored version: old DVD
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
2026 Criterion 4K Blu-ray, confirmed to be uncut
More Comedy on Blu-ray
Director: Rob Reiner
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Arrow 4K Blu-ray releasing December 14 2026
Director: Chris Columbus
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Disney 4K Blu-ray has encoding issues with bitrates dipping into 40mbps, and Kaleidescape has better encoding than Disney see caps
Old Fox Blu-ray master is stretched and sharpened
Director: Archie Mayo
Best format: 1080p Blu-ray
Director: Tsui Hark
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray or Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray or Australia Imprint 4K Blu-ray
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
There is a newer 4K restoration by L’Immagine Ritrovata, which should be of better scan quality. The 4K restoration used on all current 4K disc releases stems from a low-quality Cintel scanner. The newer restoration has yet to be released on home video.
Director: Peter Faiman
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Australia Cut: Australia Fox DVD
International Cut: Paramount Blu-ray
Encore Cut: Germany Winkler Film 4K Blu-ray, censored but good encoding
Sources: movie-censorship.com (opens in a new tab)
US Paramount 4K Blu-ray, is the International US Cut and not the Encore Cut
Australia Cut: Laserdisc
The film exists in three versions:
- the original Australian cut (~104 minutes at 24fps/~100 minutes at 25fps);
- the American/international version (~98 minutes at 24fps/~94 minutes at 25fps) trimming some exposition in the Outback first half of the film and some shorter extensions of a few seconds in the New York section, altering some of the dialogue – including censoring a "fuck" to "screw" – but featuring one additional dialogue extension not in the Australian version (a comparison of the two cuts can be found at Movie Censorship);
- the Australian Encore Cut (~95 minutes at 24fps/~91 minutes at 25fps) which uses the international version source so it already has those alterations but also removes approximately three minutes consisting of parts of two scenes featuring Mick grabbing the crotch of a cross-dressing prostitute and a later sequence when he does the same thing at a party to a woman with a deep voice (a comparison of the international version and the Encore Cut can be found at Movie Censorship).
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Sources: capelight.de (opens in a new tab)
Arrow UK 4K Blu-ray > Paramount US, same black crush as the US disc but encoded by FiM and very good new supplements
Paramount US 4K Blu-ray has FEL Dolby Vision
Arrow UK 4K Blu-ray has MEL Dolby Vision
Director: W.S. Van Dyke
Best format: 1080p Blu-ray
Warner Archive Blu-ray, 4k scan
Best format: 1080p Blu-ray
Director: Raoul Walsh
Best format: 1080p Blu-ray
Director: Frank Tuttle
Best format: 1080p Blu-ray
Edit history

Every recommendation follows the same method — how these calls are made.























