Absolutely brilliant

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

This 1979 movie was co-written, produced, and directed by Russ Meyer. Stuart Lancaster, credited as the Man from Small Town U.S.A., is the on-camera narrator of the movie. Early in the movie, Candy Samples appears briefly as the Very Big Blonde. Like everything else in this movie, she's larger than life. Lamar Shedd (Ken Kerr) can't satisfy his wife Lavonia (Kitten Natividad), because he can only climax in an unconventional way. Lavonia, with the aid of a wig and a Mexican accent, becomes a sexy stripper named Lola Langusta. Lola proceeds to bed down men with more standard sexual tastes. Lamar is put through a series of cures, culminating with the laying on of hands by a radio faith-healer named Sister Eufaula Roop, played by the super-stacked Anne Marie (67-25-36). Near the end of the movie, Uschi Digard has a cameo as SuperSoul. Russ Meyer himself appears at the end of the film to wrap up the movie. 1972 was a watershed year for adult movies, with the release of "Deep Throat" and "Behind The Green Door." Even though this was the most graphic of Russ Meyer's movies, it seemed tame by comparison. At the end of this movie, it says to look for the further adventures of Lola Langusta in "The Jaws Of Vixen." Unfortunately, that movie was never made. "Beneath The Valley Of The Ultra-Vixens" was the last of Russ Meyer's theatrical feature films. The Russ Meyer "Pandora Peaks" documentary was a direct-to-video release in 2001. Sadly, Russ Meyer died on September 18, 2004.

I don't know what offended me more in BENEATH THE VALLEY OF THE ULTRA-VIXENS. Was it the total crudeness of the story and the direction? The two blonde women with the disturbingly ugly fake breasts? Was it Kitten Natividad (who looks like Rosie Perez) portrayed as a nymphomaniac Charo on speed and who jumps on anything with a heartbeat? The German music and swastikas (what's with Meyer and Nazis anyway?)? Was it the pseudo-necrophilia where one of the blonde bimbos with the ugly fake breasts humps an old man in a coffin? The big chunky black woman who owns and operates a junkyard and forces her male employees to have sex with her? The dentist who's a psycho queenie homosexual man who wants to bed Lamar, the main character of the film? The incessant yammering from the old man, or from Kitten during the scenes with her dual persona, Lola Langusta (when she rapes Lamar, her husband), or from the Christian blonde bimbo radio announcer? Shut-up!!!! Is it the baptism scene? The unexplained reason why Lamar can't have sex without doing it doggy style? The scene of the vibrator dipped in vaseline? The all around ugly cast? People's blood being different colors, including a black man who bleeds white blood? The appearance of Russ Meyer during the nonsensical ending?I love earthy movies. And BTVOTUV is definitely earthy but it's too crude and unsophisticated to be enjoyable, even as a sex comedy. I mean, we're talking about something that's less sophisticated than an Austin Powers movie. Yessh! And the constant talking and music gave me a headache. This is Russ Meyer's last film, and was co-written by Roger Ebert(!!!), and even if it never takes itself seriously, it's an extremely overindulgent film, about everything, including the pervasive political incorrectness, which usually doesn't bother me but not this time. The political incorrectness in BTVOTUV is excessive.

At this point 'Beneath..' appears to be Russ Meyer's last movie, which is a pity. A pity because we could do with his invention and energy and ideas to liven up our dull movie going lives, and also a pity because it isn't one of his best efforts.Meyer's two movies prior to this one - 'Supervixens' and 'Up!' - are two of his best ever, and don't receive the attention they deserve. 'Beneath..' follows a similar format to those two classics but does so with more coarseness and less fun. Meyer takes advantage of the more liberal censorship laws of the late 70s and makes his most explicit movie yet, but loses much of his sense of smutty joyfulness. The one thing that saves this movie is the exuberant performance from the dynamic Kitten Natividad. If you are a fan of Kitten and her sensational body then this is the movie for you! Otherwise I could name at least a half a dozen Meyer movies to watch before this one. A disappointment this, but still has enough glimpses of Meyer's genius to make it worth a look.

Maybe it's because it was the first Russ Meyer movie that I had ever seen, but I happen to think that it is also his best. Because of this movie, I cannot hear the song OLD-TIME RELIGION without getting dirty thoughts. Sadly, most of the women who have appeared in this movie have never been heard from again (Anne Marie, June Mack, Sharon Hill) and I would like to know if anyone knows whatever became of them. Especially Marie, since she is a local girl. At any rate, this is just a plain, good, old-fashioned, dirty time at the movies. Since this year marks the twentieth anniversary of the movie, I wonder if there will be any special occasions to commemorate the event.