Just out., August 18, 2006, Page 40, Image 40

Summer Camp
Grab your wire hangers and pop these classics
into your DVD player
by Stephen Blair
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or the general population, “camp” is a
place where you toast marshmallows and
douse yourself with insect repellent. But
for many homos.and with-it heteros, the
word also conjures wonderfully tacky
spectacles and deliciously overripe melodramas.
The late novelist and cultural critic Susan
Sontag mused about this phenomenon in her classic
1964 essay “Notes on Camp.” She writes, “Camp is
art that proposes itself seriously, but cannot be taken
altogether seriously because it is ‘too much.’ ”
Queers, she continues, "constitute the
vanguard—and the most articulate audience—of
camp.”
Recently four camp movie classics received the
deluxe DVD treatment, complete with glamorous
packaging, hours of extras and commentary tracks
by dirt-dishers like John Waters.
I’m sure that only the butchiest of readers will
disagree when 1 say that this kind of summer camp
beats a week in the woods with mosquitoes and
outdoor plumbing.
Valley of the Dolls
Upon its publication
in
1966,
Jacqueline
Susann’s novel Valley of
the Dolls sold more than
30 million copies and
joined the Bible as one of
the 10 best-selling books
of all time. Not bad for a
trash fest about three
starlets undone by their
addiction to bcxize and dolls (a nickname for uppers,
downers and every other kind of pill you can name).
For the record, Susann hated director Mark
Robson’s garish 1967 film adaptation. But that didn’t
stop the film from being a huge hit, or from becom­
ing a cult favorite among gay fans—even though
we’re still sore that Robson fired Judy Garland and
replaced her with Susan Hayward for the role of
bitchy Broadway grande dame Helen Lawson.
Village Voice gossip columnist Michael Musto
wrote, “If you’re not gay, you will turn gay from
watching this movie.” It sounds extreme, but I’d
wager that there’s not a latent drama queen on
earth who wouldn’t go into full fag blossom after
hearing the dejected Neely O’Hara (Patty Duke)
scream, “The whole world loves me!”
This movie has it all: booze, drugs, insanity,
horrible acting and one of Sharon Tate’s final
screen appearances before her murder at the hands
of the Manson gang.
The new double-disc package is as stacked as,
well, Sharon Tate. Encased in hot pink plastic, the
set comes with original lobby cards that will look
great alongside your favorite family photos. The
DVD features a fawning commentary track by E!
columnist Ted Casablanca and actress Barbara
Parkins, several documentaries, screen tests and a
trivia track. •
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
Valley of the Dolls is a
classic example of a film
that is campy because it
fails so thoroughly in its
mission to be a legitimate
work of art. Beyond the
Valley of the Dolls, the
1970 “sequel” that has
practically nothing to do
with the original, is
campy because director Russ Meyer and screenwriter
Roger Ebert deliberately injected spoofy fun into
every scene. But you still have to be a connoisseur of
camp to get the jokes.
Famous for his profitable nudie films with buxom
stars, the late Meyer is highly revered in cult film
circles for blurring the line between high art and low-
art. Equal parts (.frson Welles and Andy Warhol, he
used visionary camera angles and sophisticated
editing to celebrate gratuitous sex and violence.
Ebert’s infinitely quotable script recalls the
original Valley only in the sense that it follows three
beautiful young women in search of stardom. They
go to Hollywixxl and become rock ’n’ roll royalty,