I remember when we got HBO the first movies I remembering watching were “Pretty Maidens All in a Row”, “The Harrad Experiment”, and “The Great Texas Dynamite Chase “
Wasn’t “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls” x-rated?
I recall “Pretty Maidens” if only because it was from Gene Roddenberry (fresh of Star Trek). They couldn’t do that movie today since it was pretty much high school teachers openly banging underage students (yet, of course, it goes on quite frequently now).
Yes, “Beyond...” was originally X-Rated (though that rating soon became a joke, when they started doing bonafide hard-core porno with the XX, XXX, etc., which weren’t real ratings). Infamously written by that sage liberal film critic, Roger Ebert. I remember seeing a review of it in film books, where they’d often give it 3 (out of 4) stars, so as not to offend Ebert. It’s campy and a hoot, but 3 stars ? Gimme a break. I liked the original Jacqueline Susann’s “Valley of the Dolls” better (and despite the name, there’s no real connection between the two), although it was also camp, but still has that beautiful Dionne Warwick song in the opening, with the theme done by John Williams.