After two decades of delivering rapid-fire prurient entertainment for the masses, filmmaker Russ Meyer closed out his directorial career with one of his most outrageous films, 1979's Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens, whose title manages nods to two of his most popular hits, Vixen and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. If anything this is the capper to a trilogy of completely insane spectacles he churned out in the second half of the '70s, starting with SuperVixens and continuing with Up!, which found him pushing his artistic sensibilities as far as possible in terms of storytelling, editing, and basic human anatomy. Here he built a showcase for his partner at the time, Francesca "Kitten" Natividad, who had appeared as the au naturel Greek chorus in Up! and would go on to a scene-stealing appearance in The Wild Life and headlining the very popular VHS series Takin' It Off as well as adult film and nightclub stints. The fact that she's only one of the many wonders on display here is a testament to Meyer's machine-gun approach, which makes you wonder how anyone could ever classify these as pornography since they don't even begin to operate that way. After famously writing the screenplay for Beyond the Valley, film critic Roger Ebert (who also had a hand in the story for Up!) returned to do script duties here (as "R. Hyde")-- and the idea of him actually sitting at a typewriter churning out what you hear in this film is one of the funniest things imaginable.

In "Small Town U.S.A." where the top-heavy radio evangelist Eufala Roop (Supervixens' Ann Marie) seems to be on the air at all hours, working stiff Lamar (Kerr) has a big problem: whenever he tries to have sex with his exotic dancer wife, Lavonia (Natividad), he can't stop the urge to indulge in backdoor lovin'. She isn't up for it at all and responds with a well-deserved kick, after which she runs around town seducing a young male athlete in training (Little House on the Prairie's Tracy) and a nearby salesman when she isn't shaking everything she's got at the bar. Meanwhile Lamar's boss, Junkyard Sal (June Mack), talks him into the sack, but things go so badly Lamar and Lavonia end up going to the town's dentist / marriage counselor, Dr. Asa Lavendar (Drive-In Massacre's Pearson), and his insatiable nurse, Flovilla (Dawn of the Dead's Hill). That raucous and extremely non-consensual session makes things even worse, driving Lamar to seek salvation from Eufala herself.

With a nice coda featuring Russ himself (and a cameo by Uschi Digard), this certainly feels like a swan song as it's hard to imagine where on earth things could possibly go after this. Meyer's ongoing use of strange Nazi-themed humor even continues here with the recurring character of Martin Bormann (Rowland) getting frisky in a coffin, and though Meyer famously refused to enter the then-popular arena of theatrical hardcore, he throws in more explicit close-ups here than before as crazy punchlines. This was already envelope-pushing stuff in its today and will come across as extremely dicey for some viewers now; as with the prior two films, most of the sex scenes aren't all that big on consent, and the bumpkin and gay stereotypes here are exaggerated to truly hallucinatory levels. Just remember this has absolutely no bearing on reality, nor is it any kind of sincere social statement; this is goofy, naughty hijinks for adults and meant to be appreciated that way.

Like the other two Meyer films with "Vixen" in the title, this one was everywhere on VHS in the '80s from RM Films and jumped to laserdisc as part of a three-film set from Image Entertainment. The latter format's audio commentary by Meyer is easily the craziest of the bunch, including some unabashed anecdotes about Ebert you have to hear to believe. In fact, that track is actually the one responsible for introducing those disclaimers you see now about special features being for entertainment purposes only and not reflecting the company releasing it. That track was preserved for posterity on the later Arrow U.K. DVD, and it's back again on the 2024 release from Severin Films, as a UHD and Blu-ray combo or a standalone Blu-ray. The film opens with a disclaimer about the restoration (done by Severin) coming mostly from the original camera negative, which hasn't been stored in ideal conditions over the years. You'll barely notice though as, apart from some very light residual staining and other fluctuations in a few shots, they've done a triumphant job of presenting this looking better than you could ever imagine. It's certainly more pristine and colorful than the scant theatrical prints left around, and the UHD really sings with every bit of bodily detail possible. The original theatrical framing is also restored here, adding more on the sides and shearing off dead vertical space to produce more dynamic compositions throughout. The DTS-HD MA English 2.0 mono track is also in great shape and comes with optional English SDH subtitles. Ported over from the Arrow DVD is "The Latin Brünhilde" (17m) with Natividad chatting about her break into showbiz and her relationship with Meyer, including their two films together. In Talk It Over (23m28s), interviewer Ellen Adelstein talks with Russ Meyer in 1979 (promoting this film) for her Tucson talk show as he argues why his films are "limbercore" and goes into the current state of soft versus hardcore. Of course it's also peppered with the usual provocative Meyerisms including a digression about breast feeding. In "Still Taking It Over" (7m20s), Adelstein appears for a new interview about her show's mission to investigate sexual topics of the time including homosexuality, prostitution, and pornography, with Meyer making a logical guest choice (including a memorable clip choice!). The theatrical trailer is also included in a fresh new scan.

SEVERIN FILMS (UHD)

ARROW VIDEO (DVD)

Reviewed on December 22, 2024.