Did anyone else laugh out loud when Neeley met Tony in the hospital... - Valley of the Dolls (1967) Discussion

[–] SimplemindedSociety 10 years ago

Not at all. How is that funny?
You must have been at a showing with college students looking to roar at everything because they are in a group. If PSYCHO was on the ticket, that would be a gagfest also.

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[–] preppy-3 10 years ago

It was a room full of adults in their 30s on up. We laughed because it was so stupid and cliched. Just because you didn't find it funny doesn't mean other people can't find it funny.
And there's nothing funny about "Psycho". And comparing that with "Valley" doesn't make a bit of sense.

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[–] reeda 10 years ago

i was trying to figure out the comparison to Psycho, too?!?!?

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[–] preppy-3 10 years ago

Thank you!

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[–] SimplemindedSociety 10 years ago

Even though PSYCHO was not badly written like VOTD and cannot be compared in that way, it's the same principle

I attendedt a showing of PSYCHO where innocent lines of yesteryear were now sexualized or considered dorky, and laughed at. This was not in some hick town, but Cambridge,MA. Lines that audiences didn't mock in 1960 took on mockery decades later.

VOTD had much intentional humor and why it's so popular, but I just didn't see it with this particular scene of all scenes. That's why I asked what specifically was funny(the way Tony looked in his wheelchair etc.?) I found it rather sad

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[–] lastmidnite2 10 years ago

I was at a screening of Psycho in the 80's. When John Gavin tells Janet Leigh that when he sends his ex wife her alimony checks, she can lick the stamps, and Janet replies passionately: "I'll lick the stamps!", the whole audience roared with laughter. Watching in the privacy of my home for years, I never really got how truly pathetic and funny that line now sounds.

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[–] preppy-3 10 years ago

I've seen "Psycho" in Cambridge MA too a few times at the Brattle Theatre. The only time I remembered the audience laughing was when Perkins said to Leigh that mother "wasn't feeling herself today". That "lick the stamps" line was met with dead silence. And VOTD is loved because it UNintentionally funny. I also saw that many years ago at Brattle (where it played with "Peyton Place") and more than a few people laughed at the hospital scene too. One guy in back of me whispered to his girlfriend, "They've GOT to be kidding".

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[–] DeathOnHoliday 10 years ago

This incompetent movie is hilarious whether watched alone or with a group of 100. Don't even compare it to Psycho.

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[–] 10 years ago

[deleted]

[–] garbotara 9 years ago

That is Neally Ohara's dance scene was hysterical.

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[–] cmichaud 10 years ago

Are you kidding? That's one of the most screamingly funny scenes in the whole film. And even Patty Duke, bless her, now concedes that it's beyond absurd, but also said "I thought this was going to be the big OSCAR SCENE, and it was brillllliannnnt" (at the time). Now, she 'gets' it. All the surviving stars have come to appreciate it for its sheer awfulness.

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[–] interestedparty2013 10 years ago

What was absurd was that, in a small "day room" in a mental hospital, Neely didn't recognize Tony until he started singing. Strains credulity.

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[–] massey7109 9 years ago

I just watched the DVD this morning and I thought this scene was unintentionally funny too. He was looked like a zombie in that wheelchair until he heard that song and he perked up very fast lol. Then as soon as the song is over, the nurse immediately wheels him out of the dayroom wtf??

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[–] drxcreatures 9 years ago

They do it in the book too. It's pretty sad.

http://www.cgonzales.net & http://www.drxcreatures.com

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[–] headnotfound 8 years ago

I laughed harder at the scene when Neely is describing her horror story of her intake at the 'funny farm" to Anne, saying she had a rough time of it and couldn't sleep those first nights. and them Anne deadpans, "you should have taken a doll."

what a *beep* thing to say!

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[–] dalbrech 8 years ago

THe whole film is a unintentional laugh riot.

I'll Teach You To Laugh At Something's That's Funny
Homer Simpson

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[–] bradford-1 8 years ago

The scene in the book was actually poignant. Tony has actually changed physically: weight loss, balding, barely able to move; I think the doctors make a point of the fact that he hasn't spoken in years.

May I bone your kipper, Mademoiselle?

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[–] InherentlyYours 8 years ago

I dont see the hysterics of this scene compared to some others. Duke had some nice quite emotion as she was singing and looking at Tony, at what he had become. VOTD had some serious scenes that played fine. I think we've gotten so used to it being the cult-film it is, that everything is perceived as funny by some viewers.

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[–] DanaShelbyChancey 8 years ago

I took it as symbolic, that Tony wasn't really singing, but it was some sort of 'what if' scene the director cooked up.

I didn't think I was meant to think that Tony in his debilitated state, was actually singing!

Gee Woodle, Space Kadoodle!

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[–] InherentlyYours 8 years ago

symbolic? Not sure what you mean by 'what if' scene. Do you mean that Tony could not literally speak, so it was a fantasy that he could sing as well as he could with Neely? Even though he was debilitated, such a person is still able to talk to some extent if their disease has not progressed

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[–] DanaShelbyChancey 8 years ago

Yes, that is what I thought it was, the way you describe, a 'what if' sequence.

I don't know anything about his syndrome. But I have seen people in wheelchairs who could not talk at all, so I didn't assume Tony could talk/sing or not.

Gee Woodle, Space Kadoodle!

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[–] InherentlyYours 8 years ago

I suppose it would depend on how far after he was diagnosed that Neely met him at the hospital (his speech being the last thing to go)

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[–] nora_movies 8 years ago

Not to mention that they kept using the word "sanitarium" and the fact that they were both there. Funny because Tony seemed more like he had ALS while Neely was in the facility for rehab.

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[–] phillindholm 8 years ago

According to Duke's biography, when the film had it's ''World Premiere'' screening (aboard an ocean liner,with the cast present) ''People laughed at all the serious parts''. That includes the scene in question. And why not?. It's hilarious.

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[–] InherentlyYours 7 years ago

That includes the scene in question

How do we know they laughed at that specific scene? What exact part of that scene is funny? Because they wheeled him out? because Duke sang with him? I don't think the entire film failed at seriousness.

Of course if you have a audience who is already psyched on the film, every scene is going to seem funny, when it wouldn't be if some of those scenes were in a different film. People at a midnight show would laugh at Psycho also.

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[–] kittenmalibu 8 years ago

Sorry, but I thought it was quite a sad scene. Tony never knew he had a syndrome until he collapsed on the steps. He went from a living man with a great career to a shell of his former self due to his illness. Not funny to me, maybe in a warped persons mind it was. I bet OP laughs at disabled people.

Blocking trolls since 1999!

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[–] preppy-3 8 years ago

There's no need to cop an attitude about my posting. I think it's funny because it's such a stupid, unrealistic and clichéd scene. I guess all the other people who laughed with me when I saw it up a theatre are "warped" me. And I never laugh at disabled people. The movie is FICTIONAL. Maybe you didn't grasp that.

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[–] mls4182 7 years ago

Addiction and disabilities are to be taken seriously. However, THIS FILM does not portray them in an adult or responsible way. It is fun trash. No one should feel bad about laughing AT THE FILM, which is what you were doing. If it wasn't camp it would have been forgotten right after it was released.

My favorite review was, "What kind of pills do you take to be able to sit through this movie?"

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