Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens — Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens( Blu Ray)

Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens was Russ Meyers' final film of the 70’s, and his last proper feature, aside from a few bit ’n’ bobs, and his 2001 documentary regarding top-heavy adult actress Pandora Peaks. The film found the large-breast obsessed auteur at his most wacky and structurally darting. It’s a decidedly episodic affair, with a host of characters introduced, and kinky ‘n’ comic set-ups abound. The prime plot line focuses on a working-class everyman who enjoys going in the 'back door', and his partner, who is not too keen, but this is just the tip of the sleazy & satirical iceberg. Here from Severin, as part of their series of reissues of Meyer's filmography, is either a UHD or Blu-ray release of the film, taking in an exceedingly bright/ boyant scan, and a small selection of new & archive extras.

Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens was released in 1979. It's directed by Meyer and jointly written by Meyer and Roger Ebert. It was filmed in various locations around California.

The film runs at one hour and thirty-three minutes, and boy, Meyer manages to cram a lot of stuff into that time. Some of it jiggingly flesh-bound, some satirical, some pushing at the edges of the softcore, and some of it decidedly bizarre & wacky.  For example, we open with a bearded and tuxedo-wearing man(who is meant to be Martin Bormann- Hitler's private secretary) sitting at an automated piano. Just across from him is an extremely top-heavy woman playing on an old video game on the TV, and a coffin. The man pulls off his clothes, dons a blue sheet with just eyeholes in, opens the coffin/ lays in it- she starts dancing, his sheet-covered member rises, and the pair start going at it, as upbeat gospel music plays.

Fairly soon, we are introduced to our leads- moustached working-class everyman Larmar(Ken Kerr) and his partner Lavonia(Kitten Natividad).  He’s sat in the front room trying to study, with a calculator and books. She's bored 'n' horny, and she tries all she can to get him going/ away from his work- moving from white dildo play, all the way to on her knees, gobbling.

From here we meet a selection of characters, who get involved in wackier and wackier situations. We have a butch & black female scrapyard owner, a skinny & randy jock, a humongously-breasted gospel radio show host, a constantly bonking with his flat cap on dustbin man, a stripped-suited & moustached underwear salesman, and a very camp dentist-come-marriage counsellor.  All finished off with narration from The Man From Small Town, USA (Stuart Lancaster) who adds much wit & wisdom to proceedings.

Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens truly is a wacky ride- which is largely entertaining and engaging throughout. It’s only the rocky Desert set final narration scene with Meyer himself, which falls somewhat flat, as it reiterates much we’ve heard/ seen before, in a rather underwhelming/ look how clever I am manner.

 

Moving on to this release, and the 4k scan truly is a thing of wonder- the colours are so bold and the all-around clarity of the picture is simply breathtaking. On the extras side, it’s mainly on the archive side, but this is worth noting nonetheless.

So I’ll cover the archive stuff first, as the new stuff does link into the old, so to speak. So, first off, we get a commentary track with Meyer. There’s The Latin Brünhilde ( 17.00), an interview with actress  Kitten Natividad.  And Talk It Over (23.28), which is most fascinating, as it’s a 1979 Meyer interview with Ellen Adelstein, a decidedly pious/ prim & proper lady. They move from talking about where Russ’s obsession with large breasts comes from, and he admits to the highly embarrassed interviewer that he still breastfeeds.   She questions him on whether his films cause attacks on women, along the way bringing Son Of Sam's apartment/ the porn found their way into the conversations. Russ comes across very well.

The only new extra is Still Talking It Over ( 7.26), which is an interview with Ms  Adelstein. She begins by giving context to her show/ what she covered. Before going on to discuss the episode with Russ, including a most amusing story regarding the use of a clip from Beneath.... in the show

I’d say, along with 1975’s Supervixen, Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens stands as the most consistent/ rewarding of Meyer’s 1970s output, so with the great 4k scan/ worthy extras, this is a must-have release!. I’m very much looking forward to the next in Severin’s reissuing of Russ’s work; in particular, it would be great to see them putting out films from his Gothic period.