Russ Meyer is an interesting character. Nicknamed the Walt Disney of the skin flick, he made strange, but fun, soft-core films. “Beneath the Valley of the Ultra Vixens” (BTVOTUV) is no exception. The 93-minute film features a lot of strange characters in “Small Town, U.S.A”. Opening with the narrator, a kindly old man with a sonorous voice and a red flannel cap, the viewer is given a quick introduction to a host of people: a mortician/war-criminal, a dentist/marriage counselor, a junkyard owner, a door-to-door salesman, a faith healer, etc. The main characters are a couple, Lamar and Lavonia, who are having trouble finding satisfaction since Lamar is obsessed with anal sex. Lavonia copes with this by having sex with everyone else in town while Lamar works on breaking his addiction to the backdoor. The movie has clever dialogue, overflowing with double entendres. There is also a lot of physical humor, mostly during sex scenes but also minor violence (mostly punches). In the end, the narrator takes his leave and the director himself performs the final summation. It’s an odd choice, but then again, the entire movie is filled with odd choices.

The picture looks pretty good, and the case boasts that Severin spent months restoring the damaged negatives before scanning them in 4K. This is the Blu-ray release; so, the best quality I could see it in was 1080p. The directing is filled with quick-cuts, montages, and only slows down to revel in women’s bodies. For being 1979, it feels much more at home in the MTV generation. The sex scenes never go full hardcore but get extremely close with the amount that is shown. While much of the story is low-brow subject matter, the co-writer with Russ Meyer was none other than Roger Ebert, movie critic and Pulitzer Prize winner. This may explain the humorous and well-crafted dialogue. There is an archival audio commentary track with the director, where he shares a lot of personal stories (mostly involving sex). He seemed to know a lot about the proclivities of his actors. He casually drops that Roger Ebert, a married man, came by the set to visit, but mainly to sleep with a prostitute turned actress. Remind me to never to Russ Meyer any of my secrets! At the time of filming, Meyer was dating the lead actress, Kitten Natividad. In-between takes and set changes, they would indiscreetly have sex in the next room. During the commentary, Meyer would randomly drop factoids like “This actor right here, he loved eating pussy. He couldn’t get enough.” He also mentioned that, despite having extremely flamboyant gay characters in his films, he had never received any backlash from the gay community. He theorized it was because they understood the humor and the context. He also talks about how he purchased a house for the film. It had large rooms and high ceilings so that they could construct entire sets inside the house and build a new set when filming on the first one was finished.

The rest of the special features are an original trailer and several interviews. The interview with Kitten Natividad focuses on stories about personal relationships and less about movies or filming. She left her husband for Russ Meyer, and they dated for years. She talked about how broken up he was over losing the opportunity to make a Sex Pistols movie and goes on to talk about how she left him because she liked drugs and alcohol too much. It was a very frank admission with no attempt to sugar-coat it. The next interview was Ellen Adelstein interviewing Russ Meyer on her Arizona talks show. After explaining his background, they banter and then debate around the morality of the films for which he is known. In this interview, Meyer came across as a very thoughtful and intelligent man. Another feature was a much older Ellen Adelstein remembering the interview and providing some behind-the-scenes stories.

Overall, this release is a fun romp for people that want to see nudity, with a large focus on breasts (Russ definitely had a type). The story often takes a back seat to excuses for a wild situation, but it feels in keeping with the tone and pace of the film and I can say it was not a boring film. This is a recommendation for everyone except Puritans.