OK, so it's a very corny flick. Duh, Russ trafficked in pure corn all the time. And Breasts. Did I mention Breasts? But let's talk about the editing since I was a Film minor in college. The editing and cinematography here is so challenging and professional, it makes the film explode off the screen. It's rapid and harsh. It gets the pulse going. And the social commentary and sarcastic humor of "Small Town USA" hits it's target full on.Finally, the overall energy and pace of the film kills just about anything that even remotely tries to imitate it these days. No wonder Russ really didn't do anything else after this-it was hit final "breast" work! (Hey- I abstained from even mentioning Kitten N. at all)

Beneath the Valley is one of Meyer's better known works, largely due to its broader distribution, over-indulgence of feminine beauty and crass humor. These are all time-honored features of Meyer in his films, but as his last feature (Pandora Peaks typically isn't counted in terms of conventional Meyer timeline), everything gets laid on extra thick. Meyer tests the boundaries of just how far he can go before the viewer reaches sensory overload. Nonetheless the impeccable Kitten Natividad and the often unmentioned, but still unforgettable Ann Marie stay true to Meyer fashion and manage to suck in the viewer while Meyer dishes out social taboos and common problems associated with the modern couple. Nobody is safe from his scathing satire. The homosexual professional, the self-defeating redneck and the two-faced nature of radio/TV evangelism all get a thorough walloping in this film. This film also serves as the epitome of Meyer's work with photography and cinematography. His virtually-patented "up through the bed springs" shots are unmistakable and this film serves as the perfect showcase and record of this unique, yet effective technique. Never before has any director opted to shoot the love scene from the mattresses point of view! Although this film does indeed lack in comparison to Supervixens or Up! as one of Meyer's late '70s style flicks in terms of dramatic story complexity, it's still Russ Meyer, and that alone makes the film worthwhile.

Where to start ??..... Yes, at the beginning... Russ Meyer. The man who combined the talents of Ed Wood, Roger Corman and Coleman Francis. If it was just this movie, BTVOTUV, his genius could easily be considered a fluke. But no, Motopsycho, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls and Vixens is proof enough that BTVOTUV was not a fluke. Now to the movie. The story is fast, and entertaining. Don't expect hardcore porn. Instead, expect a Skin-aMax flick. Imagine the documentary (that would have come in the late 1960's and early 70's - as a result of the beginning of deindustrialization in the US) of the diminishing small-town American town, complete with a "common town folk narrator" and characters that have sex as the end all be all. The plot is laughable. A main character that is oblivious to his hot, horny wife, but somehow likes sodomy. The wife being a woman (obviously)who must concoct some lame plan to gain her husband's attention through sex with various men throughout the town. We are give a documentary type descriptions of the town and its happenings through the narrator. You have to love Russ Meyer's choices for backdrops and locations , including : scrap yard, garbage dump, desert, car interiors, strip club, river, radio station, radio station bathroom bathtub. The narrator is great for his dry, documentary style monologue, yet comical for that same reason. I recommend this movie for people who like MST3k type films. Those films that are bad, but so funny. If possible see the other Russ Meyer movies. He's a rare .. very rare talent. Gotta love the names of the characters. One word to sum up BTVOTUV - "Zebulon" !!-Celluloid Rehab

I saw this film for the first time in 1993 when I was 18 years old and it gave me a properly kick. "Beneath..." was featured in the midnight program on German cable, but it was not like the usual kind of soft porn I had seen already, because this movie was much more funny, satirical and entertaining. There were a lot of women with oversized breasts like Uschi Digard or Kitten Natividad, combined with grotesque and cynical humor. Russ Meyer´s film was a completely new experience for me: it made me interested more and more in independent and underground movies, films that you aren´t able to see very often, which are normally not featured in commercial cinemas or difficult to rent in conventional video stores. Films that later followed were "Supervixens", "Up!" or "Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!". Even masterpieces like Romero´s "Night of the living dead" presented me a completely new side of film making that I hadn´t known until then. Lovers of soft-focus lens erotic à la David Hamilton surely won´t like Russ Meyers movies in any way, because his flicks are vulgar, obscene and provoking. For all others like me he is a master of the modern pop culture. (10/10)