This is my happening and it freaks me out! Arrow Video has announced its first title for 2016, Russ Meyer’s cult-camp classic Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. Released on Blu-ray and DVD from 18th January, this extra-packed special edition will be limited to 3,000 copies only, and includes the world video premiere of The Seven Minutes, Meyer’s second and final Hollywood feature.

When Easy Rider rewrote the box-office rulebook in 1969, Hollywood scrambled to catch up – and 20th Century Fox noticed that one particular independent filmmaker was seeing impressive returns from tiny investments. So what would happen if he was given a decent budget and the run of a Hollywood studio and told to make the ultimate Russ Meyer film?

Well, this is the result: an initially X-rated cult camp classic about an all-female rock band trying to parlay Midwestern success into a Hollywood contract with the aid of a hefty inheritance. But will they be able to maintain their trademark apple-pie wholesomeness under their new manager, the notorious Ronnie ‘Z-Man’ Barzell? Take a wild guess.

Co-scripted by film critic Roger Ebert, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is a merciless satire of Hollywood and the music business, a no-holds-barred psychedelic thrill-ride that gleefully stirs sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll, fashion, lesbianism, transvestism and Nazis into one of the most riotously unhinged mainstream films ever made. This special edition also includes the rarely-seen The Seven Minutes (1971), Russ Meyer’s Hollywood swansong, an adaptation of Irving Wallace’s polemical novel about the absurdities of American obscenity laws.

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls will be released in the UK as a dual format edition (Blu-ray and DVD) by Arrow Video on 18th January 2016 at an unspecified RRP, but we're taking a guess at £24.99.

Disc specifications:

• Limited Edition collection of both of Russ Meyer’s Hollywood films (3000 copies)

• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation of Beyond the Valley of the Dolls

• Standard Definition DVD presentation of The Seven Minutes

• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for both films

• Original mono audio (uncompressed PCM on the Blu-ray)

• Separate music and effects track for Beyond the Valley of the Dolls

Special features:

• Two commentaries on Beyond the Valley of the Dolls by co-screenwriter Roger Ebert and actors Erica Gavin, John LaZar, Cynthia Myers, Harrison Page and Dolly Read

• Sinister Image – Russ Meyer, David Del Valle’s 1987 interview with the director and his former model Yvette Vickers

• Introduction to Beyond the Valley of the Dolls by John LaZar

• Above, Beneath and Beyond the Valley: The Making of a Musical-Horror-Sex-Comedy

• Look On Up at the Bottom – with composer Stu Phillips and three members of the Carrie Nations discussing the film’s music

• The Best of Beyond – favourite moments selected by cast and crew members

• Sex, Drugs, Music & Murder: Signs of the Time, Baby! – a look at the late 1960s culture that spawned Beyond the Valley of the Dolls

• Casey & Roxanne: The Love Scene – discussed by participants Erica Gavin and Cynthia Myers

• Screen tests for Michael Blodgett, Cynthia Myers, Harrison Page, Marcia McBroom

• High Definition photo galleries

• Multiple trailers

• Reversible sleeve featuring two original artworks

• Booklet featuring new writing on both films by critic Kat Ellinger, Anne Billson’s 1991 interview with Russ Meyer, excerpts from the outraged British critical reaction at the time, and a personal reminiscence by David Del Valle