SnoopyStyle In 1955, Bettie Page (Gretchen Mol) is testifying before a Senate subcommittee on pornography. She's been a star pinup for the notorious underground bondage world. The movie flashes back to 1936 Nashville. She's abused as a teen by her father. Her marriage leads to more abuse. She get gang raped. She runs off to NYC. She tries pageants, modeling and acting. She starts posing for photographers and private groups entering into the world of risqué photography.The tone is slight when the material gives the movie an opportunity to be darker and more daring. Gretchen Mol has always been the beautiful girl who couldn't distinguish herself as a great actress. In that way, she is like Bettie. I wish her performance digs deeper into her personality. Everybody wants to see her naked. I want to see her soul. She is simply a pinup and not much more. The black and white photography is perfunctory. This should be deeper.

oneguyrambling The Notorious BeP reeks of being another gussied up biopic with largely fabricated events or versions only included to justify making the film in the first place. In fact were it not for the nudity I can see little memorable or notorious about this film at all – the same might be said for Ms Page herself.In the 50s America was quite a repressed and puritanical place, and despite all the subsequent changes in attitude and understanding every current affairs show still seems to inform us that this is still the case today.Anything vaguely interesting is quite illegal, especially vaguely interesting sex related things.Everything from now should be read with the following lead off sentence: "According to the film…" … young Bettie Page had a repressed childhood.… a rushed marriage failed when her husband treated her with disdain, and often violence.… Bettie decided a fresh start was in order and moved to New York. She enrolled in acting classes but when success – and cashflow – wasn't immediately forthcoming a random request to model by a photographer lead her into the industry.… Page's innocence meant few inhibitions, and this carefree attitude to nudity – and a beaming smile – lead to more popularity both from readers and lensmen, which in turn created more offers from more varied sources.… these "varied sources" end up being fetishist stuff including bondage and high heels. Bettie (apparently) adopts the "what the hey" attitude and embraces these new fads, giving her all to photographers, even if she didn't understand what people saw in these bizarre new trends.…even though she didn't think she was doing anything horribly wrong, Bettie still didn't give full disclosure to her own family.…one day a non-industry person opens up and gives Bettie the real public opinion on her antics.… Bettie is confused. After all, she never meant to be Notorious.Look the film seemed to me to give a fairly favourable account of Bettie's life and supplied a bunch of alibis and excuses, more or less saying she didn't choose the industry, it chose her. Gretchen Mol is effective as portraying Bettie as somewhat innocent and likable – even if remaining oblivious to what everyone thought for years seems improbable – and yes Gents she does get naked a few times for brief periods.Given that she herself thought the whole thing was a bit of a laugh you could hardly call these scenes hot or erotic though.Similarly as the filmmaker (at least to me) seemed to think making this film warranted excising any sense of Bettie selecting her career path – there are hardly any "bad eggs" to be found in an industry that must have been quite seedy and underground even a lifetime ago – thereby claiming the "nice girl who didn't know any better" card, I can hardly call it compelling or interesting viewing, but a sanitized version of what actually might have a happened.Final Rating – 5 / 10. For a film begging for notoriety in its very title, and pertaining to the life of a nude and fetish model, this is tame… and flaccid, stuff indeed.

dougdoepke Those naughty magazines on display at the beginning may have been available in some big cities in the early 50's, but they sure as heck weren't in small town America. My first exposure (no pun) was an early edition of Playboy, circa 1955, which none of us teenage boys could believe. Of course, Hefner didn't traffic in fetishes like the Klaws, still the lid was down pretty tight on the female form during the period. Notice too, how the Congressional sub-Committee links pornography with rotting the country's foundation— an extension of the McCarthy chill that in fact spread beyond politics to the culture as a whole. (For a deeper look at the anti- pornography hysteria, check out "Perversion for Profit", a half-hour curiosity TMC revives from time to time.)The movie itself is pretty shallow. Incredibly, Bettie is portrayed as an uncomprehending innocent even amid all the lurid graphics, shady characters, and eager men. And since the movie follows her, we don't get much insight beyond the superficial into either her emotions or the world she's a part of. What we do get are miles of titillating footage of Bettie posing in various stages of undress. That's okay to a point, but then what's the point of the film beyond that of exploiting an underground icon for titillation purposes. At least, the screenplay has the good sense to resist passing judgment on her career, and thus on itself. All in all, the movie may be pretty to look at and so certainly is Bettie, but don't expect much more than a glossy surface.

rokcomx A show well worth peeping. Starring the woman who played lady cop Annie in the U.S. version of the (woefully underrated) Life on Mars TV show, the Notorious Bettie Page is a pretty good movie. It goes into surprising depth RE the increasingly federalized attempts to legislate all aspects of the sex biz out of existence, as well as covering a lot of Miss Page's (very interesting) personal biographical history. Star Gretchen Mol (who seems to specialize in period pieces - the '70s in Life on Mars, and now the '50s) does well with projecting both innocence and naughtiness. I've met part-time pornographer Bunny Yeager and can vouch that the movie's portrayal is fairly accurate, if a bit superficial - much more could have been done with the motivations behind choosing such an "outlaw" endeavor, in a social-status era when jail wasn't anywhere near the worst thing that could result.All in all, tho, a well-done flick --