The Notorious Bettie Page (2005)

The story of Bettie Page, uber-successful 1950's pin-up model, one of the first sex icons in America, and the target of a Senate investigation (based on her bondage photos).

Director:

Mary Harron

Writers:

Mary Harron, Guinevere Turner

Stars:

Gretchen Mol, Chris Bauer, Jared Harris

2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Gretchen Mol	...	Bettie Page
Chris Bauer	...	Irving Klaw
Jared Harris	...	John Willie
Sarah Paulson	...	Bunny Yeager
Cara Seymour	...	Maxie
David Strathairn	...	Estes Kefauver
Lili Taylor	...	Paula Klaw
John Cullum	...	Preacher in Nashville
Matt McGrath	...	Nervous Man
Austin Pendleton	...	Teacher
Norman Reedus	...	Billy Neal
Dallas Roberts	...	Scotty
Victor Slezak	...	Minister in Miami
Tara Subkoff	...	June
Kevin Carroll	...	Jerry Tibbs

Storyline

Portrait of an American innocent. In 1955, Bettie Page (1923-2008 ) waits to testify before a Senate subcommittee investigating the effects of pornographic material on American adolescents and juveniles. In flashbacks, we see her childhood in Tennessee, a brief marriage, a gang rape, and her going to New York City in 1949. There she takes acting lessons, models for photos, and acts in short films for adults, earning the nickname, "The Pin-Up Queen of the Universe." We see her relationship with merchants Irving and Paula Klaw, photographers John Willie and Bunny Yeager, boyfriends, and the public. Through it all, she is wholesome, sporting, and forthright - Eve before the fall.

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Plot Keywords:

senate | pin up | investigation | model | bondage | 

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Taglines:

Good Girl. Bad Girl. Sinner. Saint. Who is. . .

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Genres:

Biography | Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for nudity, sexual content and some language

Details

Official Sites:

Picturehouse Films

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 April 2006 (Canada)

Also Known As:

The Ballad of Bettie Page

Filming Locations:

Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$143,131 (USA) (14 April 2006)

Gross:

$1,410,778 (USA) (23 June 2006)

Company Credits

Production Co:

HBO Films, Killer Films, John Wells Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

91 min 100 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Black and White Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Martin Scorsese and Liv Tyler had been developing a competing project, but then Scorsese was given the green-light for The Aviator, and he backed out. Liv Tyler also subsequently left.

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Goofs

When Bettie first meets future husband Billy in the park, she makes the statement that she'd seen Billy play football against Hume-Fogg high school. In reality, she and Billy both attended Hume-Fogg in Nashville, TN.

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Quotes

Bettie Page: God gave me the talent to pose for pictures and it seems to make people happy. That can't be a bad thing, can it?
John Willie: Not to me it's not, but what does God think?

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Crazy Credits

craft service - Grover Cleveland, craft service assistant - Benjamin Harrison

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Connections

References Tarzan and the Slave Girl (1950)

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Soundtracks

"Life's Railway to Heaven"
Written by W.S. Stevenson
Performed by Patsy Cline
Courtesy of Sony / ATV Music Publishing d/b/a Masters International

User Reviews

Nororious or safe?

If this film strikes you (as it did us and, apparently, others departing the theater) as disappointingly thin, it may be because the subject herself is mildly disappointing. The film faithfully presents us Bettie Page as she probably was: a playful almost-innocent from the rural South whose career as "the pinup queen of the universe" was for her just goofy, natural fun. Her eventual moral qualms, religious conversion and sudden departure from nude and bondage modeling are biographically accurate, yet hard to understand given how untroubled she seemed by her livelihood.

There are many reasons to see this film even so, not least of which are the amazing b&w noir cinematography of W. Mott Hopfel III (complete with old fashioned wipes and dissolves), the 1950's-faithful acting of the cast under the direction of Mary Harron, pitch-perfect performances by some of our most underrated supporting actors (including Chris Bauer, Lili Taylor, Sarah Paulson, Austin Pendleton, Dallas Roberts and Victor Slezak), not to mention the Oscar-worthy and technically difficult lead performance of Gretchen Mol.

Ms. Mol does several scenes fully naked and most others in amazing period lingerie and "specialty" costumes (gloriously assembled by costume designer John A. Dunn), yet she astonishingly maintains Bettie Page's unstudied pleasure in her lush body. To watch Ms. Mol as Ms. Page, an aspiring actress, progressing through degrees of progressively less "bad" auditions and student acting scenes is to see a truly fine actress in complete control of her craft.

The script does effectively bring us into 1950's America, where childhood sexual abuse, lawless abduction and rape, and the legal suppression of brands of pornography which today seem laughably tame, is a reality. 50's New York is evoked with seamlessly-inter cut news reel footage. 50's Miami comes alive in super-saturated, 16mm-style color. The real Bettie Page seems to scamper, smile and pose before us, and yet the effect is curiously lightweight, barely lewd and not at all dangerous.

How odd that bondage's greatest icon should be so lacking in venom, and that this technically excellent biopic should have so little sting.