Better on the Page Than On the Screen!

The Notorious Bettie Page

(2005)

Back in the earliest days of "adult" entertainment, performers and promoters alike decided that success was less about the strip and more about the tease. Revealing too much, they thought, was far less effective than revealing just enough to whet the appetite, so to speak. I don't know how true this theory was, but the "less is more" model has certainly worked out well in the case of Bettie Page. Forget about faces, Bettie Page had the most recognizable body of the fifties, but ironically little was known about her personal life. Despite this fact (or probably more accurately, because of it) Bettie Page has gone on to become one of the most enduring icons in American pop-culture. In The Notorious Bettie Page we are given a look into the life of a legend, but because the cultural condemnation of the time is portrayed as quaint and backwards it's difficult for the audience to care about Bettie's predicament.

There's no denying that Gretchen Moll was the perfect choice, physically, to play the role of Bettie Page. There's just something about her appearance that puts you in mind of 50s fashion and glamour shots. But at the same time you can tell that Moll was not simply content to look like the cult icon. It's obvious that she studied the behavior of the model (who appeared in many silent film reels) and did a superb job at emulating her sultry yet whimsical mannerisms. In fact, while her performance falls flat on many occasions interacting with other characters in the film, Moll is at her best portraying Page's appearances in Irving Klaw's dialogue-free burlesque films like Varietease and Teaserama.

Director Mary Harron (I Shot Andy Warhol and American Psycho) has offered up a very beautiful film with The Notorious Bettie Page. Early scenes are in black and white, while later, color scenes are reminiscent of Technicolor films from the '50s. But while the look of the film is suburb, the tone is all wrong. Instead of depicting the "moral zealotry" of the time as a real and immediate threat, Harron has gone the route of depicting it as simply quaint. Even the scenes featuring the Kefauver Hearings, which essentially ended Klaw's career and seriously threatened to do the same for Bettie, fell flat and failed to evoke any emotion.

While I would suggest checking out this film to anyone looking for an advanced course in visual style, I would hesitate to recommend it for folks simply looking for a solid, entertaining story. In fact, I honestly believe that I was more interested in Bettie Page before watching this film than I was after. It's not that she didn't have an interesting life. She really did, but the director really fails to hook the audience and keep them emotionally invested in Page's story.