Butler's Cinema Scene

“BETTIE PAGE REVEALS ALL”  My rating: B (Opens Jan. 17 at the Tivoli)

101 minutes | MPAA rating: R

Even those who don’t know her name will recognize the look — the black bangs, the gorgeous body (not skinny, not plump, just right), and especially the attitude she wore like other women wore clothing —  a heady blend of healthy sexuality and girl-next-door good humor.

Bettie Page was the pinup girl of the 1950s. Then she vanished, only to return in recent years as an iconic image, the stuff of advertisements, book covers and tattoos.

Her face and form are so universally recognized and accepted that she’s become a brand, and as is  the case with Walt Disney, many young people don’t even realize that Bettie Page was a real person.

Mark Mori and Doug Miller’s documentary, “Bettie Page Reveals All,” means to set the record straight. And they have an unexpected ally: Bettie herself, who a few years before her death at age 85 in 2005 sat down to tape a long audio interview about her life and career.

She’s not the only voice here — the film is packed with talking-head sexperts ranging from Hugh Hefner and Dita Von Teese to pop culture academics and, poignantly, one of Bettie’s former husbands. But Bettie’s is the voice you remember, a grandmotherly voice with a Southern drawl and a tendency to make even horrific memories somehow less ghastly.

Bettie Page lived the last two-thirds of her life in deliberate obscurity, and she was protective of her image.  It’s hard to judge how much of what she says here is Gospel truth and how much has been tweaked to serve her purposes.

But combined with dozens of other sources, her testimony allows us to examine an extraordinary American life.

There’s shocking stuff here. Bettie says that along with her two sisters she was molested by her “sex fiend” father (“chickens, sheep, wherever he could get his thing in…”) and, though not an orphan, spent time in an orphanage. As a young woman she dreamed of movie stardom. Instead she became a popular model for “camera clubs” — groups of men who photographed nude models — and soon began getting professional  jobs. A postcard featuring Bettie and an alligator is still being printed and distributed.

Her heyday lasted only a few years. After her pinup career she got religion in a big and quite possibly unhealthy way; her religious mania (it may have been a symptom of manic depression) led to a long stint in a mental institution. For years she refused to comment on her modelling career and late-breaking fame. But at the end of her life she seemed to be looking back fondly on her days before the camera (even on the silly bondage photos).

“I don’t believe God disapproves of nudity,” she said. “After all, he put Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden naked as jaybirds.”

The commentators try to gauge the depth of Bettie’s influence on popular culture and the curious nature of her sexuality:  “She makes you feel good. She makes direct eye contact.” She made sex look like good clean fun.

Visually, the bulk of “Bettie Page Reveals All” is made up of photos of our girl. Hundreds of them. Nude shots from every revealing angle. Bikini pictures. Bondage poses. Costumes (she was particularly proud of the Tarzan-ish leopard skin number she wore on many tropically-themed shoots).

She looks so happy. So playful. So unintimidating (even women love her).

Who knew what a hard life bookended those captivating images?

| Robert W. Butler