The Notorious Bettie Page

I guess my introduction to Bettie Page was the character modeled after her in Dave Stevens’ Rocketeer comic books in the early Eighties. I don’t recall ever knowing anything about her before that. And I’m still not a big fan, although I’m interested enough in the magazine industry during the era in which she rose to fame (the late Forties and the Fifties) that I watched this biopic about her the other day. In fact, during the opening scene set in a newsstand, while the camera is panning over the selection of men’s magazines, I found myself thinking, “Hey! I’ve got some of those issues of ADAM!”

This movie looks great. The cinematographer, set director, art director, etc., do a fine job of capturing the feel of the Forties and Fifties. I haven’t seen a new movie filmed in black and white for a while, and it works very well here. Even the occasional color sequences have a special vibrancy to them. The performances are also good, especially Gretchen Mol as Bettie, who comes across as completely unselfconscious even though she spends about half the movie nude. Speaking of which, the pin-up shots that are recreated seem pretty tame these days, even quaint, and they’re not erotic at all.

The big problem this movie has is the plot: there’s not much of one. Bettie grows up in Nashville, marries a jerk she shouldn’t have, leaves him, and eventually drifts into nude modeling. That’s it. The government investigation into the pornography industry holds the potential for a few fireworks, but none ever develop. I realize that when you’re making a movie about actual people and incidents, you’re sort of stuck with the storyline that history gives you, but in this case that leaves you with a well-made, well-acted movie in which almost nothing happens. I’d call this one a disappointment.