Teaserama

Teaserama (1955)

** (out of 4)

The infamous Irvin Klaw produced and directed this burlesque show, which shows off a variety of dancers with the highlights being Bette Page and Tempest Storm. Page also hosts the ladies as she will walk out on a stage with the upcoming performer's name on a card.

TEASERAMA is going to mainly appeal to fans of burlesque who like to see this type of dancing. I'm not going to lie but this type of thing was never one of my favorites, although I will say that there's some appeal here as this is presented like an actual show so we get the girls dancing and in between their acts we get some comic routines.

The comic routines are downright horrible and you have to wonder why any show would even bother with them. They're among the worst bits of comedy that you'll ever see and I doubt too many people were happy to see them. As far as the girls go, they're certainly very attractive and if you enjoy this type of dancing they will be worth your while.

Of course, the main attraction here is Page and while she was a horrible dancer there's no question that she contained a certain magic that just made it impossible to take your eyes off of her. She's very flirtatious with the camera and this certain leaps off the screen and right at the viewer.

Although presumably intended as an erotic burlesque, with comedy interludes, Teaserama actually comes across as an retrospectively amusing attempt at "harmless," ultra-soft porn with very unfunny comedians breaking up the flow. This is the first I've ever seen with a Dress Tease (as opposed to a Strip Tease). Of course the finest moments are provided by Betty Page, with her seemingly random facial expressions and hip jiggling. Possibly the greatest fringe in movie history. Kitsch, camp... call it what you will, it's got more soul than the rubbish most TV stations bill as "erotic" these days.

This is horribly dated piffle. It doesn't have a plot and it's completely tedious. The wonderful Betty Page is wasted in one of the worst movies of all time.

Everything the first reviewers have said is true. However, if you weren't there when old-time burlesque was in vogue, you have no way to see it except really awful b/w shorts with bad performers, or sanitized revues like THIS WAS BURLESQUE, or modern burlesque done in an entirely different historical context.

TEASERAMA and VARIETEASE have top-name performers presenting their routines exactly as audiences of the day saw them.

This is the real thing, and if the dancers don't seem all that erotic, or the comics don't seem funny, still that's the way it was for the guys in the audience back then.

To think that this type of content was considered Rated X a few decades ago ...

But I can see the elegance and fun it goes through, a different but cool experience.