La vera vita di Bettie Page

Believe me - When it comes right down to being "naughty-but-nice" - I'd definitely say that Bettie Page, the all-American, pin-up girl, (whose heyday was the 1950's) was certainly the #1 sweetheart in the erotic realm of kink & fetish. (Spanky-Spanky)

As a model for such magazines with titles like "Teasarama" - Bettie Page was certainly no stick-figure super-model as we so often see today. No. This full-figured gal was all boobs and butt. And, yes, she was totally uninhibited about displaying her ample charms to the camera.

Through a vast collection of dazzling stills and film clips, as well as narration by Bettie Page, herself (at the age of 70+) - Director Mark Mori reveals to the audience a "Bettie Page" as she's never been seen nor heard before.

*Note* - The censors have deemed this DVD as being "restricted" material due to its obvious sexual content. Viewer discretion is advised!

I've seen artwork and pictures of her on social media networks, but I really didn't know much about the person until I chanced this documentary on Amazon Prime Video. I did not know how famous she really was in her day. The documentary has tons of photo and video clips from back in the day as well as interviews of people she worked with. She narrated most of the documentary herself, but unfortunately it's all a voiceovers so we don't see Bettie Page in 2008 before her death.

This is a pretty good documentary to get a sense of the model behind the photography. How accurate it really is will be anyone's guess. But this is probably the way she wanted to be remembered by herself and her friends. It's worth a watch.

In fact Bettie does reveal all: from front to back, side to side, and top to bottom, all with inimitable style and charisma. She was truly one of a kind in a field packed with alluring girls. The flick generally follows her life in chronological fashion, from unwanted childhood to pin-up ascendancy to older age retreat. The context is revealing not only of Bettie but of the sexual mores of the time, especially of the constricted 1950's with Bettie reaching her physical and professional peak. Here Hugh Hefner, an admirer, situates her role in challenging the puritanical norms, especially the Kefauver Commission's equation of pornography with criminal incitement ! There's also abundant use of period street scenes to provide period context, along with commentary from her friends and associates to lend detail. Much of the narration comes from Bettie herself down to her last years and turn to religion. All in all, male oglers like myself have lots to feast over. Nonetheless, even if at times repetitious, it's a revealing and entertaining documentary in more ways than one, even though my wife passed it up.

A documentary that held me to the end. This is such an interesting story about the life of a woman I can say I truly love and so many would agree with me. Not only does it show the part of her life we all want to see in detail, but it shows us her insights as we watch because...She is a voice over for a lot of this flick! That alone is worth the ticket. Add to that the fact that her insights are so interesting. She was such a thinker.

...just as its subject was and always will be, "Bettie Page Reveals All!" presents a lovingly illustrated biography of the quintessential American pin-up, Bettie Mae Page, the Queen of Curves. Its strengths lie in being structured around the last audio interviews with Bettie; its weaknesses lie in the paucity of new information, at least for the hardcore Bettie fan, who will have already devoured the several biographies available. The only thing new I learned was that Bettie didn't much care for Mary Harron's "The Notorious Bettie Page." Still, it's as complete a videography as the general audience might expect, well worth the time spent with it. Long live Bettie Page!