Customer Reviews

Varietease [VHS]

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Unspeakably awful! There's very little of Bettie, and a great, great deal of excruciatingly cornball late-'50s style variety "entertainment" that you might imagine might be cute and endearing but most emphatically is not. You'd have to be a great deal hornier than I was to find Lily St. Cyr's strip tease arousing, and the only notable musical performer is a woman with an extraordinarily huge head. If you've never trusted another review in your life, trust this one: you might as well throw the money away.

Bettie again displays her incredible beauty and presence. I have never seen Bettie in films until recently, and she shows here she is more attractive and seductive when in motion.

I say this much: Bettie Page wasn't a very good dancer. But she doesn't need to be. She knows how to use what she has like no other showgirl ever could. I found her "Dance of the Four Veils" rather subdued for Bettie, and the makeup artist went overboard before sending her onstage. But the main thing to note is that Bettie is Bettie - the most alluring woman I have ever seen.

Since she is a part of a former pop culture, we should be glad that she has been preserved on digital media. Her appearance in the "Dream Scene" from Striporama is a rare speaking role, and she shows just how cute she really is.

The film quality is good, considering what the original must be like after all these years. Remember that too many older, less popular films will not be digitized and saved for the ages, so I feel ANY clips of Bettie are worth having.

Hopefully, Striporama will make its way to DVD, just as Teaserama and Variatease have done. Let's save those precious motion pictures of Bettie Page, because I for one feel she was the most underrated model (pin-up, glamour girl, etc.) ever. She makes today's supermodels look like superhyped swizzle sticks. Long Live Bettie!

Bettie loses some "coolness points" when she dances, but if you go into frame-by-frame mode on your DVD player it's obvious that each frame of her dancing would have made a great still shot in and of itself. Proof that she was a great poser, and a lousy dancer, but as she has said herself, she was "far from being a professional dancer". Still, she is very appealing, despite the fact that neither my husband nor myself could contain our unabated laughter during her dance scenes. Her sparkle and sense of fun are evident throughout, she is in great shape, and her ever-changing and playful facial expressions are absolute treats to see.

Plus! You get to "Hear Bettie speak!" in addition to seeing her jump around - uhhm I mean dance.

The best part of the DVD is, yes of course, the silent, black and white arcade film loop of Bettie made specifically for those old-time coin-activated viewers....Bettie gyrates up to a point, then the screen is suddenly blocked out with a caption telling the viewer to insert coins to see more of the film. This of course occurs at a regular basis throught this particular short, as it did when those types of films were originally shown. Classic camp!

There are also appearances by a rather famous, albeit scary-looking drag queen from the time, and some professional strippers who could have passed for male drag queens...but I bought these really just for the Bettie Page segments; these two DVD's are a must-have for Bettie Page fans.

Viewing these will most likely result in the viewer alternating fits of laughter with admiration for the beauty and playfulness of Bettie Page in her prime.

This DVD is a time piece about a gone art -- burlesque! It is excellent -- from Bettie Page to Lili St Cyr (who is more beautiful than I realized), this DVD has all the kitsch of a bygone era! Also included with this DVD is a skit from "Striporama" where Bettie Page speaks! The quality is superior to that in Striporama (which you should avoid like the plague). This DVD is not for someone who wants a strip film, but rather is for the lover of a lost art form -- burlesque!

More delightful Bettie Page in a variety of teasy routines and charming "come-ons". You can see why she is a cult item now. There was no one like her. The rest of this DVD is devoted to corny routines with the exception of the notorious Lili St.Cyr---a legendary stripper of the time. She is beautiful and her vignettes are classy and professional. She, like Page, was also a favorite of photographers---most notably Bernard of Hollywood. This is a must for nostalgia buffs and a rare look at what used to be called "burlesque".

Excellent representation of the genre of burlesque, with good joke skits. The musical numbers cannot be matched today, and that is a loss!

The only saving grace of this video is the dance performed by the beautiful and sexy Bettie Page. It is worth purchasing for this alone but after you've seen Bettie there is virtually nothing else worth viewing.