The Notorious Bettie Page - movie reviews and information

'The Notorious Bettie Page' feels like a missed opportunity
by Steve Murray

Posing in a spangled bikini for a private, ahem, "camera club," Bettie Page (Gretchen Mol) hesitates when the shutterbug fellas (and one female) ask if she could, um, turn around and, um, show them her ... backside. It's the slightest hesitation. Bettie swivels southward and grins over her shoulder at the clicking cameras. Both her innocence and love of attention are caught in that moment of "The Notorious Bettie Page," the cinematic excavation of the 1950s naughty-girl pinup princess. Read the full review

TO SUM UP
Bettie Page grew up in a conservative religious family in Tennessee and became a photo model sensation in 1950s New York. Her legendary fetish poses made her the target of a Senate investigation into pornography and transformed her into an erotic icon.

FILM FACTS ...

Picturehouse

'The Notorious Bettie Page'

Director: Mary Harron
Starring: Gretchen Mol, Lili Taylor, David Strathairn, Jonathan M. Woodward, Cara Seymour
Run time: 90 minutes
Release date: April 14, 2006
Rating: R for nudity, sexual content and some language.

On the web
Official movie site
View the trailer
Trailers require Quicktime

READ THE REVIEW

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: C+
"Whenever (Gretchen) Mol is giggling, playing and posing ... 'Notorious' is a laughing-gas high. But the rest of the movie sometimes drags."

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Austin American-Statesman: 3 of 5 stars
"Director Mary Harron and co-screenwriter Guinevere Turner do justice to the contradictions and nagging moral issues in Page's career."

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The Palm Beach Post: B
"Gretchen Mol, a much-hyped starlet whose career never took off the way it was supposed to, plays Bettie with a sunny sweetness that probably veers from reality, but makes it clear she was no victim."