Varietease (1954)

Director:

Irving Klaw

Genre:

Documentary

Tagline:

Exotic, Glamorous, Lovely Girls

Plot:

The legendary pinup queen Bettie Page stars in a marvelous burlesque show, alongside '50s icons Lili St.Cryr, Bobby Shields, Chris Le Chris Lynn and many others. |

Plot Keywords:

Fur Coat | Cult Favorite | Dancer | Cult | Lingerie

Cast

Lili St. Cyr	...	Herself
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Cass Franklin
Irving Klaw
Monica Lane
Vicki Lynn
Christine Nelson
Bettie Page	...	Herself
Bobby Shields
Twinnie Wallen

Directed by
Irving Klaw

Produced by
Irving Klaw	....	producer

Production Companies

• Irving Klaw Productions

Distributors

• Beautiful Productions Inc. (1954) (USA) (theatrical)
• Something Weird Video (SWV) (2000) (USA) (DVD) (special edition)
• Something Weird Video (SWV) (USA) (VHS)
• Umbrella Entertainment (2006) (Australia) (DVD)

Runtime:

65 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Irving Klaw Productions

Movie Connections:

Featured in Extra Weird (2003) (V)

Bettie couldn't dance, but who cares?

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". She is very appealing despite the fact that neither my husband nor myself could contain our raucous 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 a silent, black and white arcade film loop of Bettie created for those old-time coin-activated peep-show 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 through 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 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.