User Reviews

I like a good docu every now and then, and I dig Bettie Page - so this one was a pretty safe bet. THE GIRL IN THE LEOPARD PRINT BIKINI had a lot of interesting material, but often when in directions unrelated to Bettie herself, and felt a bit disjointed...

The film chronicles Bettie's life, from birth up to her self-imposed seclusion. Told narrative-style and using mainly stock-footage clips - we learn not only about Bettie herself, but also the political and sexual "climate" of the nation at the time of Bettie's upbringing and subsequent "fame". There is some information provided about her family life and personal life, including her parent's divorce, Bettie's life in an orphanage, and her several failed marriages. We are also introduced to the most "important" aspects of her modeling career - her work with Irving Klaw, which boosted her in to pin-up star status. After several years in modeling, and with no leads in any legitimate acting capacity (as was always her main goal) - Bettie faded into obscurity following a religious "revelation" - and quit the business for good to pursue missionary work and make a complete change of her life.

LEOPARD PRINT BIKINI is definitely worth checking out for Bettie fans who want to know a bit more about her background. The problem with the film, is it often gets side-tracked with other historical information (especially towards the end of the film) that has little-to-nothing to do with Page herself. My other BIG gripe, is that during the last few minutes, the company who put the film together threw in a shameless plug of some sleazy looking GIRLS GONE WILD-style poker video that they also produce - I found this EXTREMELY tacky and unnecessary. Overall, an interesting bio-film, and I enjoyed the way that not only was Bettie focused on, but also the country's situations at the time that played a part in how pin-up material was viewed at the time. Towards the end, the "U.S. history-lesson" goes a little overboard and starts to related less and less to Bettie, but some of the material examined still proved interesting. I'd suggest this one to Bettie Page fans, just understand that it is somewhat flawed when viewed as a "whole"...7.5/10

This is a quirky documentary with the subject being Bettie Page's life and career. Unquestionabley the most instantly recognizable pin-up queen in history. The pop icon was born in Kingsport, Tennessee in the early 20's and when this small town beauty began posing in high school had no idea what an impact she would make in the entertainment industry. She loved being photographed and some sources say she was photographed more than Marilyn Monroe and second only to the most photographed image in the world, Elvis Presley.

Through vintage films and pictures we see the reason for so much attention. Her pinups could be found everywhere: the car mechanic's wall; the executive's desk drawer; and the everyday man's basement. The common pinup poses were quite the rage, but when she began posing for fetish photos she quickly earned a cult following that still exists today. Little did she know the imaging impact of the girl-next-door with jet black hair and knockout figure dressed in fetish gear or not would mesmerize for decades. On the DVD release is bonus footage of Bettie's black & white and full color famous/infamous short films. It doesn't really matter if it is curiosity or admiration, this sometimes rambling off the subject bio/documentary is worth watching.

BETTIE PAGE: THE GIRL IN THE LEOPARD PRINT BIKINI is one of those cheap entertainment documentaries that seem to proliferate online ever since the Internet really took off for popular use back in the 2000s. This one was made in 2004 and offers an account of Page's career on the screen; inevitably, it's padded out with endless footage of her performances the like. The wealth of talent featured in associated footage is engaging, but the version playing on Amazon Prime clocks in at just 52 minutes and seems to cut out all of the 'juicy' bits. The documentary's nadir lies in an advert for a strip poker video shamelessly shoehorned in at the climax.

When you think about 1950's pin up girls, the first name to come to mind for many will be Bettie Page. She was so beautiful, so vivacious that how she was never able to break into mainstream films and acting roles is a mystery even though we never really got to see her act in a cinematic role and the films we do have of her, are her scantily clad dances and burlesque/fetish shorts.

This 'documentary', (a word I use in its loosest possible definition), starts well and highlights Bettie's formative years and her break into pin up modelling, but then spends a large section in the middle not evening mentioning Bettie Page at all with the narrater skewing off topic explaining the changing culture and attitudes of the 60's and 70's, the relaxing of censorship, enthusiastically bashing Richard Nixon at every opportunity he gets and defending communism whilst filling the screen with as much unrelated T&A and unneeded muff shots as possible. Only mentioning Bettie again a couple of times to explain her cultural revival when 50's nostalgia became popular.....then it ends.

There are plenty of other Bettie Page retrospectives out there and I urge you to find them and watch them instead, especially Bettie Page Reveals All, which has Bettie telling her own story which I wholeheartedly recommend. Avoid this one if you can, it just isn't very good and somewhat fails in its mission.