As already established, I’m a big fan of pin-ups, and of Bettie Page.  With a mysterious life, Bettie Page captured the hearts of millions across the world, and in 2006, director Mary Harron brought Bettie to life on the big screen with The Notorious Bettie Page.  Notorious gives us a nice condensed version of Bettie’s early years before entering the modeling scene, but the bulk of the film takes place during her stint with Irving and Paula Klaw and Bunny Yeager, as well as the trial that included her photos.  In terms of story and entertainment, Notorious is great for Bettie fans since it brings Bettie to life in a manner never done before.  Additionally, the film is extremely artistic in the sense that it uses both black & white and color.

However, in terms of being period correct, as well as historically accurate to Bettie’s life, it’s way off in many, many ways.  The movie opens with a shop selling men’s magazines.  One magazine is shown is Adam, which didn’t hit news stands until 1957, and the opening takes place in 1955.  After Bettie’s first marriage, we see her taking a uniform out of a bag, marking her husband’s return from war.  The uniform shown is an Army uniform, however, Bettie’s husband, Billy Neal, joined the Navy.  In the scenes where Bettie is shooting with Klaw and company, her stockings are double welted, and seamed, however, they do not bear a keyhole.  Throughout the film, Bettie is, of course, being photographed, however there is utter disregard for the film.  Many cameras used only had 12 exposures, and time after time, more than 12 shots are taken without film being changed.

The film’s biggest mistakes occur in the scenes with Bunny Yeager – and really should not have happened since finding the actual photos isn’t that difficult.  The film covers the “Jungle Bettie” shoot and in the film, Bettie is shown posing with jaguars, but in reality, Bettie posed with cheetahs.  Thankfully though, Bettie’s costume is correct, however, Bunny’s outfit is not – in the film she wears a simple green shirt and slacks, instead of the striped, blue piece shown here.

Additionally, the film shows the Christmas shoot that was used for Playboy.  The Santa hat on Bettie’s head is positioned with the bob away from the camera, when it was actually toward the camera, and Bettie is shown holding a pink ornament, when she was really holding a green ornament.   In the film, only one ornament is shown near Bettie’s knee, however, in the real photo, there are clearly four.  Plus, the entire shot is shown in reverse of how the actual picture was released, this however is disputable, because many photographs have been reversed over the ages.

Overall, The Notorious Bettie Page is fun to watch, and entertaining, however, it is frustrating at times to see such mistakes being made.