Bettie Page was a "pinup girl" from the 1950s, who grew up in Tennesee and left the South for New York City in her 20s. The film briefly shows Bettie's life in the South - her abusive father, her ambitions to go to university (it didn't happen; instead, she went to teacher's college), rape at the hands of strangers, her abusive husband.
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Bettie arrives in 1950s New York with the familiar ambition of becoming an actress. She finds an apartment, starts acting classes, meets a boyfriend (a fellow acting student). On a day at the beach, Bettie is "discovered" by an amateur photographer who sees her potential as a photographic model. Relatively innocent photos of a smiling and fully clothed Bettie lead eventually to her "discovery" by a studio more interested in her potential for fetish photos for special clients. Bettie starts posing nude and the photos start appearing in pornography magazines. In addition, she plays out bondage and sado-masochistic fantasies for the photography studio's "special" clients. Through it all, she maintains an attitude that nudity is natural. She believes the "special" clients are upstanding, moral citizens who happen to be interested in strange photos, but that this is all harmless. The New York Police vice squad and the US Senate disagree. When the studio that hired her is found out by police, and a Senate investigation ensues, Bettie is unwittingly called as a witness. Bettie never returns to modelling.
The review of this Movie prepared by Jan Arata
