Varietease (1954)
By: J.R. McNamara August 10, 2006.
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| Umbrella Entertainment (Australia). All Regions, NTSC. 4:3. English DD 1.0. 71 minutes |
| The Movie |
| Cover Art |
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| Credits |
Director: Irving Klaw
Starring: Lili St. Cyr,
Bettie Page, Bobby Shields, Twinnie Wallen
Country: USA |
Irving Klaw ran a mail order business specializing
in the distribution of photographs and short film
strips of semi nude women. A lot of titillation
for a reasonable price! His family started in
the business with a magazine store in Brooklyn,
Movie Star News, that due to public demand, started
delving into this world, with Klaw himself eventually
specializing in bondage and fetish photography
(which made a star of bondage model, Bettie Page)
and eventually film. He made several films, including
the seminal and best known burlesque flick Teaserama.
This film Varietease was his
first such film, and features all of the defining
parts of burlesque: the striptease, the comedy
and the singing, which was streamlined in his
second feature to show more chicks, and less comedy
and singing. The Kefauver Hearings, which took
place in the 50s, cited comic books and 'pornography'
as the cornerstone of young criminal behaviour
and organized crime. Disillusioned, Klaw eventually
shut his business down and to avoid persecution
or prosecution he burned all his negatives but
did not know that sister and partner Paula had
kept the better ones hidden. These are the surviving
photos you see today. Klaw died in 1966 of appendicitis,
but his legacy of 'men's entertainment'
lives on.
Varietease is a cinematic representation
of what burlesque clubs of the fifties would have
been. The MC, the comedy, with male and female
comedians, the singing, the scatting (the jazz
kind, not the poop kind), and of course beautiful
women stripping down to their underwear and jiggling
their wobblers about for a bit. But of course
it is all done in the best possible taste. There
are some well known acts in this film: Bettie
Page, Lilli St. Cyr, and some lesser ones, who
thankfully only ever starred in this feature,
such as scatting (again, not poop) be bopper,
Bobby Shields.
The best thing about this production is the full
version of Bettie Pages 'Dance of the Seven
Veils'. The come hither eyes, the gyrating
hips…the interesting costumes…there
is nothing not to love about this feature except
for the lack of audio/ visual quality. I understand
that some think this lends a sense of 'authenticity'
to the movie, but at the end of the day it is
quite obvious this is an old feature and really
could have done with a clean up, especially in
the light of the recent interest in Bettie Page's
career. |
| Video |
| A veritable Trevor trove of video disasters: chroma
noise, color bleeding, cross coloration, low level
noise and more artefacts than the Egyptian section
of a museum. Attention DVD movie distributors: try
cleaning up an image before releasing a DVD!! |
| Audio |
| The audio doesn't fare much better, and
sounds like it is recorded through a tin can and
a string, but after listening to some of the 'performances',
it is a bit of a relief. |
| Extra Features |
The commentary is by David F. Freidman, who
has a wonderful first hand experience of the entire
burlesque and cinema scene and knows a good story
or two about this era. His stories never get dull
and if he ever starts to ramble, he is pulled
back into line by Mike from Something Weird Video,
who is his co-commentator. Definitely an essential
commentary!!
This feature has trailers for Varietease (1 minute 48 seconds) and Teaserama (2 minutes 19 seconds).
There is a scene from Striperama,
which was released the year previous to Varietease that features Bettie Page speaking, which for
fans of Ms Page is a real treat (5 minutes and
5 seconds).
There is also a Black and white scene from Teaser
Girls in High Heels, which is a film
from a 50s arcade machine, and still even has
the 'Deposit another coin' stop in
it (7 minutes 31 seconds). |
| The Verdict |
| Not as well known as Teaserama,
and nor should it be. This film is an interesting
side look into the world of burlesque, but is obviously
the precursor to the superior Teaserama.
The quality of the DVD is abysmal though, and my
low score reflects that. |
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