I saw an advance screening of The Notorious Bettie Page the other night. That's the beauty of living in New York City.

Anyway it was quite disappointing. First as a film in general. But most importantly for what we enthusiasts go to these films to see.

To say the film was very Vanilla, is to put it mildly. The bondage scenes were hilarious, as the members of the screening audience broke out in laughter - myself included.

There were reenactments of the original Betty Page loops which are tame by modern standards and very tongue in cheek.

Gretchen Mol has a great body and there were several nude shots of her as well as her in fetish attire. What I did enjoy were the recreations of the famous Betty Page pinups shots that we all so love and remember.

The best scene in IMO was the scene where Betty is in a standing spread eagle position wearing a white corset and gloves. She has a home made red ball gag unconvincingly stuffed in her mouth. The actor playing John Willie is singing a bawdy ditty while he checks his camera lighting and Betty is mmmphing her protest.

When Willie pulls the ball gag from her mouth. Betty says she is a Christian and is offended by the song. Willie apologizes and replaces the ball gag. He then removes it and they have a serious discussion about how a religious girl can do what she does.

I guess the film is entertaining and as a bondage enthusiast you should probably go see it just for the historical references and reenactments. There are several shots of bondage magazines and quick glances of models very campily tied up. But don't expect a lot.