Bettie Page was the number one pin up model in the 1950’s. Bettie Page: Dark Angel tells the story of the last three years of her brief career as a pin up model before she disappeared from the spotlight.

The bulk of the movie is told through a series of reenactments of some of Bettie Pages most famous bondage scenes. The dialog and story is not that fleshed out. Despite this minor flaw the films succeeds overall because of director Nico B.’s eye for detail in when recreating Page’s Bondage segments. These segments are stylishly photographed in black and white. Nico B.’s direction is solid through out and it is obvious in every frame that this project was a labor of love.

The acting in this film is average at best with the exception of Paige Richards who plays the lead role Bettie Page. Paige Richards is a dead ringer for Bettie Page and she does an admirable job capturing the essence of Bettie Page. It is amazing just how much Nico B. is able to recreate with the limited budget he had at his disposal. Bettie Page: Dark Angel is a wonderful tribute to one of America’s most icon pin up models whose popularity has not waned through the years.

The BluRay:

Bettie Page: Dark Angel comes on a 25 GB single layer BluRay. The film is presented in a 1080 progressive anamorphic widescreen. Though the transfer for the DVD was very good for the time when it was released. This new Hi Def transfer improves upon that aforementioned transfer in every way. It should be noted that the grain looks more pronounced in some scenes then in others and this is most likely due to the film’s source materials. In all this is a strong transfer that does a very good job with the limitations of the source materials.

This release comes with one audio option, a Dolby Digital Stereo mix in English. The audio sounds clean, clear and balanced throughout. This release comes with four subtitle options, English, French, Spanish and Dutch.

Extras for this release include three ‘Making of’ featurette’s, the first one titled ‘Paige Richards as Betty Page – Photo Shoot’ (10 minutes 43 seconds – anamorphic widescreen), the second one titled ‘Paige Richards as Betty Page – Still Gallery’ (4 minutes 13 seconds ) and the third one titled ‘Casting Call & Rehearsals’ (16 minutes 27 seconds – anamorphic widescreen), the uncut version of a scene from the film titled ‘Dominate Bettie in a Black Corset’ (8 minutes – anamorphic widescreen), a music video titled ‘The ’57 Incident Teaserama’ (2 minutes 19 seconds – anamorphic widescreen), a documentary titled ‘In Search of Bettie Page’ (10 minutes 10 seconds – anamorphic widescreen) and a section titled ‘The Original Bondage Films of Bettie Page (1951-1956)’, the total running time for the 11 short films (40 minutes 8 seconds – anamorphic widescreen).

The titles of the 11 short films are as follows, ‘Untitled’, ‘Bettie Paige and Her High Heel Shoes’, ‘Untitled’, ‘Bettie Gets Bound and Kidnapped’, ‘Untitled’, ‘Untitled’, ‘Second initiation of a Sorority Girl’, ‘Teaser Girl in High Heels’, ‘Domineering Roz Strikes Back’ and ‘Bettie Gets Dressed in Satin’. Overall Bettie Page: Dark Angel makes its way to Hi Def via an exceptional release from Cult Epics.