Product Description

Studio: Wea-des Moines Video Release Date: 03/28/2006 Run time: 138 minutes

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #66518 in DVD
• Brand: Ryko Distribution
• Released on: 2006-03-28
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, Color, DVD, Limited Edition, NTSC, Subtitled
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French, Dutch
• Number of discs: 2
• Dimensions: .40 pounds
• Running time: 138 minutes

Amazon.com
Cult Epics founder, Nico B., claims in his liner notes that he never thought he’d make a biographical film about Bettie Page’s last three years as famed pin-up star, but finding look-alike Paige Richards to play the part in Bettie Page:Dark Angel changed his mind. This film recreates Page’s trials and tribulations as an aspiring actress, by placing dramatized scenes from her life between faux bondage flicks that have the grainy, black and white quality of the long-lost real ones. Nico B. studied the remaining stills to imagine live action for these entertaining bondage films that, combined, take up over half of the movie. Scenes of Bettie (played by Paige Richards) crying to her boyfriend about her frustrations are benign as are most narrative scenes in porn. Rather, the best parts in Dark Angel are the vintage-looking fetish sequences that show Bettie as dominatrix, Bettie as a captive jungle girl dressed in shredded furs, Bettie legs tied to a coffee tables’, and the most classic, Bettie as Pony-Slave. Of course, seeing the real Bettie would be preferable, but Richards looks uncannily similar, sharing the same sweet smile and inner radiance that made Bettie Page so famous. Plot-wise, Bettie Page:Dark Angel explains Bettie Page’s sudden disappearance from the media during a scary sequence in which horny fans and an obscenities court case slapped against her agent, Irving Klaw, leave Bettie unsure about her own safety. The kitschy premise of the film makes Bettie Page:Dark Angel a fun homage to the Queen, and for future pin-up girls, the Two-Disc Limited Edition set offers Bunny Yeager, Bettie’s original photographer, interviewing Richards then setting out to various scenes for sexy photo shoots. --Trinie Dalton

Review
Sculptural beauty Paige Richards plays the pin-up icon and the movie starts with a Bunny Yeager photo shoot on a beach before unfolding with the highlights of Page's bondage years, which ended on a sour note, when the senate launched a puritan crusade against Page's notorious producer, Irving Klaw.

This is a piece which is mostly destined for Page's fans and knowing her influence on some certain sub-cultural circles, it might also become some kind of classic as a visual prop. This would certainly have fit well in the Bettie Page Collection, in place of the useless 100 Girls By Bunny Yeager. --Fred Thom

Review
With the underground market for Page-related merchandise, it seems understandable that a film like this is clearly geared toward the faithful, and that is where this becomes not necessarily a movie, but a sought-after collectible. It's an add-on to all the websites, books, figures, photos, and posters, and as a piece neo-Page hipness, Nico B. has succeeded in great waves. --digitallyobsessed.com

Customer Reviews

BORING TO THE MAX! NICO B REEKS!
This DVD contains both the original "Dark Angel" Cult Film and a "How to Pose Nude" with Bunny Yeager (who we never see - just Paige Richards). I was so excited to receive this DVD and was very let down.

First of all the "Dark Angel" film is just boring -- how many stupid bondage videos do we have to watch. We get your point -- Bettie did bondage videos......

Nico B has the arrogance to say this a CULT FILM? Cult films are not made, they happen vis a vis the public's perspective of a film.

Nico B needs to do his research -- instead of wasting time on chasing down composers for that boring and redundent soundtrack, he needs to get his facts straight.

The acting is really bad -- I am a native Tennesseean and I can tell you that nobody in Tennessee has the accent of Paige Richards. Ditto the "narrator" who is not Paige Richards. They all sound like they are from the deep south and very phony. But the voice of Estes Kefauver (who was born and bred in Madisonville, Tennessee), with some sort of Teutonic accent was just over the top!

I can't believe anyone would pay to see this in a theatre. I can't believe I paid to buy this junk.

The Bunny Yeager stuff of Paige Richards is OK Let's see though, did Bettie Page have a Brazlian Wax, Pierced Ears, or Implants? I think not.

Paige Richards does look remarkably like Bettie Page in the face and figure (except for those implants).

But after a few scenes, that portion of the DVD was so boring I did not even finish it. Paige Richards is a really pretty woman, but she tries to hard when posing for Bunny -- some of those faces she makes tend to make her look as though she is passing some type of fetid gas into the air!

I wish there were a 0 Star because this waste of a film is beyond terrible!

Poor Bettie Paige. She is too good for this kind of trash. She should really confront Nico B about this wretched waste of film.

I am a cult movie follower and trust me -- this is not "Eating Raoul" or "Plan 9 From Outer Space" or even "Night of the Living Dead"

It's a waste of time to watch this junk.

VERY IMPORTANT REVIEW!! A MUST READ!!
Wow, what a terrible movie. I am pretty sure that I have seen better high school performances!? The movie was pointless, had some of the worst acting I've seen and was casted terribly. I had bought this movie to add to my ever growing Bettie collection, but had I seen it first, I never would have bought it! I never would have rented it, heck I am not even sure someone could have convinced me to take a copy for free!? Anyone who has seen Bettie's short films knows that she wasn't the best actress. So, picture her films but ten times worse because someone even less experienced is trying to imitate her!!?? That's what this movie is like. One big train wreck!! I don't usually do this, (even with bad movies)but I had to fast forward through most of it cause it was so boring, this is pretty bad seeing that I am truly a huge fan of Bettie and usually go crazy for any new material!? If someone who knew nothing about Bettie saw this, they would come away thinking she was just some dumb slut!? Which (as any real Bettie fan would know) is the furthest from the truth about her? She was extremely intelligent and during the time she was a model, was the least sexually active period in her life (she says because she wasn't married)!? Also, not to be mean, but Paige Richards is no Bettie! Sure she may be skinny with dark hair and Bettie's bangs, but Bettie paid great attention to her look and would work out 5 days a week when she was a full time model. Paige (aside from being a terrible actress) although skinny, I don't feel was "fit" to play the role at all. Bunny Yeager, was a pretty, thin little red head with fair skin. I had to laugh when I saw the lady they chose to play her. She had dark skin, was clearly wearing a red wig (not even the right red) and looked completely different!!
I wasn't too keen on The Notorious Bettie Page movie either, but compared to this nonsense, Gretchen Mole (who played Bettie in "The Notorious Bettie Page") should have won an Oscar! The Notorious Bettie Page is a far better depiction and goes far more in to detail about who Bettie really was. It had real actors playing in it, was accurate to the period, followed the real story of Bettie's life and was interesting to watch. "The Notorious Bettie Page" was a pretty good film being how picky I am. As far as I am concerned no one comes close to Bettie and I have a hard time with people who try to imitate her photos or play her in movies. Gretchen did a pretty good job though. But as for this "Dark Angel" movie, whether you're a Bettie fan or not, don't waste your time or money. There's far better work done of her out there. If you want a good movie, I recommend "The Notorious Bettie Page", and for a good Bio, read: "Bettie Page The life of a pin-up Legend" by Karen Essex and James L. Swanson. It is the best book I have ever seen on Bettie, just full of photos and stories and gives you a detailed look at her life. The reason it's probably so good because Bettie helped write it herself! I feel I am a true Bettie fan and to me it's clear that the people who made this movie had no clue as to what they wanted to say..... It left me confused and that's pretty sad considering I know the history behind the film. DO NOT BUY THIS MOVIE LIKE I DID! Take my word for it! It's an insult to everything Bettie has done.

The facts about this film and director
Every so called "flaw" is meant. It's a beautiful film, if you can't recognize that than you shouldn't watch cult movies (or their remakes) in the first place. And I also have to stress that Nico B. is one of the best directors around, if you haven't seen the film PIG that proves his (and Rozz Williams) genius than you lucked out.