Now that The Notorious Bettie Page has hit the theaters, what better time to celebrate Bettie’s sudden stardom than these essential DVD collections of the world’s greatest charismatic pinup/bondage queen. You know, Gretchen Mol did a pretty decent job in her Page portrayal (kinda reminds me of all those Elvis made-for-TV movies), but it’s virtually impossible to capture the on-screen power and mystery that the real black-banged bombshell of the 1950s projected so effortlessly…

First up is Bettie Page: Pinup Queen, which collects her scenes from the 1953 feature Striporama (the only film where she actually spouts a few lines) and contains “the most daring bubble bath sequence ever filmed,” plus a 3-D-like harem dance. My favorite part is all of Bettie’s great scene-stealing moments in the classic burlesque feature Teaserama (1955), where she giggles, pouts and wiggles her way through several dance numbers, culminating in a hair-pulling, fetishistic catfight with the immortal Tempest Storm, a class act who looks like she was shot in the back with two heat-seeking missiles. After these Eastman color moments, the disc features a whole slew of non-bondage tease film shorts Bettie made with Irving Klaw, leading up to a crazed cat-fight between Bettie and another of Irving and Paula’s models.

Bettie Page: Bondage Queen collects the fetish material that really got the Klaws into hot water during the early 1950s. (A note: you might wanna turn the sound down on this collection and put on some early 1950s instrumentals or exotica, cuz for some strange reason the compiler chose really bad 1980s limpwrist synth keyboard muzak for accompaniment. Sorry, it just doesn’t fit. Crank up the hi-fi with a dusty copy of the “Harlem Nocturne” by the Viscounts or “The Ventures in Space” and you’ll be fine.) Lotsa spankin’, hog-tyin’, ball gags, big boots, black gloves and restraints in these shorts which musta sent ol’ Estes Kefauver’s head spinnin’ faster than the Flash on PCP. The surviving films (God knows how many were burned or lost) are the Holy Grail of bondage, so look no further.

I really wanna recommend getting all of the Klaws’ full-length burlesque features, though. Teaserama, Striporama and Varietease (1954) have been lovingly preserved by the fine folks at Something Weird and all of these have appearances by Lili St. Cyr (greatest legs ever), baggy pants comedians (Joe E. Ross! OOH! OOH!) and early 1950s drag queens (called “female impersonators” then). Thank the lord that exploitation king Dave Friedman preserved these films in his collection even though he surmised that no one would ever want to view this “junk” again. How wrong he was. These films are timeless and popular for very good reasons. So, do yourself a favor…turn on, tune in and kink out!

Bettie Page Bondage Queen and Bettie Page Pin-Up Queen are available in a three-DVD box set with 100 Girls By Bunny Yeager by Cult Epics, which also sells them separately.