The Mouse Trap (film)

# The Mouse Trap (film)

## Abstract

The Mouse Trap is a 2024 Canadian comedy horror film directed by Jamie Bailey and written by Simon Phillips. It is a horror reimagining of Walt Disney 's 1928 animated short film Steamboat Willie, the first appearance of Mickey Mouse. While The Walt Disney Company retains exclusive rights to the depictions of the character from their own franchise, Mickey's Steamboat Willie version went into the public domain on January 1, 2024, the same day the film was announced.

It stars Sophie McIntosh, Callum Sywyk, Allegra Nocita, Ben Harris, Mireille Gagné, Mackenzie Mills, James Laurin, Kayleigh Styles, Jesse Masmith, Madeline Kelman, Damir Kovic, Nick Biskupek, with Phillips as the titular character. The plot follows a group of friends trapped inside in an amusement arcade after it closes as they are terrorized by a masked killer in a Mickey Mouse costume. It was released on VOD platforms on August 6, 2024.

## Plot

At a police station, detectives Cole and Marsh attempt to interview Rebecca, a survivor of a recent massacre, so that they can learn who was behind the killing spree and why. Rebecca is reluctant, claiming that she and the detectives will die if she tells them, but eventually gives in and begins to explain what happened.

Some time prior, at an amusement arcade, employees Alex and Jayna are told by their boss Tim Collins that they will have to stay on a late shift due to a last-minute booking. Later, whilst watching Steamboat Willie on a film projector, Tim begins to hear menacing laughter, and a Mickey Mouse mask in a nearby cabinet then begins speaking to him. In a trance, Tim opens the cabinet and puts the mask on.

After Jayna leaves the building, Alex sees Tim wearing the Mickey mask as he chains up one of the exits. Confused and scared, Alex flees, only to stumble upon her boyfriend Marcus and her other friends Ryan, Paul, Jackie, Gemma, Danny, Marie, and Rebecca. It is revealed that the "last-minute booking" was actually arranged by them as a surprise early birthday party for Alex.

As the party gets into full swing, Ryan gathers everyone's phones in a bag and leaves them on the counter. Meanwhile, Paul and Jackie head into the jungle gym to have sex, where Tim/Mickey appears armed with a knife and attacks them. The rest of the group discover that the exits have been chained shut, and their phones have been stolen. After they split up and go looking for Paul and Jackie, Rebecca encounters Mickey, whom is apparently now able to teleport but is easily scared off by flashing lights. Marie also encounters Mickey, who wounds her, but she manages to escape before he can kill her. She informs Alex and Marcus of her encounter, believing Ryan was the one who attacked her since he is nowhere to be found. Alex then discovers that the lights and phone lines are down before she, Marcus and Marie find Paul and Jackie dead.

On Marcus's suggestion, Alex activates the building's fire alarm in order to alert emergency services. Mickey then slits Gemma's throat, teleports into the laser tag arena, slits Rebecca's ankle and kills Danny. Alex sees Jayna returning to the building, but is unable to warn her about Mickey before he teleports behind her and kills her. She returns to find Marcus and Marie, who have found the still-alive Ryan and are interrogating him, making Alex realise that Ryan is innocent before Mickey appears and attacks Ryan. Alex uses a flashlight to distract Mickey as Marcus knocks him down with a baseball bat, but Mickey teleoprts away before they can finish him off. The survivors realise that they can use Mickey's phobia of light against him, and so lure him into the jungle gym and activate the strobe lights, disorienting Mickey as they beat him down. However, Mickey somehow manages to turn off the strobe lights with telekinesis and teleports away before reappearing behind Alex, decapitating her and disappearing.

Back in the present, the detectives refuse to believe Rebecca's story and leave her locked inside a holding cell before leaving her. In a post-credits scene, Mickey enters the police station, opens the door to Rebecca's cell, and tells her that there are "many people" he wants her to meet, and they are "just getting started". Rebecca stares at Mickey, smiles, and leaves her cell.

## Cast

- Simon Phillips as Mickey Mouse / Tim Collins

- Sophie McIntosh as Alex Fen

- Madeline Kelman as Jayna

- Ben Harris as Ryan

- Callum Sywyk as Marcus

- Mireille Gagné as Gemma

- James Laurin as Paul

- Kayleigh Styles as Jackie

- Mackenzie Mills as Rebecca

- Jesse Masmith as Danny

- Allegra Nocita as Marie

- Damir Kovic as Detective Cole

- Nick Biskupek as Detective Marsh

## Production

On January 1, 2024, the first animated short film starring Mickey Mouse, Steamboat Willie, entered into public domain. The day the copyright lapsed, the film—then titled Mickey's Mouse Trap —was revealed to the public as the film's first trailer was released online along with several other works based on the short, such as Infestation: Origins, a Mickey-themed independent horror game.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, director Jamie Bailey stated: "We just wanted to have fun with it all. I mean it’s Steamboat Willie ‘s Mickey Mouse murdering people. It's ridiculous. We ran with it and had fun doing it and I think it shows. Bailey also expressed surprise that there were not more similar projects and that they were among the first to create such a film, as the crew "thought we'd be lost in the shuffle, to be completely honest". The film will avoid referring to the titular villain as "Mickey Mouse" while ensuring that "it's very clear who it's supposed to be".

Principal photography took place in Funhaven, an amusement centre in Ottawa, Canada, over the course of 8 days in Summer 2023.

## Release

The Mouse Trap was originally scheduled to release in March 2024 before being postponed for unknown reasons. It was later rescheduled to be released in North America by Gravitas Ventures via video on demand on August 6, 2024, with a Blu-ray release following on August 13.


Vladan Vićević

# Vladan Vićević

## Abstract

Vladan Vićević (Serbian Cyrillic: Владан Вићевић; born 26 July 1967) is a Serbian-born naturalized Salvadoran football manager and former player.

## Club career

After starting out at Sevojno, Vićević made his Yugoslav Second League debut with Sloboda Užice in 1988. He made over 100 appearances in the second tier of Yugoslav football throughout the next four seasons.

Following the breakup of SFR Yugoslavia, Vićević joined First League of FR Yugoslavia newcomers Bečej in 1992. He helped them to a fourth-place finish in the 1994–95 season, as the club earned a spot in European competitions for the first time in history.

In 1996, Vićević moved abroad to El Salvador to play for Águila under compatriot Milovan Đorić. He returned to Sloboda Užice in 1998 and played in the Second League of FR Yugoslavia for two seasons before retiring.

## International career

Nicknamed El Bicho, Vićević became a Salvadoran citizen in February 1997 and was soon eligible to play for El Salvador. He made his international debut for his adopted country during the tenure of Milovan Đorić in a March 1997 friendly with Guatemala. His final cap came in a 1998 CONCACAF Gold Cup match against Jamaica.

In total, Vićević was capped 23 times by El Salvador between 1997 and 1998.

## Managerial career

In July 2005, Vićević was appointed as manager of Águila. He resigned from his position in December 2006. In April 2007, Vićević took charge of Chalatenango. He left the club by mutual consent in February 2008.

In April 2022, Vićević was officially appointed as manager of Sloboda Užice, leading the club to the Serbian League West title and promotion to the Serbian First League.


Signaling (telecommunications)

# Signaling (telecommunications)

## Abstract

In telecommunications, signaling is the use of signals for controlling communications. This may constitute an information exchange concerning the establishment and control of a telecommunication circuit and the management of the network.

## Classification

Signaling systems may be classified based on several principal characteristics.

### In-band and out-of-band signaling

In the public switched telephone network (PSTN), in-band signaling is the exchange of call control information within the same physical channel, or within the same frequency band, that the message (the callers' voice) is using. An example is dual-tone multi-frequency signaling (DTMF), which is used on most telephone lines to customer premises.

Out-of-band signaling is telecommunication signaling on a dedicated channel separate from that used for the message. Out-of-band signaling has been used since Signaling System No. 6 (SS6) was introduced in the 1970s, and also in Signalling System No. 7 (SS7) in 1980 which became the standard for signaling among exchanges internationally.

In the mid-20th century, supervision signals on long-distance trunks in North America were primarily in-band, for example at 2600 Hz, necessitating a notch filter to prevent interference. Late in the century, all supervisory signals had been moved out of band. With the advent of digital trunks, supervision signals are carried by robbed bits or other bits in the E1-carrier dedicated to signaling.

### Line versus register signaling

Line signaling is concerned with conveying information on the state of the line or channel, such as on-hook, off-hook (answer supervision and disconnect supervision, together referred to as supervision), ringing, and hook flash. Register signaling is concerned with conveying addressing information, such as the calling and/or called telephone number. In the early days of telephony, with operator handling calls, the addressing formation is by voice as "Operator, connect me to Mr. Smith please". In the first half of the 20th century, addressing formation is done by using a rotary dial, which rapidly breaks the line current into pulses, with the number of pulses conveying the address. Finally, starting in the second half of the century, address signaling is by DTMF.

### Channel-associated versus common-channel signaling

Channel-associated signaling (CAS) employs a signaling channel that is dedicated to a specific bearer channel.

Common-channel signaling (CCS) employs a signaling channel which conveys signaling information relating to multiple bearer channels. These bearer channels, therefore, have their signaling channel in common.

### Compelled signaling

Compelled signaling refers to signaling where the receipt of each signal from an originating register needs to be explicitly acknowledged before the next signal can be sent.

Most forms of R2 register signaling are compelled, while R1 multi-frequency signaling is not.

The term is only relevant in the case of signaling systems that use discrete signals (e.g. a combination of tones to denote one digit), as opposed to signaling systems which are message-oriented (such as SS7 and ISDN Q.931) where each message is able to convey multiple items of formation (e.g. multiple digits of the called telephone number).

### Subscriber versus trunk signaling

Subscriber signaling refers to the signaling between the telephone and the telephone exchange. Trunk signaling is the signaling between exchanges.

## Examples

Every signaling system can be characterized along each of the above axes of classification. A few examples:

- DTMF is an in-band, channel-associated register signaling system. It is not compelled.

- SS7 (e.g., TUP or ISUP) is an out-of-band, common-channel signaling system that incorporates both line and register signaling.

- Metering pulses (depending on the country, these are 50 Hz, 12 kHz or 16 kHz pulses sent by the exchange to payphones or metering boxes) are out-of-band (because they do not fall within the frequency range used by the telephony signal, which is 300 through 3400 Hz) and channel-associated. They are generally regarded as line signaling, although this is open to debate.

- E and M signaling (E&M) is an out-of-band channel-associated signaling system. The base system is intended for line signaling, but if decadic pulses are used it can also convey register information. E&M line signaling is however usually paired with DTMF register signaling.

- By contrast, the L1 signaling system (which typically employs a 2280 Hz tone of various durations) is an in-band channel-associated signaling system as was the SF 2600 hertz system formerly used in the Bell System.

- Loop start, ground start, reverse battery and revertive pulse systems are all DC, thus out of band, and all are channel-associated since the DC currents are on the talking wires.

Whereas common-channel signaling systems are out-of-band by definition, and in-band signaling systems are also necessarily channel-associated, the above metering pulse example demonstrates that there exist channel-associated signaling systems which are out-of-band.


Tezu Jama Mosque, Arunachal Pradesh

# Tezu Jama Mosque, Arunachal Pradesh

## Abstract

The Tezu Jama Mosque is a mosque located in Tezu in Arunachal Pradesh, India.The Tezu Jama Masjid is a local Islamic shrine where the residents offer prayers.

Tezu is in the Lohit district of Arunachal Pradesh. The small township is noted for its religious milieu, and is one of the region's tourist attractions. With its rivers and valleys, the small place is literally a paradise for the visitors. Tezu Jama Masjid is an attractive place for everybody because of its grandeur in architecture. Located in the main town of Tezu, the mosque is frequented by hundreds of people every day for everyday prayer session.

## Prayer

This mosque is a venue of celebration during festivals of Id-Ul-Fitr and Id-Ul-Zuha, by the local Muslim community. The mosque hold prayer sessions every day.


The Neon Demon

# The Neon Demon

## Abstract

The Neon Demon is a 2016 psychological horror film directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, co-written by Mary Laws, Polly Stenham, and Refn, and starring Elle Fanning. The plot follows an aspiring model in Los Angeles whose beauty and youth generate intense fascination and envy within the fashion industry. Supporting roles are played by Karl Glusman, Jena Malone, Bella Heathcote, Abbey Lee, Desmond Harrington, Christina Hendricks, and Keanu Reeves.

An international co-production between France, Denmark, and the United States, the film competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, the third consecutive film directed by Refn to do so, following Drive (2011) and Only God Forgives (2013). In the United States, the film was released theatrically on June 24, 2016 by Amazon Studios and Broad Green Pictures. It opened to polarized reviews with praise for Refn's direction, Malone and Fanning's performances, Martinez's score and particular praise for Braier's cinematography, with the screenplay and graphic content receiving criticism. It ultimately grossed $3.6 million against a production budget of $7.5 million.

## Plot

Following the unexplained deaths of her parents, 16 year-old aspiring model Jesse has just moved from a small unnamed town in Georgia to Los Angeles. She meets photographer Dean, who does her first shoot, and makeup artist Ruby, who introduces fellow older models Gigi and Sarah, who are interested in her physical appearance and in her sexual experiences, which Jesse pretends to have had.

Jesse is signed by Roberta Hoffman, the owner of a modeling agency, who tells her to pretend that she is nineteen and refers her to a test shoot with notable photographer Jack McCarther. The shoot is successful, and Gigi and Sarah envy Jesse's youth. Jesse goes to a casting call for fashion designer Robert Sarno where Sarah is also present. Sarno pays no attention to Sarah but is entranced by Jesse's beauty. Distraught, Sarah asks her how it feels to be the one everyone admires. Jesse admits, "It's everything," and Sarah lunges toward her, cutting Jesse's hand on the glass. Sarah sucks the blood from Jesse's hand and Jesse rushes back to her motel and faints, hallucinating as she sees abstract imagery.

At Sarno's fashion show, Gigi talks to Jesse about cosmetic surgery. As Jesse is closing the show, she has hallucinations of abstract triangular shapes and reflections of herself. After the show, Jesse goes out with Dean to a bar, where Sarno negatively contrasts Gigi's surgically-enhanced looks to Jesse's natural beauty. Dean finds the conversation unpleasant and attempts to leave with Jesse, who refuses, now espousing a narcissistic persona.

Jesse has a nightmare of being forced by Hank, the lecherous motel owner, to sexually swallow a knife. She wakes up to hear someone fidgeting with her door lock. She engages the deadbolt and hears the intruder break into the next room, assaulting the thirteen-year-old female occupant inside. Terrified, she calls Ruby, who invites Jesse to her home. Ruby makes sexual advances towards Jesse, who immediately rejects them. Jesse reveals to Ruby that she is a virgin, whereupon Ruby goes to her second job as a cosmetologist at a morgue and pleasures herself with a female corpse.

Ruby returns home, where Jesse encounters Gigi and Sarah, who, along with Ruby, chase Jesse, causing her to fall into a deep, empty pool, and the women butcher Jesse with knives and consume parts of her body, before bathing in her blood. Ruby is revealed to have occult tattoos. She lies in Jesse's unmarked grave, and later, nude, in her house, as a torrent of blood gushes from her genitals.

The next day, Gigi and Sarah attend one of Jack's shoots with another model named Annie. Jack is suddenly enthralled by Sarah and fires Annie. In the midst of the shoot, Gigi runs off set, suddenly ill. Sarah watches Gigi vomit up one of Jesse's eyeballs. She screams with regret, "I need to get her out of me," and stabs herself with a pair of scissors. Sarah watches Gigi die and eats the regurgitated eyeball before returning to the shoot.

In the end credits' scene, a woman, whose face is not shown, walks alone in the Mojave Desert.

## Cast

- Elle Fanning as Jesse

- Karl Glusman as Dean

- Jena Malone as Ruby

- Bella Heathcote as Gigi

- Abbey Lee as Sarah

- Desmond Harrington as Jack McCarther

- Christina Hendricks as Roberta Hoffman

- Keanu Reeves as Hank

- Alessandro Nivola as Robert Sarno

- Charles Baker as Mikey

- Jamie Clayton as Casting Director

- Jodie Turner-Smith as Roberta Hoffman's Assistant

- Houda Shretah as Sarno's assistant

## Production

On October 22, 2013, it was announced that Refn's new film after Only God Forgives would be a Miami- or Tokyo-set "all-female horror" with "lots of sex" called I Walk with the Dead, with Carey Mulligan attached to star and Polly Stenham writing the script. On November 3, 2014, Refn's production company Space Rocket Nation alongside its co-financiers Gaumont Film Company and Wild Bunch announced that Refn's next film would be titled The Neon Demon, to be filmed in Los Angeles in early 2015. Refn commented on the conception of the project: "I woke up one morning a couple of years ago and was like, 'Well, I was never born beautiful, but my wife is,' and I wondered what it had been like going through life with that reality," he says. "I came up with the idea to do a horror film about beauty, not to criticize it or to attack it, but because beauty is a very complex subject. Everyone has an opinion about it."

In January 2015, Dazed reported that the script for the film was inspired by Elizabeth Báthory. In discussing the script, which Refn co-wrote with Mary Laws, he stated: "I decided that I'd made enough films about violent men, and I wanted to do a film with only women in the film, and so I did this story because my wife would only go to L.A. if we had to travel out of Copenhagen. She's like, 'I'm done with Asia. I will only do Los Angeles.' And so I came up with an idea and went to L.A., and I cast this woman called Elle Fanning who is absolutely fantastic, and she played the lead." In subsequent interviews, Refn stated that he visualized the film as an "adult fairy tale."

### Casting

On January 6, 2015, Elle Fanning joined the film to play an aspiring model, caught in a world of beauty and demise. Fanning came to Refn's attention because of his wife, who had been impressed by her performance in an earlier film. On January 29, Abbey Lee was added to the cast to play the role of Sarah. On February 5, more cast was added to the film, including Keanu Reeves, Christina Hendricks, Jena Malone and Bella Heathcote. On March 17, 2015, Karl Glusman was set to star in the film. Desmond Harrington was added to the cast on March 30, 2015.

### Filming

Principal photography on the film began in Los Angeles on March 30, 2015. Locations included downtown Los Angeles, while the motel sequences were shot on location at a real motel in Pasadena. Natasha Braier was hired as the film's cinematographer.

### Soundtrack

Composer Cliff Martinez, who collaborated with director Refn on Drive, stated the films have similar styles, musically speaking, noting that for The Neon Demon he sought a "sparse electronic score." He stated in an interview that the first half of the film resembles "a melodrama like Valley of the Dolls, and the second half is like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre." According to Refn and Martinez the soundtrack was influenced by Giorgio Moroder, Goblin, Kraftwerk, Vangelis and Tangerine Dream.

The soundtrack for the film was released on June 24, 2016, physically and through digital download, before being released on vinyl on July 8, 2016, by Milan Records. Sia composed an original song for the film titled "Waving Goodbye". On May 24, 2016, at the Cannes Soundtrack 2016 awards, Cliff Martinez was recognized best composer of the Cannes film festival for his soundtrack to The Neon Demon.

Refn's nephew (and actress Brigitte Nielsen 's son) Julian Winding contributed two tracks: "Demon Dance" and "Mine", the latter performed by his band Sweet Tempest. An album of songs selected by Refn that inspired The Neon Demon was released in 2017 under the title The Wicked Die Young.

## Release

In November 2015, Amazon Studios acquired distribution rights to the film in the United States, in partnership with Broad Green Pictures. The Jokers distributed the film in France. Scanbox Entertainment distributed the film in Denmark.

The film had its world premiere at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival on May 20, 2016, before it was released in France on June 8, 2016. The film was then released in Denmark on June 9, followed by the wide release in the United States on June 24, 2016.

The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on September 27, 2016.

## Critical response

The Neon Demon received a mixed response from critics. Much like Refn's previous film, Only God Forgives, the film received both boos and a standing ovation during its premiere at Cannes Film Festival. It holds a 59% approval rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 260 reviews, with an average rating of 6/10. The site's consensus reads, " The Neon Demon is seductively stylish, but Nicolas Winding Refn's assured eye can't quite compensate for an underdeveloped plot and thinly written characters." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 51 out of 100, based on 45 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Writing a four star review in The Guardian, Mark Kermode said it was "a film driven by the same guilty pleasures that have long underpinned Refn's work", and had particular praise for the performance of Malone. Robbie Collin of The Daily Telegraph gave the film five out of five stars, stating, "When the film reaches its logical end point, Refn just keeps pushing, and eventually lands on a sequence so jaw-dropping – almost certainly a sly, glossy-magazine refashioning of Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali 's groundbreaking surrealist short Un Chien Andalou – that all you can do is howl or cheer." Tirdad Derakhshani, writing for The Philadelphia Inquirer, called Refn a "bold visionary artist... able to revel in the culture of instant gratification while also subjecting it to critique", giving the film three and a half out of four stars and calling it a "brutal masterpiece". Rene Rodriguez of The Miami Herald wrote positively of the film's visuals and experimental filmmaking, writing, "To complain that The Neon Demon lacks substance or that it doesn't have anything to say about our cultural obsession with beauty is to miss the crazy, cracked pageant unfolding in front of you. Not all movies are intended to be read like books; some are meant to be experienced," going on to call it a "film that is guaranteed to elicit strong reactions." He awarded the film three out of four stars. The writer Natasha Stagg interpreted the film through René Girard's theory of mimetic desire, and speculated that its box office failure was due to its substance being "too close to its own target".

Owen Gleiberman of Variety gave the film a mixed review: "A horror film is what The Neon Demon is (sort of). It’s set in the Los Angeles fashion world, and it’s the kind of movie in which models look like mannequins that look like slasher-film corpses, and corpses look like love objects. Beauty mingles with mangled flesh, and each fastidiously slick image seems to have come out of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me or The Shining or a very sick version of a Calvin Klein commercial. Every scene, every shot, every line of dialogue, every pause is so hypnotically composed, so luxuriously overdeliberate, that the audience can't help but assume that Refn knows exactly what he's doing – that he's setting us up for the kill. He is, but not if you're on the lookout for a movie that makes sense. (Oh, that.)" Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a negative review and called it " stultifyingly vapid, ponderously paced allegorical critique of the modeling world whose seethingly jealous inhabitants can't wait to literally chew each other up and spit each other out". Glenn Kenny of The New York Times criticized the film as "ridiculous and puerile," and opined, "Mr. Refn composes striking images, but they're all secondhand: faux Fellini, faux David Lynch and so on." The Telegraph ' s Tim Robey deemed The Neon Demon the "most offensive film of the year," specifically citing its necrophilia sequence as exploitative, though he conceded it is not "any fault of Malone’s, who commits herself utterly to making it an anguished, desperate, if inevitably revolting minute or so of screen time. It’s a question of context, and how this scene – which stands alone, advancing nothing in the overall arc of the story, and is one of very few not to feature Fanning – slots into the film’s overall thesis."

The French film magazine Cahiers du cinéma named The Neon Demon the third-best film of 2016.

## Sources


The Notorious Bettie Page

# The Notorious Bettie Page

## Abstract

The Notorious Bettie Page is a 2005 American biographical drama film directed by Mary Harron. The screenplay by Harron and Guinevere Turner focuses on 1950s pinup and bondage model Bettie Page, portrayed by Gretchen Mol.

## Plot

Bettie Page is an ambitious, naïve, and devout young Christian woman who longs to leave Nashville, Tennessee, following a childhood of sexual abuse, a failed wartime marriage, and a gang rape. In 1949, she departs for New York City, where she enrolls in an acting class. Amateur photographer Jerry Tibbs discovers her walking on the beach at Coney Island and she agrees to model for him. He suggests she restyle her hair with the bangs that would become her trademark.

Bettie becomes a favorite of nature photographers (including Bunny Yeager, who films her posing with two leopards), and she has no hesitation about removing her clothes for the photographers when asked. Before long images of the shapely brunette reach brother-and-sister entrepreneurs Paula and Irving Klaw, who run a respectable business selling movie stills and memorabilia, but also deal with fetish photos, magazines, and 8- and 16-millimeter films for additional income. Their top model Maxie takes Bettie under her wing, and she soon finds herself wearing leather corsets and thigh-high boots while wielding whips and chains for photographer John Willie, frequently at the request of Little John, a mild-mannered attorney with unusual tastes. Bettie is innocently unaware of the sexual nature of the images that rapidly are making her a star in the underground world of bondage aficionados.

In 1955, Bettie is called to testify before a hearing, headed by Senator Estes Kefauver, investigating the effects of pornography on American youth. Though she waits patiently for 12 hours to answer the committee's questions, Kefauver, for reasons unknown, decides to not bring her before the committee and dismisses her without an explanation. When it becomes apparent that casting directors are more interested in her notoriety than in any acting talent she might possess, Bettie heads to Miami Beach. Drifting along with limited career prospects and a virtually nonexistent social life, she stumbles upon a small evangelical church, walks inside and rushes forward to embrace Jesus Christ during the altar call. Although she insists she is not ashamed of anything she has done in her life, she appears happy to leave her past behind and return to her spiritual roots by preaching the word of the Lord on street corners.

In New York, Irving is highly stressed and suffering from poor health. He decides that he and his sister must burn their vast collection of erotic photos and movie footage to avoid potential prosecution. Paula reluctantly complies with her brother's request, but secretly saves the negatives of many of Bettie's pictures and movies from the bonfire, thereby ensuring that Bettie's work will survive for future generations.

## Cast

- Gretchen Mol as Bettie Page Molly Moore as young Bettie

- Molly Moore as young Bettie

- Chris Bauer as Irving Klaw

- Jared Harris as John Willie

- Sarah Paulson as Bunny Yeager

- Cara Seymour as Maxie Lee

- David Strathairn as Senator Estes Kefauver

- Lili Taylor as Paula Klaw

- John Cullum as preacher in Nashville

- Matt McGrath as nervous man

- Austin Pendleton as Herbert Berghof

- Norman Reedus as Billy Neal

- Dallas Roberts as Scotty

- Victor Slezak as minister in Miami

- Tara Subkoff as June

- Kevin Carroll as Jerry Tibbs

- Ann Dowd as Edna Page

- Michael Gaston as Mr. Gaughan

- Jefferson Mays as Little John

- Peter McRobbie as Gangel

- Dan Snook as Mr. Grimm

- Jonathan Woodward as Marvin

## Production

In An Inside Look at the Pin-Up Queen of the Universe, a bonus feature on the DVD release of the film, producer Pamela Koffler and screenwriter/director Mary Harron discuss their decision to film most of the movie in black-and-white, which they felt not only perfectly captured the nostalgic mood of the period but also had a psychological impact on the audience. While writing the script, Harron knew she wanted to film the Miami scenes in color in order to provide a sharp contrast between Bettie's professional life and the escape she ultimately made from it. Cinematographer W. Mott Hupfel III used old color stock to approximate the cheerfully vivid hues of Technicolor common in 1950s films.

Actress/screenwriter Guinevere Turner, who co-wrote the film with Mary Harron, was originally slated to star as Bettie Page but the role was given to Gretchen Mol when producers had difficulty raising money. Harron said from Mol's first audition, she was her first choice for the role. Harron said, "Emotionally she was so right. She has a natural sort of decorum. So many people made the mistake of being very vampy. At that point, I said, 'Well, you know, it's more important to get the inner Bettie than the outer Bettie.'"

## Release

The film premiered at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival and was shown at the Berlin International Film Festival and the South by Southwest Film Festival before going into limited release in the United States on April 14, 2006. Opening on twenty screens, it grossed $143,131 in its opening weekend. It eventually earned $1,415,082 in the United States and $362,924 in foreign markets for a total worldwide box office of $1,778,006.

The film was released on DVD in the United States on September 26, 2006.

### Critical reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 57% based on 134 reviews, with an average rating of 6/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "This biopic only skims the surface of Bettie Page's life, leaving her as a cipher, and additionally fails to place her iconic status in historical context."

Manohla Dargis of The New York Times observed, "Until now, Ms. Mol has been best known for her premature designation several years ago as Hollywood's newest It girl. The label seemed to plague her, and she all but faded from view despite promising turns in little-seen films. Maybe because she felt protected by her female director and female producers (six out of seven), or emboldened by the material, or maybe because she knows how beautiful her gently padded silhouette looks in the raw, Ms. Mol takes to this tricky role with the carefree expressivity you tend to see only in young children who have learned the joys of nudity, usually when their parents are throwing a dinner party. When she strips, Bettie soars".

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times said "The tone of the movie is subdued and reflective. It does not defend pornography, but regards it (in its 1950s incarnation) with subdued nostalgia for a more innocent time. There is a kind of sadness in the movie as we reflect that most of these women and the men they inflamed are now dead; their lust is like an old forgotten song".

Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle stated the film "floats on the charm and the labors of its lead actress, Gretchen Mol, who single-handedly makes the picture worth seeing. She takes a character that is next door to a cipher and infuses her with innocence and mischief, wit and feeling, despite limited help from the script. Perhaps through intuition or through some careful study of Page's pinups, Mol has discovered a human being to play, and in the process has found her best screen showcase to date". Of Harron and Turner he said "They tell Page's story in a curiously uninflected way, revealing little, if any, point of view, and imposing no meaning or particular importance on this woman's life. This approach is far from a recipe for high drama, but it has the integrity of accuracy. The audience is introduced to Bettie because the audience is perhaps interested in Bettie or her career or her era. But there's no pretending that her life was all that fascinating, or that her contribution to culture was significant, or that her story contains a lesson worth receiving... There's enough here for a good after-movie argument, and that's more than can be said for most pictures".

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone rated the film three out of four stars and commented "Any old sleaze could turn Bettie's life into a kinky S&M wallow, a cinematic stroke book. Not that there's anything wrong with that. It's just that director Mary Harron, who co-wrote the scrappy script with Guinevere Turner, doesn't do the expected. She's too sly for that, too subversively funny... needed just the right actress to play Bettie. And she lucked out big time. Gretchen Mol is hot stuff in every sense of the term. She delivers the first performance by an actress this year that deserves serious Oscar consideration".

Todd McCarthy of Variety called the film "a superficial look at the '50s sex icon feels like it was researched via press clippings rather than attempting a fresh rethinking of its era and provocative subject". He added "Mary Harron's work here seems curiously uninvolved. There's no sense of any particular commitment to the leading character... result is a strangely placid, unchallenging picture with no blood in its veins... Gretchen Mol is splendid to behold in every stage of dress or undress, but Harron and co-scenarist Guinevere Turner offer no clues as to what might be going on inside the dark-haired beauty's head and heart... Mol's Bettie is compliant, almost always open to any request and never disagreeable. But her lack of spine and inner turmoil make her a central figure of limited interest, that rare dramatic heroine with no ambition or goal".

### Awards and nominations

Mol was nominated for the Satellite Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama, but lost to Helen Mirren in The Queen.