Teaserama (Nucleus Films/ 15) and Varietease (Nucleus Films/ 18) both £12.99

Bettie Page: Bondage Queen (Digital Classics/ 15) £15.99

The last few years have seen an explosion in the popularity of burlesque, the sassy, saucy performance that has done more for sales of big knickers and corselettes than M&S has managed in 125 years. With more and more girls picking up the nipple tassels, this release, the first time vintage films Varietease and Teaserama have been put to DVD, is a timely reminder of where it all came from.

Directed by notorious smut-monger Irving Klaw, the two shows mix routines by temptresses such as Tempest Storm, Lili St Cyr and Bettie Page with “variety” acts: contortionist Twinnie Wallen, baffling 1950s humourists and female impersonator Vickie Lynn, plus a host who makes Bruce Forsyth look cutting edge.

For those used to the polished routines of the Noughties, the girls’ acts have a charming make-it-up-as-you-go-along amateurism: Bettie’s dancing is gauchely jerky despite her winning Coca-Cola-red smile, while Tempest folds away her sofa bed before pouring herself into shoulder-length gloves and skin-tight blue frock. The films are a curio piece, essential for modern burlesquers wanting to know their heritage, and also to pick up make-up and hair tips – these gals are nothing if not immaculate.

The extras are good too – voiceover versions of the films, trailers and rare bits of footage including a rather touching black and white arcade film of Bettie accompanied by the rattle of the camera and a warning flashing up to remind viewers to “deposit another coin for the next part”. There are also featurettes interviewing today’s stars of burlesque.

Also out now is Bettie Page: Bondage Queen, a selection of films from the naughtier end of Klaw's repertoire, in which Bettie and a series of lovelies are subjected to kinkier and kinkier exploits – although there is still something affecting about the bored-looking girls teetering gamely in uber-high-heels and tying each other up with the efficiency of Girl Guides practicing their knots. But while the “spanking” is more pantomime than true S&M, and the inexplicably twangy soundtrack does its best to erode the sexiness, this footage is far darker than the vaudeville acts.

Klaw increasingly subjects the women to “devices lovingly crafted by leather craftsmen in Italy” as the voiceover informs us. God only knows what the craftsmen thought as in “Pony Girl”, a girl’s head is encased in leather straps with a bit, before she is pulled around on a lead, and in another film a lady is buckled into a gimp mask.

In the “biggest seller”, Bettie is strung up with ropes and pulleys. Whatever floats your boat – but despite all the gadgetry and the flickery black-and-white, it is Bettie’s brilliant smile and innocent charm that shine, and remind you why she is still the greatest burlesque star of all.
Katie Allen