Teaserama (1955)

That was an excellent one.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Teaserama (1955) ** (out of 4)The infamous Irvin Klaw produced and directed this burlesque show, which shows off a variety of dancers with the highlights being Bette Page and Tempest Storm. Page also hosts the ladies as she will walk out on a stage with the upcoming performer's name on a card.TEASERAMA is going to mainly appeal to fans of burlesque who like to see this type of dancing. I'm not going to lie but this type of thing was never one of my favorites, although I will say that there's some appeal here as this is presented like an actual show so we get the girls dancing and in between their acts we get some comic routines.The comic routines are downright horrible and you have to wonder why any show would even bother with them. They're among the worst bits of comedy that you'll ever see and I doubt too many people were happy to see them. As far as the girls go, they're certainly very attractive and if you enjoy this type of dancing they will be worth your while.Of course, the main attraction here is Page and while she was a horrible dancer there's no question that she contained a certain magic that just made it impossible to take your eyes off of her. She's very flirtatious with the camera and this certain leaps off the screen and right at the viewer.

IF ONE IS expecting to see some really steamy scenes or a really credible recreation of the Burlesque Shows of bygone days, he'd have to look elsewhere. Oh sure, you say, "How do you know, Ryan? Well, you'd be right, at least to a degree. We never did see any such live performances; but in this fact is the key to our assertion.THE PRODUCTION, AS it is, looks wooden. stagy and the product of a cheap sound-stage; rather than would a filmed record of a show at the FOLLIES, MINSKY'S or What Have You.AS FOR THE cast, we recognize two of them from their work outside of the Burlesque circuits. First of all, Bettie Page is much in evidence. The impish little brunette with the Prince Valiant/Page Boy hairdo does her number and assists later.SECONDLY IN THIS category of "the recognized & Familiar" is veteran Burlesque Comic, Joe E. Ross. Having once been described as "a Jewish Wallace Beery", this was before he and his work became known to the general public through his characterizations on TGV sitcoms. He was Mess Sergeant Rupert Ritzyk on THE PHIL SILVERS SHOW/YOU'LL NEVER GET RICH and followed that up with a co-starring gig (with Fred Gwynne) as Patrolman Gunther Toody, NYPD, on CAR 54, WHERE ARE YOU? AS FOR THE "adult content" of TEASARAMA, one must remember that it was 1955, not the "enlightened" days that we have witnessed. What was considered to be 'naughty' or 'sexy' or even 'hot stuff' in that day bygone day.THIS SORT OF film was usually exhibited in various "Art Theatres" or in the local Drive-In Theatres (aka "Passion Pits"), which also would screen some 'soft core', semi-nudies which usually displayed bare breasted, movie-star wannabees in some silly, senseless "comic" stories; which were clearly designed to be titillating and aimed at the prurient interests of young males.IT DOES REPRESENT a vanishing or even now extinct branch of the lively arts. The Burlesque Show's being a conveyance of being 'naughty' for young males has gone the way of the steam locomotive, ash trays and public telephone booths. It is for these reasons that one may enjoy screening this, if only once.ONE OTHER ASPECT of this movie, TEASARAMA is that some of the strippers featured sure appear to have become rather "Long in the Tooth".WE CAN ONLY surmise that making a film like this was a sort of last resort for the aging strippers, possibly a Swan Song.NOTE: At the time of this writing, neither Schultz nor I have any reason to footnote anything in this write-up. Amazing, no?

Everything the first reviewers have said is true. However, if you weren't there when old-time burlesque was in vogue, you have no way to see it except really awful b/w shorts with bad performers, or sanitized revues like THIS WAS BURLESQUE, or modern burlesque done in an entirely different historical context.TEASERAMA and VARIETEASE have top-name performers presenting their routines exactly as audiences of the day saw them.This is the real thing, and if the dancers don't seem all that erotic, or the comics don't seem funny, still that's the way it was for the guys in the audience back then.

Although presumably intended as an erotic burlesque, with comedy interludes, Teaserama actually comes across as an retrospectively amusing attempt at "harmless," ultra-soft porn with very unfunny comedians breaking up the flow. This is the first I've ever seen with a Dress Tease (as opposed to a Strip Tease). Of course the finest moments are provided by Betty Page, with her seemingly random facial expressions and hip jiggling. Possibly the greatest fringe in movie history. Kitsch, camp... call it what you will, it's got more soul than the rubbish most TV stations bill as "erotic" these days.