Burlesque Undressed

This curiously innocent little British movie is a celebration of the revival of the art of the striptease artist, or ecdysiasts as they were jocularly called in the 1940s, when shows called Don't Point It's Nude, Yes, We Have No Pyjamas and Halt, Who Goes Bare? toured the music halls. It's produced by its chief star, Immodesty Blaize, who spends months devising her own exotic shows, several of which we see here. Some feisty older women (several still at it in their 70s) wax nostalgic, there are old black-and-white clips of British and American strippers, and a few words from Peter Blake, who wrote his Royal College thesis on burlesque and was rewarded with very low marks.