Behind the Burly Q

Released Apr 23, 2010

1 hr. 37 min.

Documentary

List

77%

26 Reviews

Tomatometer

64%

100+ Ratings

Audience Score

The golden age of burlesque is revealed through personal and intimate stories from the performers who lived through it.

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Audience Member

Rather incomplete. Found the dismissive attitude towards non-white performers (who received maybe two minutes total) particularly annoying. The complete omission of Tura Satana is unforgiveable.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/20/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Woof what catyness even when you get that far up in age. LOL. A great doc though.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/13/23

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Audience Member

Really interesting and really funny! It's awesome to see all of the old footage and pictures and hear from the people who were part of it.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/12/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Very interesting -- The stories from the former performers & their relatives & friends were interesting to hear. Great collection of video, photo & audio clips.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/05/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Extremely interesting subject matter and people, ,some of the stories these women have are really incredible! unfortunately the film lacked any sort of coherent narrative, geographic or chronological thread, it was pretty amateurish story telling / editing, i wish there was a better documentary on the subject...

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

01/21/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Not that great of a doc. but good enough. It gets a little slow at points. And the stories of all the ladies could have been investigated a bit more in depth. Seems a cursory glance inside a dead industry. Some of the ladies are truly fascinating. I would have liked more information.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/03/23

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Critics Consensus: The Back-Up Plan Is Second Rate

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Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

Settles too easily for an editing formula which alternates talking heads, too cursory performance footage and montages of headlines and photographs.

Rated: 2/4

Aug 19, 2010

Full Review

Jeff Shannon

Seattle Times

More than a dozen of the burlesque performers featured here have died since they were interviewed in 2006, making Zemeckis's slapdash survey definitive by default.

Rated: 3/4

Aug 6, 2010

Full Review

Ronnie Scheib

Variety

Too scattershot to present a truly coherent picture of the burlesque experience, docu nevertheless provides a privileged front-row seat to sample several of the form's most memorable practitioners.

Jul 7, 2010

Full Review

Corey Hall

Metro Times (Detroit, MI)

Revealing doc tells all about the sassy gals of the vaudeville stage

Rated: A-

Oct 22, 2010

Full Review

Keith Cohen

Entertainment Spectrum

This documentary from Leslie Zemeckis affectionately tells everything you ever wanted to know about the golden age of burlesque. The standout interviewee is Alan Alda.

Rated: 3/4

Jul 10, 2010

Full Review

Robert W. Butler

Kansas City Star

Behind the Burly Q is a mess, but an enjoyable one.

Rated: 3/4

Jul 9, 2010

Full Review

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Synopsis

The golden age of burlesque is revealed through personal and intimate stories from the performers who lived through it.

Director: Leslie Zemeckis
Executive Producer: Robert Zemeckis
Screenwriter: Leslie Zemeckis
Distributor: First Run
Production Co: Mistress Inc.
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Apr 23, 2010, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 2, 2017
Box Office (Gross USA): $23.9K

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