I've successfully created .aspx view pages without code behind by replacing the first line with this:

<%@ Page Language="C#" Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewPage" %>

However, trying to change it to inherit the generics to get typed view data like the following doesn't seem to work:

 <%@ Page Language="C#" Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewPage<MvcApplication.Models.MyModel>" %>

Is there some trick I'm missing here? Can you not use a generic class in the Inherits attribute?

You need to use the standard CLR notation for generics. For example, I have an Error Handling View which deals with processing exceptions. The view inherits from ViewPage<Exception> so this is what you'd have in the view: 

<%@ Page Language="C#" Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewPage`1[[System.Exception, mscorlib]]" %>

 
 Hope this is useful.

Thanks!  Where did you find this?  It doesn't say anything about it in the online help for the page directive.  I thought that the `1 was a typo, but it's not...

 After a little more searching I found this: https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=104071&wa=wsignin1.0