Deep Throat (1972) American pornographic cult film
Deep Throat (1972) American pornographic cult film
Deep Throat is a 1972 American pornographic film that was at the forefront of the Golden Age of Porn (1969–1984). The film was written and directed by Gerard Damiano, who was listed in the credits as “Jerry Gerard”; produced by Louis Peraino, credited as “Lou Perry”; and starring Linda Lovelace, the pseudonym given to Linda Susan Boreman.
One of the first pornographic films to feature a plot, character development, and relatively high production values, Deep Throat earned mainstream attention and launched the “porno chic” trend, even though the film was banned in some jurisdictions and was the subject of obscenity trials. Lovelace later wrote that she was coerced and sexually assaulted during the production, and that the film is genuine rape pornography.
Plot
Linda Lovelace, a sexually frustrated woman, asks her friend Helen for advice on how to achieve an orgasm. After a sex party provides no help, Helen recommends that Linda visit a psychiatrist, Dr. Young. The doctor discovers that Linda’s clitoris is located in her throat, and after he helps her to develop her oral sex skills, the infatuated Linda asks him to marry her. He informs her that she can settle for a job as his therapist, performing her particular oral technique—thereafter known as “deep throat”—on various men, until she finds the one to marry. Meanwhile, the doctor documents her exploits while repeatedly having sex with his nurse. Linda finally meets a man who can make her happy, agreeing to marry him. The movie ends with the line “The End. And Deep Throat to you all.”
Cast
Linda Boreman as Linda Lovelace
Harry Reems as Dr. Young
Dolly Sharp as Helen
Bill Harrison as Mr. Maltz
William Love as Wilber Wang
Carol Connors as the nurse
Bob Phillips as Mr. Fenster
Ted Street as delivery boy
John Byron as #11
Jack Birch (billed as “Michael Powers”) as #12
Gerard Damiano (billed as “Al Gork”) as Last Man
Ron Wertheim (unbilled) as Bearded Man on Sofa
Weston Enciso (unbilled) as Human Fleshlight
Production
The scenes involving Lovelace were shot in North Miami, Florida, over six days in January 1972. The interior scenes were shot at a hotel between 123rd and 124th Streets on Biscayne Boulevard, then known as the Voyager Inn. The building was subsequently converted to a dormitory for Johnson & Wales University.[citation needed] The scenes involving Carol Connors were shot in New York City.
The movie was produced by Louis “Butchie” Peraino, who was listed in the credits as “Lou Perry”. Peraino was the owner of Plymouth Distributing, which he later renamed Arrow Film and Video. The entire production cost of $22,500 (equivalent to $146,000 today), and an additional $25,000 ($162,000 today) for music, was provided by Peraino’s father, Anthony Peraino, a member of the Colombo crime family. Gerard Damiano, who had rights to one-third of the profits, was reportedly paid a lump sum of $25,000 once the film became popular and was forced out of the partnership. John Franzese also had a financial stake in the film.
Reception
In a March 1973 column, critic Roger Ebert wrote: “It is all very well and good for Linda Lovelace, the star of the movie, to advocate sexual freedom; but the energy she brings to her role is less awesome than discouraging. If you have to work this hard at sexual freedom, maybe it isn’t worth the effort.”[6] A review in Variety stated that although the film “doesn’t quite live up to its reputation as the Ben-Hur of porno pix, it is a superior piece which stands a head above the competition.” Al Goldstein wrote a rave review in his Screw magazine, saying “I was never so moved by any theatrical performance since stuttering through my own bar mitzvah.”
Porno chic and pop culture influence
Deep Throat officially premiered at the World Theater in New York on June 12, 1972, and was advertised in The New York Times under the bowdlerized title Throat.[citation needed]
The film’s popularity helped launch a period of upper-middle class interest in explicit pornography referred to by Ralph Blumenthal of The New York Times as “porno chic”. Several mainstream celebrities admitted to having seen Deep Throat, including Martin Scorsese, Brian De Palma,[10] Truman Capote, Jack Nicholson, Johnny Carson, Spiro Agnew, Frank Sinatra, Philip Dresmann and Louis Derfert.[9] Barbara Walters mentions having seen the film in her autobiography, Audition: A Memoir. Jimmy McMillan considers it to be his favorite film.
The film’s title soon became a pop culture reference, most notably when Howard Simons, the then-managing editor of The Washington Post, chose it as the code name for a well-guarded secret inside informant during the Watergate scandal that plagued the administration of President Richard M. Nixon, who many years later was revealed to be assistant FBI director W. Mark Felt
