Movies - Deep Throat

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	Movies - Deep Throat

Deep Throat is a U.S. pornographic movie released in the summer of 1972, written and directed by Gerard Damiano and starring Linda Lovelace (aka Linda Susan Boreman, by which she preferred to be called). It was shown in many mainstream movie theatres and is likely the most successful and influential pornographic film of all time.

Description and plot

A sexually frustrated woman (Linda 'Lovelace' "playing herself") asks her friend Helen (played by Dolly Sharp) for advice; after a sex party did not provide any help, Helen recommends that Linda visit a doctor (played by Harry Reems). The doctor notices that Linda's clitoris is located in her throat; she then goes on to work as a therapist for the doctor and performs a particular technique of oral sex—thereafter known as "deep throat"—on various men, until she finds the one to marry. Meanwhile, the doctor has sex with his blonde nurse (played by Carol Connors). The movie ends with the line "The End. And Deep Throat to you all."

The movie, 61 minutes long, is intended to be funny with highly corny dialogues and songs, fireworks going off and bells ringing during orgasm.

The various explicit scenes of oral, anal and vaginal sex acts led to an X rating by the MPAA film rating system.

Porn chic and pop culture influence

On June 5, 1972, the movie received a glowing review by Al Goldstein in his Screw magazine. Only two full-length (and lesser known) hardcore porn movies had been released previously in the U.S.: Mona in 1970 and School Girl in 1971.

Together with Behind the Green Door
which was also released in 1972 and widely shown in mainstream theatres, Deep Throat started a brief period of 'porn chic' when it was considered cool in some circles to go see porn movies, even in company. Already in 1973, the movie was marketed on videotape, although consumer VCRs were not common until around 1977.

Unlike Behind the Green Door
, Deep Throat's fame does not primarily root from its explicitness but from the fact that it set some of the main conventions of modern pornography: a synopsis made up of different segments of graphic sex, attached with a minimal plot.

The movie's title became a pop culture reference, most notably when Howard Simons chose it as the pseudonym for a Washington Post Watergate informant, later revealed to be W. Mark Felt.

In an episode of Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, a family-hour show, Perry White had a secret source he called "Sore Throat".

Several writers have conjectured that Douglas Adams chose the name of the Deep Thought supercomputer in the science fiction comedy The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1978) as a parody on the movie's title. Adams himself said only "The name is a fairly obvious joke..."

Production and revenue

The scenes involving Linda Lovelace were shot in Miami over 6 days in January 1972; the scenes involving Carol Connors were shot in New York City.

The movie was produced by Louis "Butchie" Peraino (listed as "Lou Perry"), with most of the production cost of $22,500 coming from his father Anthony Peraino and his uncle Joe "The Whale" Peraino, both members of the Mafia, specifically the Colombo crime family. Damiano, who had rights to one-third of the profits, was forced out by the Perainos shortly after the movie's success had become apparent. The Mafia would put pressure on theatre owners, generally demanding 50% of all proceeds and sending out spies or "checkers" to verify ticket sale numbers by counting members in the audience.

Estimates of total revenue have varied widely. One FBI source suggests $100 million, but numbers as high as $600 million have also been cited, which would make the movie the most profitable of all time. Michael Hiltzik of the Los Angeles Times argues for a lower number, pointing out that the movie was banned in half the U.S., and may only have been shown in one theatre in each of a few large cities. With a ticket price of $2.05, box-office takings of $600 million would require every man, woman and child in the U.S. to have seen it one-and-a-half times. Since there was no mass VCR market until around 1977, video-tape sales cannot have contributed to revenue, although Super-8 cine sales may have brought some revenue during the mid-1970s.

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