Deep Throat

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Deep Throat is the quintessential porno flick. Its mere name immediately brings to mind what the film was about: providing blow jobs to men. The whole premise of the film was that a woman (Linda Lovelace) learns that she has a clitoris inside her throat, and can only achieve orgasm by performing the act named in the film's title. Hilarity Ensues.

While it was quite the trendsetter at the time, launching a genre that The Other Wiki refers to as porno chic, its real claim to fame was the connection with the Watergate scandal. For decades, we only knew Woodward and Bernstein's informant, Mark Felt, by the code name of "Deep Throat". The fact that his information on the Watergate Hotel break-in led to the downfall of Richard Nixon only enhanced the mystique of the film, keeping the name of the porn flick on the news for years to come.

The director of Deep Throat was Gerald Damiano, who apparently spent less than $100,000 to make the film, and made millions. At least one theater in Los Angeles ran it in a double feature with Devil and Miss Jones every day for eight years until the theater was torn down. Some theaters ran it with Behind the Green Door.

Linda Lovelace was the female star, and for some reason, Ron Jeremy, who merely appeared in the film as an actor, was prosecuted over the displaying of the film in theaters, supposedly because it was obscene.

Tropes used in Deep Throat include:
  • Artistic License: Biology: The whole premise of the film was that Lovelace's character had a clitoris inside her throat. Admittedly the movies lampshades this as incredibly unusual.
  • Novelization: There was a book adaptation, believe or not. It had no pictures.
  • Seinfeld Is Unfunny: A movie about oral sex would hardly be controversial today (unless Lovelace's claims are true).