Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		2.5
Audio		2.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.0

Deep Throat Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 4, 2020

Deep Throat.

What can you say about a film whose very title has entered the public vernacular as few other film titles ever have? That it made history, and in some ways continues to make history? That it helped make porn fashionable, at least to a certain demographic and within the context of the seventies? That it's both disturbing (especially for those who know some of the history of the project and its aftermath) and undeniably funny in about equal measure? Yes, yes, and yes, but of course that barely begins to scratch the surface of what Deep Throat meant at the time of its release and how its impact has continued to, um, penetrate society in unexpected ways.

Does Deep Throat really need a plot recap? Suffice it to say that the fact that there even is a plot was something of an oddity in porn back in 1972, and that, combined with the film's unabashed sense of humor, helped to make it a sensation (no pun intended) upon its release. A frustrated woman named Linda Lovelace (Linda Boreman) has never reached sexual ecstasy, and she visits a doctor named Young (Harry Reems) who discovers that her "G-spot" is in her esophagus. Cue the ubiquitous oral sex scenes.

What may continue to fascinate about Deep Throat beyond its frankly not very erotic (to me, anyway) elements is some of its impact and especially the stories of some of the players in the film. Lovelace's traumas have been well documented, with her allegations of on set abuse which she says were so bad that anyone watching the film is basically a voyeur to a rape ( several rapes, when you get right down to it). Harry Reems attained a certain notoriety (some might argue immortality) by being (at least in the words of his defense team) the first actor ever prosecuted for appearing in a film after he was arrested for his participation in Deep Throat. Though he was initially convicted, the case was overturned on appeal (none other than Alan Dershowitz was one of Reems' defense attorneys). Reems continued to make porn films along with a few mainstream films but rather funnily (at least for this native Utahn) found Jesus in Park City, converting from Judaism to Christianity, and later dying in that state.

Possibly the most fascinating story belongs to Dolly Sharp, who portrays Linda's friend Helen. Whether that character name was a knowing in joke or not is an interesting question since after years of no one really knowing who she was or where she had come from, and with a whole variety of competing theories about her having been published (including in autobiographies by Reems and Lovelace), it was divulged that she was actually a once rather famous Broadway and even Hollywood starlet named Helen Wood. Wood appeared in several big Broadway musicals, often as a featured player and/or dancer, and she was cited as a contender for major stardom by such pundits as Earl Wilson.

Wood seemed poised for Hollywood stardom after she scored a co-starring role in Give a Girl a Break, where her already celebrated dancing skills were seen side by side with such luminaries as Marge and Gower Champion as well as Bob Fosse. When that MGM film failed to ignite at the box office, however, Wood never made another mainstream Hollywood film until she appeared as one of the featured dancers in The Night They Raided Minsky's (she had in the interim become the principal dancer at Radio City Music Hall, rather incredibly). Soon after The Night They Raided Minsky's she matriculated to the porn industry under the name Dolly Sharp.

The film's reputation also extends to alleged involvement by various criminally minded financiers, and the entire escapade was so epochal in the porn industry and society in general that it became fodder for the documentary Inside Deep Throat and the feature film Lovelace.

Deep Throat Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Deep Throat is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of MVD Visual and CED Entertainment with an MPEG-2 encoded 1080i in 1.78:1. There's no information on the provenance of the element utilized, and due to some of the fuzziness on display, I'm frankly not sure what millimeter this might have been sourced from. Colors are really rather surprisingly strong, though they do look slightly faded a lot of the time, while also being slightly skewed toward brown. Detail levels are decent, especially in some of the close-ups (which do not necessarily involve faces if you catch my drift, and I'm sure you do). There is quite a bit of noticeable damage on display throughout this presentation, with jittery frames, inartful jumps, and lots of scratches and other blemishes.

Deep Throat Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Deep Throat's Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono track is serviceable enough, delivering the kind of fun funky score, including a nice B3 rendition of Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" from the Ninth Symphony as its credits theme (obviously subliminally suggesting this was a "real classy" piece of entertainment). (I can think of no more salient example of how accepted Deep Throat was than the fact that the middle of the road Baja Marimba Band released what is considered the "real" theme of the film as a 45.) Dialogue and/or orgasmic screams are offered with decent fidelity. There are occasional signs of age related wear and tear, including waves of slight noise that can roll through scenes, and even the occasional pop or click. No subtitles are offered.

Deep Throat Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Deep Throat 2 (480i; 1:23:49) is the sequel made in the wake of the first film's unexpectedly overwhelming success. Lovelace and Reems are back, but there's little if any hardcore content here, an indication that the filmmakers seemed to realize they had a whole untapped market of prospective ticket buyers if they maybe played it a little safer.


• 70's Porn Trailers (480i; 11:54)


• Linda Loveless Interview (480i; 22:56) is from 2002 and bears the "Loveless" surname, evidently unironically. This is a rather chilling expose of what Lovelace and/or Boreman went through during the shoot.

Deep Throat Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I can think of only two cult films that played for literally years in my (adopted) hometown of Portland: The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which was ensconced as a late night feature for probably decades at the Clinton Street Theater, and Deep Throat, which was featured daily and nightly for probably close to a decade at the Aladdin. I must confess that a bunch of friends and family took me to see the film as part of an off the wall 21st birthday celebration for me, but that may in and of itself indicate that the film was almost seen as an "event" to be participated in back in the day. (I may have atoned for this peccadillo by moving into the neighborhood later and being a part of a homeowners group that convinced some local businessmen to buy and renovate the Aladdin into the really cool performance space it is today.) This release at least offers the unedited film (which some foreign releases evidently don't do), as well as some good supplements, but technical merits are lackluster, for those who are considering a purchase.