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Deep Throat is a pornographic movie released in January 1972, written and directed by Gerard Damiano and starring the erotic actress Linda Lovelace. A huge success, it was shown in many mainstream movie theatres.
After Behind the Green Door it was the second hardcore pornography feature film to be released in the United States. It received an X rating as defined by the MPAA film rating system, which had been instituted in 1968. It was then shown in many mainstream theatres all over the US, starting 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.
The movie was produced by Louis "Butchie" Peraino, with most of the money coming from his father Anthony Peraino and his uncle Joe "The Whale" Peraino, both members of the Colombo crime family. The cost of production was $22,000. Based on the profit margin, the movie probably ranks among the most successful ever, earning 600 million dollars. Damiano, who had rights to one third of the profits, was forced out by the Parainos shortly after the movie's success had become apparent.
In her biography, Linda Lovelace (real name Linda Boreman) charges that she was coerced to perform by her abusive husband Chuck Traynor who received $1200 for her acting. Co-star Harry Reems originally was hired to serve on the production crew for $200, but then agreed to appear in the film although that meant he would receive only $100 for his performance.
The movie is about one hour long. It is intended to be funny: highly corny dialogues and songs, fireworks going off and bells ringing during orgasm, and a plot that has the doctor of a sexually frustrated woman notice that her clitoris is located in her throat; she then goes on to perform a particular technique of oral sex—also known as "deep throat"—on various men. Unlike Behind the Green Door, its fame does not 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.
In various communities, the movie was shown to juries to determine whether it was obscene according to the Miller test; the outcomes varied widely. In 1976, there was a series of federal cases in Memphis, Tennessee, where over 60 individuals and companies, including the Parainos, director Gerard Damiano and actor Harry Reems, were indicted for conspiracy to distribute obscenity across state lines. The initial convictions were overturned on a technicality. The Perainos and some other major players connected to organized crime were tried again, convicted and given short prison sentences.
A 2005 documentary film, Inside Deep Throat, examines the film's effects on American culture.