Deep Throat - Lilith Likes to Watch Famous February 2022



Title: Deep Throat
Year:
1972
Starring: Linda Lovelace, Harry Reems
Director: Gerard Damiano
Synopsis: Linda’s frustration with her inability to achieve orgasm causes a friend to recommend that she see a sex therapist about her problem. During the exam the therapist discovers that Linda’s clitoris is located in her throat and recommends deep throating as a treatment to her ailment. Linda then goes on to experiment with this new technique as she searches for a husband. - Via Letterboxd.com
Lilith's Notes: For this review I watched Deep Throat, Lovelace, several of Linda Lovelace's 8mm loops and read her memoir Ordeal.





"No wonder you hear no bells, you have no tinkler."

Here we are, after not only a month of famous erotic films but several years of reviewing and over a hundred posts. We’ve reached the one. The only.

Deep Throat.

And I didn’t just watch Deep Throat for this review. Oh, no. I went and did a deep dive into Deep Throat. I read Linda Lovelace’s memoir Ordeal. I watched the movie Lovelace. I even watched most of her 8mm loops. I got down and dirty into this film because not only is it famous, it’s infamous to such a degree it deserves all of the context.

Linda Lovelace, (Played by Linda Lovelace) is a young woman who knows there’s more to sex than a lot of little tingles. She asks her friend Helen (Played by Dolly Sharp) for advice and they invite a gaggle of men over for a fuck-fest. When Linda feels nothing more than her little tingles, she goes to a Dr. Young (Played by Harry Reems), who discovers her clitoris is in the back of her throat.

We all know this story, right? The tried and true tale of a girl with her clit where her uvula is. Tale as old as time.

What’s interesting about this film is the drama around it. But we’ll get there when we get there.

As a performer, Lovelace is fine. She has typical porn dialog delivery, which is to be expected. But, when the star of the show, the deep throating, appears it’s oddly compelling and difficult to look away. Even in this day and age where deep throating is passe, there’s something magnetic about seeing it for possibly the first time captured on film.

Otherwise, Harry Reems completely steals this movie out from under everyone. His Dr. Young is a gentle goof, and you can tell Reems was doing his best to make Lovelace, the actress, feel safe and comfortable.

Besides the titular deep throating, this film has a sense of humour. That’s right, we got jokes! They’re fine, if not a little played out. I suppose it's a good thing that the film doesn’t take itself too seriously. If it was played straight, it’s possible it wouldn’t have garnered the reception it did.

Allegedly, it was a far darker environment. One that Lovelace eventually felt the need to speak out against. She details horrific instances of abuse and violence, some of which people have corroborated, and some to which no one else can confirm nor deny. Yes. You can absolutely see the bruises on her legs while you watch Deep Throat.

I read Ordeal and I have no doubt that Chuck Traynor violently abused, manipulated, and coerced Lovelace to do a lot of things. She is a victim. I will not contest or deny that.

She’s also a bitter, mean, and incurious woman.

Everyone she doesn’t like is ugly. Or fat. Or has relations with animals.

She outright calls Xaviara Hollander fat and ugly, she insists Hugh Hefner has reels of animal-stuff, she outs people, she shamelessly uses the N-word with no hindsight or grace about how it was a different time. And it just sort of goes on like this. Her friend flat out tells her they saw the loop where Lovelace has a good time with man’s best friend and she doesn’t react at all. No questioning why her friend was watching that sort of content. Or how they even got a hold of it. She just doesn’t ask. She doesn’t care.

There’s a scene in Deep Throat where they put a test tube inside Lovelace and a thin hose, fill the glass with liquid, and drink out of her pussy. The scene is set to the track "I'd Like to Buy The World A Coke". That’s weird (and memorable as hell), but it’s not mentioned once in Ordeal. You would think that would be something that would stick with a person. It stuck with me the first time I watched it. In fact, it was basically the only thing I remembered about the movie from my first viewing.

Lovelace states in her memoir that “there was a gun to my head the entire time”, which I kept in mind while watching the loops and Deep Throat. The impression I got was that I can’t help but think she is the actor of the decade. She doesn’t look terrified. She appears to be enjoying herself, sporting an adorable nose crinkle of delight as she’s done from behind by some guy in Deep Throat. And that’s kind of amazing because the things they made her do on those loops are…intense.

In one, called The Foot, Lovelace takes a human foot inside her up to the heel. I stopped watching when a disgusting glob of grey lube rolled down the sole of the foot. It made me queasy.

Another, called The Fist, had, surprise surprise, fisting. Before the fisting, the other lady has a massive double ended dildo and she tries to get as much of it as she can inside Lovelace. It looks painful but Lovelace takes it like a pro.

The other loops were just kind of typical. No, I did not watch the ones with a furry co-star, though I know for certain that they exist.

This whole thing is complicated. Do I believe Linda Lovelace is a victim of a corrupt industry, without question. Do I believe some people tried to help her, look out for her, and save her? Yes.
It can also be a story of how appearances can be deceptive, and that there’s no perfect victim. We can either rise or be ruined. Linda Lovelace sounded the alarms, and today the industry is striving to become more ethical, more self-driven, safer.

Better late than never, I suppose.

Best Moment: The actually deep throat scene.

Worst Moment: At one point while being fucked, Lovelace fingers her clit. Continuity error! See? I have jokes, too.

LILITH'S SCORE: 3.5/5

I hope you enjoyed Famous February. If you have any recommendations for next year, you can suggest them on Twitter at @BWMTweet. Until next time, my voracious voyeurs. I’m Lilith, and I’m always watching.

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