Wikipedia

Behind the Green Door

For the EP by Laurel Halo, seeBehind the Green Door (EP).

Behind the Green Dooris a 1972 Americanpornographic film,widely considered one of the genre's "classic" pictures and one of the films that ushered in theGolden Age of Porn(1969–1984). FeaturingMarilyn Chambers,who became a mainstream celebrity, it was one of the firsthardcorefilms widely released in the United States and the feature-length directorial debut of theMitchell brothers.[2]

Behind the Green Door
Theatrical release poster
Directed byArtie Mitchell
Jim Mitchell
Screenplay byArtie Mitchell
Based onBehind the Green Door
short story
by Elliot Wax
Produced byArtie Mitchell
StarringMarilyn Chambers
CinematographyJon Fontana
Edited byJon Fontana
Music byDaniel Le Blanc
Distributed byMitchell Brothers Film Group
Release date
  • December 17, 1972(1972-12-17)
Running time
72 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$60,000
Box office$50 million[1]

Behind the Green Doorwas adapted from an anonymousshort storyof the same title, which was circulated by means of numerouscarbon copies.The story's title references the 1956 hit song "Green Door",whose lyrics describe being denied entry to a raucous nightclub with a green door.[3]Though she plays the central character, Chambers does not have a single word of dialogue. The film is possibly the first feature-length American heterosexual hardcore feature to include aninterracial sexscene.[4]

Plot

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The manager of a diner asks two of his regular customers to tell him a supposedly true story that they had previously mentioned to him, involving a "green door". The rest of the movie appears to be a dramatization of the story's events, although no off-screen narration is heard.

After arriving at aNorth Beachhotel for an apparent vacation, a wealthySan Franciscosocialite, Gloria Saunders (Chambers), is taken against her will to an elitesex cluband loved "as she's never been loved before". She engages in sexual activity with a group of six women, all dressed in black, after being brought out wearing a white dress on stage through the green door.

The silent, largely masked audience become increasingly aroused[4]as her white dress is removed and she is stroked, kissed and receivescunnilingusby the women. Her first heterosexual sex is with theAfrican-AmericanboxerJohnnie Keyes,accompanied by afunksoundtrack.[5][6]He gives her more cunnilingus, and then they havesexual intercourse,while Gloria continues to be stroked by the other women. When she has anorgasm,the sex stops, and he is not shown to ejaculate.

Gloria then mounts a trapeze contraption suspended from the ceiling and then engages in vaginal intercourse with one man as she performs oral sex on another andmanual sexon two others.[7]The audience become further aroused and begin having sex with each other in what becomes anorgy.[8]In apsychedelickey sequence, an ejaculation is shown withsemenflying through the air for almost seven minutes. The film features several multicolored,optically printed,slow-motion close-ups ofmoney shots.[5]This is the only ejaculation sequence in the film. The narrator then runs from the audience, onto the stage, and carries Gloria off, through the green door.[5]The film ends with him and Gloria making love alone.[5]

Impact

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Several years afterAndy Warhol'sseminalBlue Moviein 1969, and along withDeep Throat,also released in 1972,Behind the Green Doorhelped launch the "Golden Age of Porn"(1969–1984),[4][9][10][11]and somewhat later, the "porno chic"boom.[3]Along withDeep Throat,it was one of the first hardcore porn film to reach a mass mixed-sex audience.[5]Prior toBehind the Green Door,most of the Mitchell Brothers' 200 or so films had only been shown in their O'Farrell Theater.[12]Made with a budget of $60,000, it achieved a nationwide theatrical release which earned more than $1 million.[11][3]The movie ultimately grossed more than $50 million[13][14]including its video release, which was controlled exclusively by the Mitchells out of their headquarters in theO'Farrell Theatre,San Francisco.It was one of the biggest box office pornographic successes of the 1970s, alongsideDeep ThroatandThe Devil in Miss Jones.[3]It was even screened at theCannes Film Festival.[2]After its release, organized crime figures used extortion in an attempt to obtain the rights to the film.[15]

Chambers was relatively unknown at the time; however, the film made her a star.[15][16]Immediately prior to the movie's release she had been the "Ivory soap girl",[16]modeling for theIvory Snowsoap and detergent packaging holding a baby.[2][15][16][17]The Mitchell brothers appropriated the brand's slogan "99 and 44/100% pure" to describe Chambers in press releases.[2][5]After the release of the movie, the advertising industry was scandalized,[5]andProcter & Gamblerecalled all products and advertising materials featuring Chambers,unintentionally adding to the movie's hype.Procter & Gamble subsequently required of all of their advertising agencies that they thoroughly screen the background of any female model employed for print advertisements or commercials. That Chambers's image was so well known from Ivory Snow boosted the film's ticket sales, and led to several jokes on television talk shows.[17]

Critical reception

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Upon its release, the film received some positive reviews in mainstream media.[15]Roger EbertofThe Chicago Sun-Timesgave the film a negative review, writing that despite Chambers's beauty the film's lack of character development and the focus on "proving how dirty it was" were major detractions.[18]

According to writer Peter Michelson, there is "a relatively small corpus of pornographic films – e.g.,Deep Throat,The Devil in Miss Jones,andBehind the Green Door– that have a minimal but still sufficient artistic interest to distinguish themselves from the rest of the genre ",[19]and the film is "more artful than most smut films".[20]It was the second film to be inducted into theXRCO Hall of Fame,followingDeep Throat.[21]

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The Supreme Court's 1973Miller v. Californiadecision adversely affected the mainstream release of porn films, includingBehind the Green Door.The Miller decision redefined obscenity from that of “utterly without socially redeeming value” to that which lacks "serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value" and substituted contemporary community standards for national standards, as some prior tests required. Miller continued to hold that obscenity was not protected by theFirst Amendment,which gave leeway to local judges to seize and destroy prints of films adjudged to violate local community standards. WhenBehind the Green Dooropened inSuffolk County, New Yorkin 1973, it – along with the porn filmThe New Comers– was successfully prosecuted. In addition toNew York,Behind the Green Doorwas banned inCalifornia,Colorado,andGeorgia.[22]

Later films

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In 1986, the Mitchells made a sequel,Behind the Green Door: the Sequel,directed by cabaret singerSharon McNight.The movie featured no famous performers, and starred Elisa Florez, billed asMissy Manners.(Florez was Artie Mitchell's girlfriend at the time, and she reportedly demanded the role from him.) It was one of the first "safe sex" -themed porn films, following the onset of theAIDS epidemic in the 1980s,[2]with the performers usingcondomsand other protection.[23]It was a critical and commercial disaster, and the Mitchells lost hundreds of thousands of dollars.[24][25]The O'Farrell Theatre contains a "Green Door Room" which is named for the two movies and was the principal set of the sequel.

In 2012, adult film companyVivid Entertainmentproduced a loose remake titledNew Behind the Green Door.This film stars Brooklyn Lee as the main character Hope, a wealthy young woman drawn into a seedy underworld while on an erotic journey to find her birth mother. The movie includes footage of the originalBehind the Green Door,as Hope describes a sexual fantasy that recalls the plot of the 1972 film. Other cast members include Dana DeArmond, Penny Pax, Bailey Blue, Steven St. Croix, and James Deen, with appearances by original cast member Johnnie Keyes and Marilyn Chambers' daughter McKenna Taylor.

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  • In the 1981 road-race comedyThe Cannonball Run,the driver of the Japanese team (played byJackie Chan) attempts to watch aVHS tapeofBehind the Green Dooron an in-dash monitor while driving on a rural highway. After several near-collisions due to his distracted driving, his partner in the back seat wakes up and forces him to shut it off.[26]
  • One of the "Coming Attractions" previewed inThe Kentucky Fried MovieisCatholic High School Girls in Trouble,which is described as "more shocking thanBehind the Green Door. "[27]
  • The production of the movie is dramatized in the 2000 filmRated X,starring brothersCharlie SheenandEmilio Estevezas Artie and Jim Mitchell.[2]
  • ActorIdris Elba's choice to name his production company Green Door Productions (because "I like doors and green is my favorite color" ) was questioned because of the association of the phrase with this film. He was intrigued to learn that it was one of the first porn films to feature interracial sex, and that it featured a seven-minute ejaculation sequence, which only made him want the name more, so that he could say that he'd chosen the name "Because it took a long time to come."[28]
  • In 2024, when promotingRicky Stanicky,John Cenajokingly citedBehind the Green Dooras his favorite guilty pleasure movie of all time.[29]

See also

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References

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Notes

  1. ^"Behind the Green Door (1972)".Worldwide Box Office.RetrievedJanuary 21,2012.
  2. ^abcdefGoupil, Helene; Krist, Josh (2005).San Francisco: The Unknowao.uk/books?id=pXAsU1sQG1AC.Arsenal Pulp Press/Josh Krist. pp.238–241.ISBN1-55152-188-1.
  3. ^abcdPennington, Jody W. (2007).The history of sex in American film.Greenwood Publishing Group.p. 56.ISBN978-0-275-99226-2.
  4. ^abcWilliams, p. 299
  5. ^abcdefgWilliams, Linda(1999).Hard core: power, pleasure, and the "frenzy of the visible".University of California Press.pp.156–158.ISBN0-520-21943-0.
  6. ^Williams, p. 300
  7. ^Williams, p. 173
  8. ^Creed, Barbara (2003).Media matrix: sexing the new reality.Allen & Unwin.p. 63.ISBN1-86508-926-5.
  9. ^Shteir, Rachel (2004).Striptease: the untold history of the girlie show.Oxford University Press.p.332.ISBN0-19-512750-1.
  10. ^Langford, Barry (2005).Film genre: Hollywood and beyond.Edinburgh University Press.p. 269.ISBN0-7486-1903-8.
  11. ^abWilliams, p. 320
  12. ^Williams, p. 380
  13. ^Worldwideboxoffice.com
  14. ^Porn King Jim Mitchell Walks Out of Prison Today.San Francisco Chronicle,3 October 1997
  15. ^abcdRobert J. Kelly; Ko-lin Chin; Rufus Schatzberg (1994).Handbook of organized crime in the United States.Greenwood Publishing Group.pp.301–302.ISBN0-313-28366-4.
  16. ^abcFalk, Pasi (1994).The consuming body.SAGE.p. 201.ISBN0-8039-8974-1.
  17. ^abDavid Smith Allyn (2001).Make love, not war: the sexual revolution, an unfettered history.Taylor & Francis.p. 235.ISBN0-415-92942-3.
  18. ^"Behind the Green Door movie review (1973) | Roger Ebert".
  19. ^Michelson, p. 235
  20. ^Michelson, p. 239
  21. ^Hall of FameArchivedJuly 20, 2011, at theWayback Machine,X-Rated Critics Organization
  22. ^Green, Jonathon & Nicholas J. Karolides (2005).Encyclopedia of Censorship.New York, NY: Facts on File. p.44.ISBN978-0816044641.
  23. ^HistoryArchived2009-02-28 at theWayback Machine,Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theatre
  24. ^"Mitchell Brothers – Rotten.com".Archived fromthe originalon 2009-06-02.Retrieved2009-06-18.
  25. ^Missy Manners – IMDb.com
  26. ^Needham, Hal (director) (1981).The Cannonball Run(Motion picture). Twentieth Century-Fox. 74 minutes in.
  27. ^"The Kentucky Fried Movie".YouTube.21 September 2023.
  28. ^"BEST STORY EVER: Idris Elba".George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight.Retrieved2015-11-09.
  29. ^Zac Efron, John Cena, Andrew Santino & Jermaine Fowler Reveal their Deepest Secrets | In the Vault.UNILAD.March 8, 2024.Archivedfrom the original on July 5, 2024.RetrievedFebruary 8,2025– viaYouTube.

Bibliography

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